Fishing Reports News

There’s been lots of cold weather to create local ice conditions like we haven’t seen in years around here.

The snow has been relatively light, so moving across the ice is not a major problem and temperatures climb into the low 20s during the day, all helping to create ideal conditions.

To make things even better, Feb. 17 and 18 are part of the Michigan DNR’s free fishing days and no licenses are required if you would like to try ice fishing.

We know the fish are around as they were there last spring, summer and fall, with some anglers taking open water walleyes from boats into early January.

“The walleye population of Lake Erie is down about 30 percent from 2006, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of them left in the lake to provide excellent fishing,” said DNR fisheries biologist Mike Thomas of the Lake St. Clair Research Station.

“A lot of fish remain from the super spawn year of 2003, but they will be bigger and maybe just a bit tougher to fool.”

According to Bill Dougherty at Bottom Line Tackle in Brownstown, walleye fishing has been going great guns out on Brest Bay.

“Look for marbleyes about one mile off Stoney Point,” he said. “We kicked tail out there last (Feb. 13), but all the commotion seems to have put the fish down a bit.

“Top producers have been spoons and minnows. Try Lil Cleo’s, Hopkins, Swedish Pimples and jigging Rapalas tipped with minnow heads. We’ve been working 15 to 20 feet of water.

“Perch have been caught off Luna Pier, Bolles Harbor, on the north end of the Banana Dike, and in the marinas. Wax worms and minnows worked best.

“A lot of panfish are being taken from the canals along the Detroit River down to Toledo,” Daugherty said. “These include bluegills, crappie and perch.

“Due to light pressure on northern pike over the last three winters because of poor ice conditions, there are some really big fish out there, with several over 40 inches being reported already.”

Detroit River - Most of the river is not fishable due to ice jams. The only action has been at the southern end of Grosse Ile, where northern pike spearing has been good in Gibraltar Bay, which is also known as Airport Bay. Some 40-inch fish were taken.

Lake St. Clair - Yellow perch fishing has been good. Areas to fish have been Metro Beach, Brandenburg Park, the public access site at Fairhaven, and the access site near Selfridge.

Most of the fish are in the 7- to 9-inch range, but a few bigger ones show up occasionally.

The better fishing has been in the early morning or late afternoon when using jigs with spikes or wigglers.

On Anchor Bay near Fairhaven, the perch fishing ranges from fair to good.

The best fishing is found about three-quarters of az mile of a mile out from the DNR Public Access site.

Anglers are spearing a couple of pike in Bouvier Bay.

On the west side of Lake St. Clair, the perch fishing is pretty good near Brandenburg Park, out from Cotton Road, Selfridge Air National Guard Base and Metropolitan Beach.

If you feel like taking on the Brest Bay walleyes, here are a few tips:

• You can park in the Brest Bay Marina for $5 or walk it out from Sterling State Park. Expect to pay about $3 a dozen for shiner minnows, the hands-down best bait for walleyes this time of year.

• It is important to drill holes in the ice that are large enough to get these big walleyes through. Nothing like getting the fish of a lifetime up to the hole only to have it bury the lure in the side of the hole and rip off the hook.

Ice augers come in a variety of hole diameter sizes and this should be considered when purchasing one.

Joe Dougherty dredged up an 11.8-pound walleye the other day and eight inches is about the minimum hole diameter to use. A 10-inche hole makes things much easier.

• Most veteran lake anglers carry some type of small gaff hook. You can generally buy them or make up one of your own.

I use a large treble hook welded to a stiff ?-inch diameter iron shaft about 16 inches long.

The idea is to gaff the fish in the mouth while it is still below the hole and then pull it up through. This makes landing big walleyes a surer thing.

• Some type of ice skimmer is also necessary to remove the ice shaving after drilling a hole and keeping the hole clean and open.

• Lures are pretty simple, spoons, jigs and jigging Rapalas make up the majority of the hardware. The idea is to put a few minnows on your lure and lower it to within a foot of the bottom.

A sharp, upward jerk starts the action and walleyes often will hit as the lure flutters back towards the bottom. Some anglers use two jigging rods, but others prefer to set up one rod for jigging and another for live bait, mainly a minnow hooked in the back and lips and then attached to sinker on a 12- to 20-inch leader.

This set-up is often referred to as a dead rod, as the bait it is just lowered to bottom and rod allowed to lie on the ice. Sometimes these “dead rods” account for more than half the fish taken.

• Walleyes will move almost constantly. Sometimes you can follow their path as first one angler and then another gets a strike as the fish move through.

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