The weekly fishing report is back! Thanks for your patience while we continue to cover more areas in the near future.
All anglers 17 years of age and older are required to have a fishing license.
Northeast Lower Peninsula
Thunder Bay River: Anglers targeting steelhead in the open parts of the river did well using spinners and spawn bags. Anglers targeting steelhead near the 9th Street Dam did the best. Floating spawn bags, nymphs, and other drifting baits seemed to be better than casting spoons/spinners etc. Those using drift baits, were successful drifting in the deep pool directly under the dam.
Au Sable River: Anglers were starting to catch better numbers of steelhead in the Au Sable River in the deeper holes. Lake trout were caught at the mouth of the Au Sable River and on Tawas Bay.
Burt Lake: Anglers reported catches of perch, burbot and walleye.
Presque Isle: Anglers on Grand Lake were successful catching perch on the south end of the lake in 4 to7 feet water with spoons and minnows.
Northwest Lower Peninsula
Crooked Lake: Anglers reported catches of small northern pike with an occasional fish over 24 inches.
Upper Peninsula
Little Bay de Noc: Anglers reported good walleye fishing until the close of the season. Most anglers out of Kipling were fishing deep water reefs. Anglers reported mixed results using minnows and wigglers.
Keweenaw Bay: Anglers had a difficult time getting on Lake Superior this week with warming temperatures and high winds. A few anglers were able to get on the ice early on and found mostly coho, lake trout and lake whitefish. Most fish that were caught were found below 50 feet of water, however a few were still caught in shallow waters. Lake herring and smelt were also part of the catch this last week, however they were not caught in the same numbers as the other species. Anglers should try using lures to imitate smelt and other various living prey species in the lake.
Les Cheneaux: Anglers reported decent perch numbers. Coho salmon were starting to be caught at several tributaries on Lake Superior.
Munising: Anglers reported very few catches of coho to date. Burbot fishing and smelt night fishing have been poor with scattered reports of some success. Splake catches also have been very low. Spearers were doing well on herring.
Marquette: Fishing activity picked up over the last week. Most success has come from the break wall in lower harbor where anglers were catching coho, brown trout and occasionally lake trout. Anglers fishing in the Chocolay River had some success catching brown trout. For best odds while fishing from the break wall, try casting out spoons or spinners. Success at the Chocolay River has varied with some anglers having success floating spawn, casting spinners and using flies. Although there have been no reports from the Carp River, the mouth was ice free. Try casting out spawn or crawlers for best chances at having success.
Southeast Lower Peninsula
Lake Erie: In Brest Bay, several groups of anglers were catching limits of walleye out of Sterling State Park in depths ranging from 13 to 20 feet. Trolling purple bandits without weights seemed to work best. In La Plaisance Bay, anglers were catching limits of walleye south of Bolles Harbor in 15 feet of water. Trolling chrome/purple bandits worked best.
Clinton River: Anglers reported that they were starting to catch steelhead.
Saginaw Bay: On the east side of the bay, most of the area cuts and river opened up and a few people were looking for yellow perch with a majority of them being small. In lower Saginaw Bay, yellow perch were caught at Hoyle’s Marina where a few small yellow perch were caught by shore anglers on perch rigs. At Finn Road, a few small yellow perch were caught by shore anglers on perch rigs. A few walleye were caught at the mouth of the Saginaw River by boat anglers trolling and jigging.
Southwest Lower Peninsula
Grand River: Anglers reported having success catching steelhead and smallmouth bass along the Grand River.
Muskegon: Anglers reported that the steelhead fishing has been good with boats continuing to find numbers that we were not seeing earlier in the year. There was a mix of both chrome and dark fish being caught. Waxworms have yielded the best results for shore anglers while boat anglers have been using spawn bags. Walleye were moving up the river with determined shore anglers finding some luck near the dam while boat anglers were successful throughout the entire length of the river.
This report is intended to give you an idea of what is going on around the state. Updates come from Fisheries staff and conservation officers. With more than 11,000 inland lakes, the Great Lakes and thousands of miles of rivers and streams, not all locations can be listed. However, it is safe to say if a species is being caught in some waters in the area, they are likely being caught in all waters in that section of the state that have that species.
