Southeast Lower Peninsula
Lake Erie: Anglers were providing varying reports of success out of Lake Erie Metropark for yellow perch and panfish. Anglers were also having success targeting perch and panfish in Bolles Harbor. There were reports of varying ice conditions on the main lake in Brest Bay. Spoons and jigs with wax worms and minnows seemed to be the favorite choice.
Lake St. Clair: Anglers were catching yellow perch, but most were small with some nicer fish mixed in. Multiple bait presentations were working, just a matter of finding larger fish.
Anglers out in Anchor Bay had some success sorting through the smaller perch. Anglers seemed to be having better luck in 6 feet to 10 feet of water for perch and panfish. Try spoons and jigs tipped with minnows or wax worms.
Maceday Lake: Splake were caught out in deeper water using tip-ups and minnows.
Saginaw Bay: In lower Saginaw Bay, anglers were fishing out of Thomas Road, 3 to12 miles, for walleye in 19 to 28 feet of water. Anglers were also going out from Finn Road, 6 to 8 miles, fishing in 15 to 20 feet of water. Some walleye and yellow perch were caught at Callahan Road and Finn Road. Fishing from Sebewaing to Bayport was slow overall with some perch caught. Anglers doing well were staying active and moving around looking for perch. A few pike were caught. Wildfowl Bay had a lot of small perch caught with some larger perch mixed in. The bite had been tough for a lot of larger perch. Some northern pike were caught around weed beds.
Saginaw River: The best fishing was from I-675 bridge upstream through downtown Saginaw, with some limits of walleye taken in the area. Anglers were doing well when using black and chrome jigging Rapalas in the middle of the channel in 15 feet of water. Anglers should plan to do some sorting as there have been a lot of sub legal walleye caught and released in this area. In the areas downstream of Saginaw along M13 and through Bay City, the fishing was spotty throughout with a lot of sub legal walleye caught and released, with an occasional keeper in the catch.
Southwest Lower Peninsula
Dowagiac River: Anglers were catching steelhead. There has been additional access due to dam removal and tree clearing.
Gun Lake: Anglers were catching bluegill, yellow perch and black crappie off the state park beach and launch areas. Wax worms and small jigs were working best.
Gull Lake: Anglers were catching smelt, yellow perch and northern pike. Smelt action was best at night in 60 to 70 feet of water.
Grand River Bayous: Anglers were catching bluegills. Wax worms and small jigs worked best in 5 to 10 feet of water.
Northeast Power Peninsula
Higgins Lake: Higgins Lake was producing good catches of lake trout and smelt. Perch were caught but required some sorting for good numbers of keepers.
Tawas: Perch fishing was slow with only a few smaller fish caught in 10 to 22 feet of water off minnows or waxworms. Walleye fishing was fair, mostly in the evenings in 17 to 22 feet off jigs or spoons tipped with minnows.
Au Gres: Perch and walleye fishing was slow with some smaller walleye caught in the river with jigs tipped with minnows. Some whitefish, walleye and lake trout were caught near Pt Au Gres in 12 to 20 feet, off jigs tipped with minnows.
Pine River: Perch fishing was fair with a few limits caught in 4 to 10 feet of water off jigs tipped with minnows. Walleye anglers were catching a few in 10 to 15+ feet of water off jigs or spoons tipped with minnows.
Northwest Lower Peninsula
Charlevoix: Anglers were catching cisco in 50 to 100 feet of water. Fishing earlier in the day provided the best action.
Portage Lake: Pike fishing was decent with several small fish caught and an occasional keeper.
Manistee Lake: Decent perch fishing occurred off the 9th street boat launch. Pike fishing was also good.
Upper Peninsula
Les Cheneaux/Munuscong Bay: Anglers were catching perch in Hessel, Cedarville and in Musky Bay. Anglers were sorting through a lot perch to get a few bigger ones. Anglers were fishing in about 16 feet of water mostly using live baits such as minnows and wax worms. At Dan’s Resort on Munuscong Bay, anglers were doing well catching walleye. There were still a few perch caught in the area but they were on the smaller size. At Conley Point, anglers were catching a few smaller perch, as well as mentioning seeing a few burbot in the area.
Little Bay de Noc: Walleye fishing picked up. Anglers were reporting fair catch rates with some quality-sized fish caught when using tip-ups with sucker minnows and jigging raps or shiver minnows. Anglers also reported productive spots including the area off the 1st reef, in front of the Terrace Bay Hotel, by the Escanaba River mouth and at Saunders Point. Many undersized fish were reported in the upper portions of the bay. Perch anglers reported mixed results, from struggling to catch any keepers to relatively fair numbers. Most perch anglers were using small minnows.
Brevoort Lake: Yellow perch were biting through the day light hours. Walleye were biting in the evenings into dark. Minnows were working well for yellow perch and walleye.
Keweenaw Bay: Anglers were having fair success catching lake whitefish along the western shore of the bay. An occasional nice northern pike was caught off the southern portion of Keweenaw Bay off of the Baraga State Park.
Munising Bay: Lake whitefish bite has been steady. It’s been hit or miss for splake, coho salmon and rainbow smelt. A single egg was working best for lake whitefish and a wax worm was productive for rainbow smelt. Burbot were starting to hit in the evening.
Portage/Torch Lake: Walleye were caught during the early morning and late afternoon hours off the “humps” north of the Village of Chassell.
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.
