By The Michigan Department of Natural Resources
Southeast Lower Peninsula
Saginaw Bay: With the cold weather, ice was beginning to form in many locations, but it didn’t appear to be very safe. There was still open water around all the bridges. Fishing pressure was consequently nonexistent over the past week.
Tittabawassee River: A combination of a large ice jam at Center Road Bridge and shore ice at the boat launches made the Tittabawassee inaccessible.
Eastern Saginaw Bay: Fishing activity was light over the weekend, with strong gusty winds. Anglers targeting yellow perch from Sebewaing to Caseville reported very slow fishing. A few northern pike were taken from Wildfowl Bay.
Lower Saginaw Bay: Plenty of open water from the Bay City State Park all the way up to Whites Beach on the west side of the bay. A few anglers at Linwood beach marina caught a few yellow perch. Over on the east side, a few anglers at Finn Road had a large number of small yellow perch.
Southwest Lower Peninsula
No reports.
Northeast Lower Peninsula
Tawas/Au Gres: Fishing slowed a bit, with only a small number of walleye and burbot brought in. Early morning and late evening showed anglers the most success, especially for burbot. Perch fishing was also slow, with most fish being small. Overall, fishing has been slow from Au Gres to Standish with low numbers of yellow perch, undersized walleye and an occasional northern pike caught.
Northwest Lower Peninsula
No reports.
Upper Peninsula
Little Bay de Noc: Walleye anglers reported slow fishing. While some anglers were able to catch a few, most reported little to no success. Some anglers did however report catching trophy-sized walleye. Anglers were jigging snap-style jigs baited with a portion of minnow on a treble hook. Additionally, anglers used set lines baited with live minnows, positioned close to the bottom.
Anglers targeting perch also reported slower fishing, although some reported extremely large perch caught near the “mud flats” and Kipling. Anglers fishing the shallows near Kipling reported an abundant number of yellow perch that were too small to keep. Minnows with jig heads and tungsten jigs tipped with wigglers or wax worms worked well for perch fishing.
Les Cheneaux Islands: The holiday weekend was an extremely busy fishing period in the Eastern U.P. Anglers were fishing the Hessel area for perch, pike, and splake. Good numbers of perch were caught within Hessel Bay, but the majority were smaller-sized fish. While there were some splake sightings in Wilderness and Hessel Bay, very few were harvested.
In Cedarville, there were very few people fishing Musky Bay, Moscow Channel, and Government Bay. Fishing activity in those areas was down compared to previous years. Anglers were mainly using walleye and perch minnows, along with spikes and wax worms.
