Hubbard Lake 9/16 - 9/17

[Fishfoote]

Went up for the weekend and only got in the evening bites Friday/Saturday. Friday I trolled harnesses in 12 - 15 fow from 9:30 to 11:30 pm with a neighbor. Picked up 3 undersized fish and missed two more hits. Saturday night ran out at about the same time and only got an under sized smallmouth. Guys fishing the deep water earlier in the evening were doing much better - taking as many as 8 fish in the 20" range. Guess I need to get my chores done earlier :sad: Won't be heading back up til Oct 1st to bow hunt with some buddies up there, but barring a tracking party will likely be out too late again :16suspect

[chuckinduck]

Hey Fishnfoote,
I got up there early sunday morning, and got my brother on the walkie talkie, and he came to shore with three fat walleye in the boat, all in the 20 inch range, he said he'd lost two others at the boat, one of which he guestimated at 26", so I hopped in the boat, and we headed back out, fished for another two hours and managed two more fish. In total we ended up with 7 walleye. 2 on saturday night, and 5 sunday morning til 2pm..............fish were caught all on white crawler harnasses with 3 oz snaps, and trolled 50/50. all were caught on planers as well

[ENCORE]

Sounds like someone's FINALLY having some luck on Hubbard. The lake has been EXCEPTIONALLY hard fishing this summer and last winter wasn't any better. Most of the locals just haven't gone out. I went to a meeting about 6 or 7 weeks ago that Steven Sendek, Senior Fisheries Biologist, Unit Supervisor from the DNR attended and was the guest speaker. WHAT AN INTERESTING MEETING !
I attended this meeting for multipal reasons. First, most of the "local fishermen" state that a local sportsman club "ruined the lake." Second, find out from a professional what the problems were with the fishery in Hubbard Lake. The answer to the first question identified that more of the "local fishermen" should attend one of the sportsman club meetings. They DID NOT have anything to do with the collapse of the perch fishery or any other fishery in Hubbard Lake. On the contrary, they've done an exceptional job at trying to improve the fishery in Hubbard Lake.
Steve Sendek did an excellent job explaining what they (DNR) did know about my second question.
1) Zebra Mussels. No explaination needed here.
2) Rusty Crayfish. Hubbard has a tremendous population and its increasing.
3) LACK OF VEGETATION. Now here's one for everyone!
Steve stated that Hubbard Lake was one of three (3) lakes in the entire State that has a problem growing vegetation. The other two lakes he stated were in the western part of the U.P. near the WI border. Steve stated that most all lakes in Michigan, to some extent, have a problem with weeds. He stated that the DNR and DEQ "don't have a clue" as to why these lakes have a problem with vegetation. He also stated that both the DNR and DEQ's research is about what to do with too much vegetation, not about problems with vegetation not growing in lakes.
It appears that the DNR will be preforming a fishery management program on Hubbard Lake. Steve suggested that starting this next year, someone would be taking a creel census and determing how much fishing pressure the lake was receiving. Electro shocking and netting may possibly follow next fall.
Its evident that the DNR is aware of problems in Hubbard Lake, including the methane gas at the north end (watch it on the ice, its dangersous) and if we're lucky, they'll do a great job in determining what help the lake needs.
Those of us that have caught a few walleye on Hubbard, have found that you MUST get the bait down between 25' and 33'. As you are probably aware, the surface temp is still high. Thundersticks behind a 2oz. beaded keel sinker, trolled 80' to 100' back, work GREAT!
If it don't rain tonight, I may put the boat in the lake. Sure glad that I don't have to "come up" anymore. Good fishing.

[chuckinduck]

Thats very interesting news. I've talked with friends who dive the lake, and they all say this lake is void of any plant life in the deep parts..........Over the past two weeks I've done quite well off of Churchill point in 70' feet, down 25-40.

[walleye1on1]

The lake used to be quite good for jigging, back when it had some weeds, one could jig walleye all day long. My thoughts are the rustys are taking care of the weeds. And I hope the zebras don't impact the plankton to much.

[Ed Michrina]

Good read Encore.

Walleye1 bad news the zeb's do more damage to the vegetation than anything I have seen. they are probably a bigger problem to the weeds than the exotic cray fish.

[Fishfoote]

I grew up near Hubbard Lake, and did quite a bit of fishing back in the day (25 - 30 years ago :yikes: ). I'm not convinenced that there are fewer fish now than there was then. I just think they aren't in the same places they always were and they aren't hitting the same baits they always did. I've talked to guys that have taken 150+ keepers since the softwater season has started, and that excludes the throw-backs. My graph tells me there's still a ton of fish in the lake, unfortunately it does not tell me how to get them out :help: It certainly does seem like there is less weeds, but there still are beds out there. I'll probably fish through most of October before pulling the boat. I think it's only going to get better from now til first ice.

[chuckinduck]

I agree with fishfoote, I mark tons and tons of fish out there, mostly hugging the bottom, these fish seem to be larger and healthier then the ones in the last few years

[Fishfoote]

Anyone ever hear of lake trout being caught in Hubbard? Any possibility that they are in there?

[walleye1on1]

Yes there is trout in the lake although I don't target them I have put a few in the boat. There is also some very nice brookies in the lake, I have only seen one brookie myself, I know a guy that does target them but he would shoot me if I told you were he fishes. The lake also holds alot of pike, I do not target them. Alot of the fish on the bottom are suckers although walleye are there at times.

[ET]

Here is my take on Hubbard. Hubbard used to be great for perch and pike back in the late 60's and throughout the early seventies. I can remember catching several hundred perch a day ice fishing on the north end in the weed beds. There were a lot of weeds back then and it was excellent pike fishing both in the North and East bays. At times there were several hundred shantys on East bay targeting pike. There were also a lot of whitefish that could be speared during November season using underwater lights and long spears. The walleye were planted in the late seventies and the lake under went some major changes. The weed beds disappeared as did the population of pike and perch. Whitefish today are almost non-existent. The walleye population was good during the 80's, but the fish tended to be small and skinny. There are very few pike in Hubbard compared to the 60's and 70's. The mayfly hatch on Hubbard is large and I think is a good source of food for the walleye and perch. Walleye fishing has been very good this summer, if you know what your doing. Techniques have changed. I used to do very well on the North end, jigging and using slip bobbers with leeches. The last few years I have only caught them in deep water using harnesses and stick bait. The walleye are "very healthy" in Hubbard right now, just not sure if the year of classes are there. East Bay Ed knows a lot more about this lake and could probably give us more insight.

[ENCORE]

I agree with walleye1on1 about the marks that one sees on the graph. There's a tremendous number of suckers in the lake. I live at the north end and fish the lake quite often. It must be that everyone's keeping quite about catching fish except here :) .
The last netting survey that the DNR did showed mostly suckers that were shocked/netted. The stories of the numbers of perch that used to be caught are true. Many a cabin have mounts that show how large they used to be.
Yes, there is still walleye in Hubbard but, they ARE hard to catch.
This next year's creel census will tell a lot more about the fishery in Hubbard.
Check out the web site below. Its the DNR's report on Hubbard lake, tells the history and the different types of fish that have been planted in Hubbard.

http://www.michigandnr.com/PUBLICATIONS/PDFS/ifr/ifrlibra/status/waterbody/2003-1_HubbardLake.pdf
See you on the lake! Good fishing.

[ENCORE]

East Bay Bait and Tackle, unfortunately burned down. I don't know if he's rebuilding.

[chuckinduck]

In reference to the trout being in the lake, I've often speared suckers off our dock in the spring of the year, and I've seen rainbows swimming through the shallows, never speared them, but they were nice sized( 19-22), in fact, I caught a 24" rainbow/steelhead whatever you want to call it on memorial day in 2004 while flyfishing for smallies, just upstream from where the fire dept pumps water at the bridge in town. I've heard of nice brookies coming out of the west branch river, but they are getting hard to find too..................as for lake trout, I haven't heard of anyone catching any in the lake, but I've heard mention that a proposal is trying to be passed to stock the lake with Splake. Anyone else here about that?

[ENCORE]

I think that the splake plant is very much rumor. According to Steve Sendek they've got their hands full trying to figure out why the lake won't grow weeds.
He talked about the lake trout planting years ago and stated that it was a failure.
Without weed beds for prey fish, rusty crayfish and zebra mussels the lake is suffering. I appreciated his honesty saying, "neither the DNR or DEQ have a clue." Steve did though say that they may plant more pike to try and help with all the suckers.