report from hubbard lake

[east bay ed]

it's weekends like this i wish i could get out and fish.
guys are getting some decent perch and a couple of walleye. i had two guys in my shanty yesterday that got 8 walleyes and a dozen perch. many of the guys comming off the ice said they got some nice perch (10"+) but most were 8" to 10". the eyes seem to be running 17" to 20" on average with a couple of 23" fish being caught.
you should find about 8" of ice in east bay with 3" to 5" in the south end and north end. talked to one guy who said he seen at least four four wheelers on the south end saturday, i don't know if i would go that far, but a friend of mine did walk out to 30' of water on the south end.
maybe i can get out on monday.
good luck

[Houghton laker]

Keep us posted on how you do ed!! have a friend making a trip up there in a week!

[east bay ed]

for a day that didn't produce a lot of walleyes it was pretty good. see my post about "next generation"

[ET]

Ed, Thanks for the report. I grew up around Hubbard and used to fish it with my dad and brother around 30 years ago. It was nothing to catch a couple hundred perch on the North end. Then when they planted the walleye, the perch population just crashed and a lot of the weed beds in the lake disappeared. Since I am not a biologist,I'm not exactly sure what has happened to the lake in the last thirty years, but it definitely changed. It was nothing to have 300 shanties on East Bay during the 70's.

I'm just glad the lake is making a comeback.

[east bay ed]

ET,
i don't think it will ever get to the point it was in the early 70's. spent a lot of winter weekends chasing perch on that ice. we used to have our shanty off the high banks . really spoiled you with the fishing we had then.
the first time i went to fish the cuts in the bay i couldn't belive the size of the fish guys were keeping. my dad wouldn't let us keep anything under 9" as a kid. we are still getting some monsters especially later in the winter. a lot of 2# fish come through the ice in february.
as far as the weed beds the dnr claims that the loss of weedbeds in directly related to the rusty crayfish in the lake.
they claim all lakes north of m-72 that have rusty crayfish have seen a drastic loss of weeds.

[east bay ed]

the fishing this morning was good and bad.
good for those guys looking for a meal of perch. a number of gut caught more then a meal of perch this morning in east bay. i would also try the south end off hill street. just watch the ice on the south end, had only a few inches to start out with and rain today might not have been the best thing for it. we are expecting colder temps and it is below freezing right now.
bad news is no walleye to speak of. a couple of guys did get some eye's on the south end this morning as well as in deep water out in east bay but that was about all i heard of.
we let you know if it changes.