My first day on the ice this year, Newburgh Lake Wayne CO

[YPSIFLY]

Put new blades on one of my Moras, pulled the old plastic sled out of the garage and put all my new rod/reel combos in the bucket and headed off to my spot.

Dammit if the ice still wasn't safe!:mad: Oh well, I can still fish off the docks at Newburgh Lake, so I did.

Since the docks are all pontoons, they have them pulled to the side of the shore, but I was still able to get to deep enough water to find fish. Ice was about 2", not enough for me to walk on, so I drilled holes along side the dock and fished over the rail.

Caught 'gills nonstop for two hours. No real size to any of them, but it was nice to get out and try out all my new toys. 3' down in about 5-6FOW. A white 1/64oz jig and small silver tear drop, both tipped with a small (or small piece of) a waxie did the trick.

I was hoping for a bluegill dinner tonight, but since I couldn't fish my first choice, it didn't happen. None of the fish I caught at Newburgh were big enough to eat, and even if, I remember how polluted that lake used to be and I'm not in any hurry to eat anything out of there.

At least it was nice to get out and fool around with the new gear.

[quest32a]

cool man, i was hoping it would get cold this week so i could start icefishing.... it is new to me. But it looks like it will be a little bit.:(

[William H Bonney]

Hey YPSI, the State of Michigan just recently gave the "ok" to eat fish outta there:rolleyes: Not sure how much that tidbit of info helps ya.

[jigworm]

I sure wouldn't eat anything out of there.

[DetroitIron]

I know a couple years ago they had power equipment dredging the bottom 5-6 feet of mud and muck from that lake. Hopefully they got all the heavy metals the the Delco plant put down the sewers from 1952-1985 from their chrome bumper plant on Eckles road (which is now flattened) which I understood made its way into Newburgh lake. Newburgh also had some sewers coming straight into the lake, not sure if they re-routed them when they drained/cleaned up the lake.

Still pisses me off when I think of the lack of foresite Industry (ie, dumping) and Urban Planning (ie, sewers) had when they used (and still do ) our waterways as garbage bins.

[twoteal]

I fished newburg as a kid both summer and winter but never ate the fish. It's really sad that the lake is a sespool. we used to ride or bikes their in the morning and one of our dads would pick us up in the afternoon on his way home from work. I can't imagine doing that with my son:( to many wackos out there know.

[Connor4501]

Ive been fishing Newburgh since the late 70's. And no, it was not the place to fill the bucket for a fish dinner. But it certainly was a place that you could drill a hole almost anywhere and catch bluegills. Not necessarily the biggest, but fast action nonetheless. And now the lake is regularly stocked with walleyes and channel cats. Check the DNR stocking database for specifics from since they dredged it. Pretty impressive!!! Have caught walleyes during the spring and early summer in the lake and just below the dam. I've also seen a 9+ pound largemouth caught before they dredged, even in that polluted water. Once some of those stocked bass reach their maximum size, this lake will be one the best around. Only time will tell.:)

[GONE FISHIN(LARRY)]

newburgh lake is diffentally not the place to take a meal out,right after the dreging was done a few years ago that plant dumbed into it again.I don't remember all the details but the Livonia Obsever ran some press on it .IT still is a nice place close to home to take kids fishing.I've never fished on hard water,but my son took a hammer handle pike out of there last summer.

[YPSIFLY]

Yeah, I understand its gotten a decent stocking of pike over the last couple years, but the growth rates are dissappointing.

I remember when that lake was so polluted it wouldn't freeze in most areas. I'm also scared to death of the undertow. When I was young the Mayor's son drowned there on Senior Skip Day. Then there's the diver who drowned while clearing the dam back in '96.

That lake gives me the willys in more ways than one. I won't be eating any fish or venturing too far out from a couple of bays anytime soon.

[MGV]

Here is a link that might answer you guys questions. I am going to look at it a little more and see what i can find. It gotta be really bad in orer to have a site set-up for it. Do the hooks fall off after being in the water?


http://www.rougeriver.com/techtop/newburgh/

[Connor4501]

What surprises me is panfish wasn't mentioned in that article...

[DetroitIron]

Interesting link. I always wondered what they saw when they drained the lake. Looked like between 78% to 97% were carp, I would have guessed that to be about right. I remember seeing huge goldfish carp around the floating dock years ago. I heard there were some big pike and bass in that lake years back. I wonder if they saw any of the 3 to 20 % of the fish that weren't carp.

Excellent informative link. I remember driving down Newburgh road quite a few times heading to 96 and looking at all the heavy machinerey down in the "drained lake" when they were doing all the work. Very interesting how they redid the lake bottom, and put in spawning beds and fish structure, and put in the correct type of plants to keep algae to a minimum. I really applaud Wayne County for this project. Hines park is a really nice park that Newburgh sits in, I am actually glad the county did something to resurrect the lakes health, after for so many years of destroying it. As a taxpayer, I don't mind paying for things like this, as I know there will be families brought into the place to fish, picnic, and boat on the lake. Its all good in my book.

However, I didn't understand in the link where all the (potentially damaging) sediment was coming from, did they say Wilcox lake, via the rouge river? That lake is quite a bit upstream from Newburgh, isn't it? I'm not sure where the tributory entrance is to Newburgh that they are talking about. Too bad they can't figure out how to engineer some filtration system to combat this.

[Connor4501]

Back before they drained it, there were huge pike in there. The tip-up guys wouldn't get many, but the ones they would get would be BIG! Used to see a handful every winter over 20 pounds.

[WALLEYEvision]

Conner's right about the huge pike in Newburg, they always seemed led the yearly fishing contest at Livonia Tackle (now closed).

Growing up in Livonia, I fished the lake quite a bit in the 80's. I never caught a monster pike but I did catch a 5# Largemouth on a tip-up once.

It's pretty cool to hear about the DNR walleye plantings. I hope they take! I'd still be afraid to eat them.

[fishmann]

I've fished Newburgh since the early 70's, and yes, that water did hold some very large pike and bass. It was full of small panfish and I can't wait to see how all these fish plants are going to be working out. I'm only about 10 minutes from Newburgh and fish it frequently, so I'll keep you all up to date on how it's going there. Good luck out there, and for now, everyone be extremely careful. I'm not much into winter time swimmin !!!!

[FishinJoe]

Where do you guys get onto newberg lake to ice fish?

[FishinJoe]

Where do you guys get onto newberg lake to ice fish?

[Rupestris]

FishinJoe,
From Dearborn just take Hines Drive west to Newburg rd. Just past the sheriff's office there is a parking lot on the left. If you go further down there is another lot where the boat rental and launch (sorry, not public) are.

As for fishing Newburg, I only fished it once this summer and was skunked. Over the past few years I've managed to catch a a few largemouth on small Strike King Spinner baits in the spring an even caught a pike. It was only about 20" long.