Ford Lake Walleye Run???

[mschmidt]

All,

I was down by the I-94 bridge today where the river comes into Ford Lake. I saw a few people throwing jigs already. They said its going to start anytime now. Anyone ever do any good for walleyes in the spring there? Are the fish safe to keep? Any suggestions on baits. Any regulations I wouldn't know about. We are still new to Michigan. Thanks for the input...

[RichP]

Yeah, I'd love to know more about that myself. I've spent many days down at that bridge when I use to live only a few blocks away. Never caught a thing and never witnessed anyone catch anything. But there are often many people there so I'm assuming at some point people are catching fish. :) Anyhow, this time of year, after the ice melts, that water is SO low and SO nasty looking right at the mouth of the huron. And just the walk down there is often through swamp land until things dry out in may. Good luck. But regarding Ford Lake walleye in general, I use to catch some 15-18" (though you have to sort through all the 10-14") across from the Marriot and they were all very tasty. And I don't think anything bad ever happened to me from eating them. And I don't think anything bad ever happened to me from eating them. And I don't think anything bad ever happened to me from eating them.

[shametamer]

We have eaten ford lake walleye for years..no adverse effects. Walleye are catchable and available throughout the season, not just spring..Hopefully, knockoff,ypsi fly or one of the other guys will give you a much greater scoop on catching them.

[mschmidt]

Any other advice? I was there today and threw a jig for about an hour and no bites. I snagged the bottom a few times but in general I could not keep the jig down. Any suggestions on baits? Any idea when the fish will be in there thick? Any ideas on where exactly the fish would be, there are a bunch of locations to fish but I don't know which would be best. Help me out guys...

[William H Bonney]

We used to fish off the docks, behind the apartments in the summer. We used to slay the walleye off those docks, with leeches. As far as eating them,,,, LMAO, I didn't even wanna TOUCH 'EM,,, EVERY ONE of those eyes we pulled outta there had so many tumors ALL OVER THEM, it wasn't even funny. They were some BRUTES, too. All of them were over 5 lbs. and the biggest was 8lb.

[steve ypsi]

if you catch any 18 inches or smaller I wouldn't eat them, give them to me and I will put them in my hazards waste site. it would be nice if you could filet them first so I can place them in my hazzard's waste pan eaiser ,OOPs I meant dump
I used to fish the river when it would be green one day red the next day from the paper mill in Ypsi and I also fished one of the most polluted sites in Michigan the general motors pond in the 50's, My mother ate all the fish I caught, we didn't know about pollutants back then, My Mother died .
she died 40 years later of a heart attack at 76.
Ford lake is no more poluted than most and I wonder now about all the hazzards, Michigan outdoors or Practical sportsman had a story about a party boat captain from lake Michigan being tested as he ate fish about 2 times a week year round, his wife ate very little fish, they were chosen along with people that ate no fish in different parts of Michigan, turns out the Captain had less polutants than his wife and a lot of the people that ate no fish at all, They attributated the wifes higher reading of polutants to living on a farm growing up, she was away from the farm for 20 or more years and still had a higher reading than her husband that ate a lot of fish.
another story I saw on TV 4 or 5 years ago was about one of the people that helped make a study on the hazzards of waste produced by big companies in the 60's and 70's . he was now retired and was bored so he made many studies, potato chips have really high levels of some killer thing to do with cancer, apples same and there were others I won't list, he came to the conclusion that if you eat a lot of one thing they all will get you.
The old addage still stand up well, eat a balanced diet, a little of every thing .
and if you don't and just eat fish from ford lake or any other lake every day you will eventually start to glow and start flopping around the floor making sucking sounds.
I don't have to worry about eating to many Fish, Me and Art can never seen to catch a limit

[William H Bonney]

I didn't mean to intend that the lake was "polluted", but man,, something caused those tumors. I grew up fishing L. Erie for walleyes and had seen just about EVERYTHING,, but these eyes, "took the cake". We never even kept a single one,, the first one we pulled up,, we looked like a bunch of 6yr olds, that just pulled in a catfish for the first time and NO ONE wanted to touch it, we let it flop in the water until the hook came out.:rolleyes:

[steve ypsi]

I have no idea what tumors are caused from, I know that fish have tape worms, I saw one from a 19 inch large mouth had hanging from his mouth as I reeled him in behind the Ford lake dam in the 50's, i thought it was a string, It gave me the creeps, I tried not to touch him as I turned him loose, the little black bumps are some sort of worm larvae.
Old friend of mine who since passed used to make fun of our lakes down here, he retired to the U.P in the late 70's, about 5 or so years later they found a lot of lakes in the U.P poluted from the mining a hundred or more years ago, mercury, now that stuff is bad.
The term mad hatter came from mercury when a Dr in the 1800's dicovered that a certain group of men were going insane when they had no history of mental illness in the family and it was confined to a certain age group and status in life. They were all wearing the beaver hats popular at the time and they were using mercury to tan the hats which was leaching into their heads driving them insane.
not related but another old saying, Only buy the real Mccoy or the real McCoy.
Eley McCoy was a black Man in the 1800's who held a 100 or so patents, He lived in Ypsi but I believe it was called some thing Grove at the time, He invented the automatic oilers on steam engines and many other things, his products always worked well and so people would say only buy the real mcCoy.

[mschmidt]

Well, I went down to the Paper Mill today and got one bite in 2 hours... my hands were shaking because the water was so cold but I managed to set the hook and drag him in (Pic below). The water was high and roaring. I want to try again tomorrow but it doesn't look like the weather is going to cooperate.

http://www.michigan-sportsman.com/photopost/data/542/6377Paper_Mill_Eye-thumb.jpg

[mschmidt]

Opps.. here it is full size.

http://www.michigan-sportsman.com/photopost/data/542/6377Paper_Mill_Eye-med.jpg

[Connor4501]

What did he bite on??? May try that for an hour a little later...

[mschmidt]

Conner4501,

1/4oz pink head jig and white Powerbait 3" grub. He inhaled it deep in his mouth.

Mike

[mschmidt]

I went back tonight for about an hour... I could not stand the cold. I think I had a few hits but no hook ups.

[stinger63]

That fish looks healthy to me.its even greener that the once we catch out of the st clair river.We catch a few of those with the tumors as well.The DNR says its save to eat them but as you can tell by my sig line I dont have much faith there.When I catch walleyes with tumors on them I just shake them off back into the water without touching them.:rolleyes: