O.K. Boys...Let's give it up.

[walleye express]

Seems for all the excitement, P.M's I got asking for info, and posts anticipating the opener on both the Saginaw and Tittabawassee Rivers, there sure are pretty few posts and pictures about how everybody did. Or was is that bad? :confused: :p

[grizzly]

Dan, we did what I consider ok. We went out at 12:00 midnight was off the water buy 3:30 caught 21 all out of the same mold. Biggest was 3lbs maybe. But we don't keep them anyways. Went back in the day trolled up another 15 from the golf course to center street on cranks. Sunday we only fished the am till about 11:00 ended up with 3 keepers and 9 small eyes in the 12 inch class. 1 smallmouth and 1 pike. Not a bad opener. Sure was nice that the weather man missed the forecast.

Grizzly.

[beerun]

Shore fished for about 2 hours Saturday morning ( Flint River )

1 sub-legal
1 smallie
green jig/white tail

[EYESON]

We were out on the bay ended up with seven on saturday biggest 8lbs. Trolling cranks. Will post pictures when we get them back from the in-laws. Went back out on Sunday and could only manage 1 about 4.5lbs.

[walleye express]

There now...Ya see, that wasn't so bad, thanks Grizz and guys. I won't even pick your brians about what you used, as I have a good idea. I was just basically curious about where those millions of sub-legal walleye squirts, that had filled the rivers all this past winter had gotten to. Even though there was a lot of complaining about them, these little rascles should make the reports for all four seasons pretty good in about 1 or 2 years. :cool: :fish:

[vanwagm]

Unfortunately we listed to the weather man, and cancelled our Tib trip. In the morning, when I noticed the washout didn't happen, we fished a local lake and caught a few small eyes. Nothing to get excited about.

Where can I find a job where I can be accurate less than 50% of the time, and not get fired?

[Ralph Smith]

Never made it out :sad: The places (like the ones you mentioned to me) will be good for awhile, so spent the weekend with kids, helping them with homework :yikes: :SHOCKED:

[kitchue]

My son, 8yrs. old, and I fished the tittabawassee North of Imerman up to the bridge Saturday and Sunday for a total of 16 hours. I'm more happy that he stuck with me the entire time than catching anything. He used the same methods and lures as I and still didnt catch anything. But was happy just to be there.

We did pull in 8 on Saturday and 3 on Sunday. Out of them, 4 were too small. There is a log just around the corner from the launch that has 2 jointed shads, a hot-n-tot and a husky jerk in a row. Ya think I would have learned from the first snag. But its also were we pick up 9 of the fish. Switching to spiderwire next year. Was using fireline this year. Didnt help.

My brother in law fished the night bit on Saginaw picked up alot. The biggest 6lb. Switched to the bay on Sunday and got 6 in 4 hours.

Also got a 20$ door prize for Patts. It made up for the lost lures. Sorta.

[walleye express]

Good choice Ralph.

The smarter your kids are, the better their jobs will be when they grow up. You wanna make sure they have a nice place for you to move in to, when you get old and feeble. :lol: :lol:

Possibly some Bay or River front property, with a nice boat dockage area. :evil:

[MisterTwister]

Fished by wickes park on sunday in the PM. Caught 5 fish between 3 people. Jigs were the ticket. Caught one on a jigging rapala. Will be headed out again on monday talk to you soon.

[Ralph Smith]

I hear ya W.E. and a nice big boat that they can charter old dad out on with a cooler full of cold ones by my side, since I won't be driving :D

[chad helsel]

i fished below the dam in sanford with about 100 other people to my surprise from midnight till 2. got one walleye 25" spawned out female.
then went into midland, just north of gordonvile ramp and fished from 2:30am till 7:30am landed one more walleye. 23" male. saw a lot of guys leaving with fish when i got there. must have shut down after getting
hammered on for an hour. then fished below the dam in sanford saturday night from 11:30 till 2. nothing. then out on sanford lake yesterday from
2pm till 6 pm. throwing spinnerbaits and rattletraps. landed three northerns, one keeper, and 1 fat smallie.
it was a good weekend. glad to see so many people out enjoying the fishing.

[MisterTwister]

Fished wickes again this afternoon. The fishing was pretty slow. Jigs were the main lure used tipped with twisters and minnows. Picked up 8 fish all in the 13-16" range. :fish2:

[percheye]

Sorry for the late report here. So busy. Fished from 5 am saturday morning till 9 pm and caught 24 walleyes. Out in the bay in 10 fow.. Was not trolling.... The rest is up to you....Fished ranged from 20-27 inches..Can't complain because theres no fish out there because they all were released :D
goodluck
Krazy Kal

[LivingLegend]

Caught 10 walleye near the island 3lb to 6lb on saturday.Fished same area sunday 8 walleye 2 to 5lb and placed in top 15 in the freeland walleye tournament used #14 husky's firetiger was hot, blue and silver work to 32 to 38 feet behind inline planners boards.Good fishing

[walleye express]

Legend.

Yupper, that Island has been a sleeper the last couple of years. I used to love the (drift or trolling motor bite) with 1/2 ounce bouncers and harnesses from the Hot Ponds down to Finn Rd. That should be starting real soon if it already hasn't. Hopefully, it will actually get more like spring in the next week or two. :chillin:

[ManillaKilla]

Originally posted by walleye express
Yupper, that Island has been a sleeper the last couple of years. I used to love the (drift or trolling motor bite) with 1/2 ounce bouncers and harnesses from the Hot Ponds down to Finn Rd.

I often heard of that area as a hot spot. I was wondering how deep that area runs and if there are any hazards to look out for?

[baydog2]

I often heard of that area as a hot spot. I was wondering how deep that area runs and if there are any hazards to look out for?
Manilla ther is one hazard. If you get in to shallow, there is an old channel that runs out in the lake halfway between Finn Rd and the Hot Ponds. This has rocks on both sides of the channel. Stay in at least 6 foot of water and you should be good and clear this. Found this one day drifting crawler in 4 to 5 ft of water.

Lonnie

[ManillaKilla]

Thanks for the info. I figured there would be some rocks to avoid somewhere in there.

[walleye express]

Baydog is right, but these rocks are usually out of the water and seen quit easily. It's what used to be an old water intake channel that was abandon in the late 40's. But don't let the shallow water scare you off, unless you have a deep draft boat, as I've caught some nice walleyes in as little as 2 FOW on choppy days in this area. I'm hoping the higher water trend continues for a few more years. Maybe we can get the Finn rd. launch back in service. Sure made it convenient. :)

[No Mas]

It's too bad they could not have taken all that money they put into "fixing" up Jones Rd and put it towards Finn Rd. Finn Rd is an ideal launching area for a lot of activities.

[Fatherof3]

Skeets hosted me on the afternoon of the big opener. We launched out of Gamms hardware and went upstream. We did pretty good considering the yahoos doing the fishing. We fished from 4:30 in the afternoon till dark. Got 5 keepers ranging from 15" to 20" & lost one. Two were on jigs, the others were on rapala, shad raps, and rattlin' Rogues. I tried those new YUM bumblebee colored jigs, and that was one fish was caught on.

[walleye express]

It's too bad they could not have taken all that money they put into "fixing" up Jones Rd and put it towards Finn Rd. Finn Rd is an ideal launching area for a lot of activities.


The State bought the Jones road launch and land from Norb Tacey, wheras Finn is owned by Hampton Township. I'd love to see them sell it to the State.Then maybe it would stay dredged out.

[No Mas]

I knew the state had done something, but I thought a lot of money was kicked in by the weadock plant to fix up Jones Rd as well?

[walleye express]

The State and the Weadock may have worked out a deal on the Jones road project prior to their fallout over the yearly fish kill fines payed by Consumers. But that was the reason Consumers Power closed off 2/3 of the Hot Ponds. Damn shame.... everybody got hosed on that stalemate. DNR lost the revenue by getting to greedy, and Consumers still pays big money to have those strainer nets cleaned daily at both the front and the back of the Ponds. Fishermen were the ones who really lost the most. :mad:

[ManillaKilla]

Originally posted by walleye express
Baydog is right, but these rocks are usually out of the water and seen quit easily. It's what used to be an old water intake channel that was abandon in the late 40's. But don't let the shallow water scare you off, unless you have a deep draft boat, as I've caught some nice walleyes in as little as 2 FOW on choppy days in this area.

Actually, that is why I was asking about the area because my friends boat is a deep draft. We'll definetly want to avoid rocky, shallow areas.

[Ole Spike]

Living Legend, isn't that now 2 years in a row that you've placed in the top 15 in the Freeland Walleye Tournament? Nice work buddy.

[LivingLegend]

Yes it is now it's time to get ready for the labadie tournament.I was top 15 in that last year to.