Lake Huron and Saginaw Bay

Captain Terry Walsh of Termar Charters reports from AuGres:
7-1-09

Walleye fishing on Saginaw Bay remains outstanding,  It is so good right now that two or three anglers are normally "limited out" in an hour and sometimes less on these fine eating gamefish.  The fishing is good virtually anywhere in the Bay, but has been especially good out of the port of AuGres the past couple of weeks.  Anglers are setting up in the 32-34 foot depth range and then trolling deeper toward the shipping channel.  Nightcrawler harnesses are getting the job done, and the fish don't seem to be too fussy regarding the blade or bead colors on the harnesses.  The fish have stayed deep longer than normal this season, and crawlers need to be taken to the feeding depth with at least two and sometimes three-once bottom bouncers or in-line sinkers.  The "fish-shaped" in-line sinkers are highly preferred.  Trolling speed of one to 1.5 mph is ideal.
  We've had some rough weather on and off through June, so be sure and monitor a wather station.  Storms can come up fast on the Bay, and it's no place to be when the wind kicks up.  And wear those life jackets or at least be certain you have them, they are in good condition, and can be reached in a hurry should an emergency arise.  The Coast Guard and marine patrols report that over 70 percent of those who drown WERE NOT wearing life jackets!!
  Other ports producing good fishing all last week were Eagle Bay Marina south of AuGres, The Pinconning Bar area of Pinconning, and the One and Two cans marking the entrance to the Saginaw River.
  Good fishing and remember to take the kids with you.  They won't get bored fishing Saginaw Bay walleye and you'll know where they are and what they are doing.

Captain Ryan Sagady from Bay Sportfishing Charters reports from Saginaw Bay:
6-15-09
We have finally had a couple of days in a row without storms and high winds and the fishing has gotten better as the weather has stabilized.  The hot presentation has been chartreuse crawler harnesses with silver blades 30-50 feet behind Off Shore planer boards in 20-30 feet of water around the shipping channel.  Several of the larger fish came on 2 ounce bottom bounces with Mack’s Lure Smile Blades

Captain Ryan Sagady from Bay Sportfishing Charters reports from Saginaw Bay:
6-7-09
The walleye fishing on the Saginaw Bay has been a little tough this past week.  High winds out of every direction has scattered the fish and made finding them difficult.  I have had 2 charters in the last couple of days and we really had to search to find active fish.  The fish that we found were located on the east side of the shipping channel in 19-21 feet of water.  The fish that we found were not in tight schools and were biting very lightly.  All fish were taken on crawler harnesses and the blades had to have silver in them to get bit.  Several of the larger fish were also taken on bottom bouncers with Mack’s Lure smile blades.  

Captain Terry Walsh of Termar Charters reports from AuGres:
6-3-09
"walleye, walleye everywhere!"
  Saginaw Bay continues to produce premier walleye fishing in spite of the unseasonably cool, windy weather we are experiencing.  A lot of fish are still being caught in water six to eight feet deep; especially early mornings and evenings.  Crawler harnesses are the tactic of choice with fish also being caught on Rapalas, Bombers, and Thundersticks and other similar stickbaits.  Black/silver, blue/silver, gold/silver, fire tiger, purple perch, and clown are some of the consistent colors.  Stick with bait the size of a number 14 Deep-diving Huskey Jerk.
  Anglers have reported good to excellent fishing from Point AuGres south.  The Rifle River Bar, Pinconning Bar, around the Black Hole, and straight off Linwood are all producing plenty of fish.  The big trick is to find warm water.  Find it, and the fish are there!  It could be right off the rivermouths or only five feet down over 30 feet of water!
  Keep in mind, too, especially when trolling with crawlers, slow is normally better; especially when the water is cold like it is now.  One-and-a-quarter-mile-per-hour or less  generally gets the best results.
  And remember to take the kids fishing!!  It builds great relationships and you'll always know where they are!

Captain Ryan Sagady from Bay Sportfishing Charters reports from Saginaw Bay:
5-24-09
Today was the final day for the AIM professional walleye tournament in Bay City.  I donated a charter today for two of the co-anglers were not chosen to fish the final day of the tournament.  The plan was to take off from Bay City from the tournament launch site after the tournament boats had left and return prior to the weigh in so that the co-anglers could enjoy the show.  The bay was a little rough in the morning and we had to move around a little bit to find fish.  We finally came across a nice school of 17-20 inch fish and filled our 3 man limit in two passes by Callahan Reef in 10-12 feet of water.  We trolled crawler harnesses with one ounce weights, 15 feet behind Off Shore Tackle planer boards.

Captain Ryan Sagady from Bay Sportfishing Charters reports from Saginaw Bay:
 Salmo Hornet: Gold Metallic Orange......a Saginaw River "must have" crankbait.
5/20/09

Fishing on the Saginaw Bay and River has been great this week.  However, high winds kept a lot of people off of the big water and muddied up a lot of the inner bay.  I fished the river today for ~2 hours and only caught 2 walleyes on crankbaits.  One on a Salmo Hornet and the other on the new Mad Eye Shad crankbait (both pictured below).  The wind was tough and made jigging next to impossible.  My tournament partner has been killing the walleyes all week in Bay City on Chart/Orange and Fire Nuckleball jigs and BioBait grubs in Acid Rain color.  Later in the evening, the wind seemed to die down a little so I headed out to the bay and caught 8-10 walleyes in less than 2 hours on chartreuse harnesses and silver blades.  If you make it on the bay, try to find clean water in the 17-19 foot range around the shipping channel.

Captain Ryan Sagady from Bay Sportfishing Charters reports from Saginaw Bay:
5-15-09
The walleye fishing on the Saginaw Bay has busted wide open.  I am hearing reports of limit catches from the ports of Linwood, Bay City, and Quanicassee.  The fishing this weekend should be phenomenal. 
  Here are the reports from the various ports in the Saginaw Bay area…
Linwood: Fish are being caught in 17-20 feet of water and all around the Black Hole area.
Bay City: Limits are being taken in the Spark Plug area and around the dumping grounds.  Lots of fish are also still being taken in the Saginaw River.
Quanicassee: Fish the 7-10 feet of water around Callahan Reef. 
  Crawler harnesses have been taking the majority of the fish, with Chartreuse, Red, and Purple being the hot colors.  I have also heard a few positive reports from people pulling Smithwicks, Bombers, and Husky Jerks. 
 
The AIM Pro Walleye Series Tournament is coming to Bay City’s Veterans Memorial Park on May 22-24 and will coincide with the Bay Fest Fishing and Outdoor Festival.  Some of the best walleye fisherman in the world will be fishing this event.  Be sure to stop by and check out.
http://www.aimfishing.com/event_saginawbay_09.asp

Captain Ryan Sagady from Bay Sportfishing Charters reports from Saginaw Bay:
5-5-09
The jig bite last night on the Saginaw River was hot last night. They wanted Nuckle ball jigs tipped with Yum and Bio Baits. The color Fire was on fire.

Captain Ryan Sagady from Bay Sportfishing Charters reports from Saginaw Bay:
5/3/09
The walleye fishing on the Saginaw Bay is slowly improving.  The inner bay is still dirty due to the Saginaw, Kawkawlin, and Quanicasee Rivers being above flood stage for most of last week.  The key to finding fish on the inner bay is to finding the cleaner water.  We fished for 4 hours and ended up catching 5 walleyes on Sunday.  My fishing partner Ed Clements, ended up catching 10.  All of the walleyes were healthy 18-22 inch fish and each boat had one walleye in the 5 pound range.  We were running harnesses in 11-15 FOW and the fish seemed to prefer the silver, cheese grader, Colorado blade.

Captain Steve Kirby from Kirby Outfitters reports from Tawas City:
April 28 2009
It is nice to be back at my fishing report.  As of right now the walleye bite is going good. Here in Tawas bay and all along the shore line from here to augres. They are in 5 to 20 ft of water. The best is on drops right now, The bait of choice is 18 rapalas,and reef runners. There is a lot of Lakers being caught fishing walleyes, along with steelhead and browns. I also herd of a few salmon, really salmon. I will be on the water this weekend fishing for salmon and trout. I will be getting my boat out then I will let everyone know how i do. They are also getting walleyes in Oscoda, At the mouth and in the river. Ross told me they are also getting a few atlantics and salmon at the mouth. Its time to get out there and try it. ITS SPRING  The SHY POKE will be back fishing next week, So anyone that wants to charter just give us a call.
 

Captain Ryan Sagady from Bay Sportfishing Charters reports from Saginaw Bay:
4/24/09
I had my first charter of the season Friday evening with a father and son from Illinois.  We fished in 5-8 feet of water from Finn Rd. to the Kawkawlin River mouth, with the highest concentration of fish being located in front of the Kawkawlin.  The water temperature ranged anywhere from 55-51 degrees.  We ended up catching 4 nice fish ranging from 19-22 inches.  We also had several others come unbuttoned at the back of the boat.  Even the fish that were boated were barely hooked, proving that the bite was extremely light.  We were running crawler harnesses using a spit shot or no weight at all anywhere from 15 to 40 feet behind Off Shore planer boards. 
Be very careful when motoring between the Saginaw and Kawkawlin Rivers, as there are a lot of trees, logs, and other floating debris that could ruin your fishing trip in a hurry.  Please use extreme caution in this area.

Captain Ryan Sagady from Bay Sportfishing Charters reports from Saginaw Bay:
9-29-08
The walleyes are still biting on the Saginaw Bay!!!!
We ended up with 5 walleyes on Saturday morning.  All fish were in the 16-18 inch range.  The screen was absolutely loaded with marks all day, but we only got 10 light bites.  It was really a finesse game out there and even the fish we caught were barely pulling the boards back and were poorly hooked.  We were fishing crawler harnesses in 17-20 feet of water.  The fish were caught west of the dumping grounds and just east of the pack of boats perch fishing by the sparkplug.  

Captain Ryan Sagady from Bay Sportfishing Charters reports from Saginaw Bay:  9-21-08

Fishing was tough this past weekend with the river being high and dirty from the recent rains and rough conditions on the bay.  We decided not to chase perch and instead targeting bass around the Gull Island and in the Saginaw River.  We probably caught over 30 smallmouth, largemouth, and white bass.  Most were on the smaller side, but we also had a few monsters in the mix.  We also had the rare occurrence of catching two smallmouth bass on the same crankbait.  Talk about the fish being on the feed!!!  Here are a few pictures from the weekend.
  

9-9-08    Captain Ryan Sagady from Bay Sportfishing Charters reports from Saginaw Bay:

Perch fishing on the Saginaw Bay is really hit or miss right now.  However, the fishing should start to pick up soon.  You will have to do a lot of sorting, but there are some nice slabs in the mix.  I have included a picture of my dinner from Sunday night.  We caught the perch along the east side of the shipping channel out near the spark plug.  Green beads seemed to work the best.  

9-5-08  Captain Terry Walsh of Termar Charters reports from AuGres:

Walleye fishing on Saginaw Bay has been slow for the last few weeks--just too many storms and cold fronts going through (As I write this it's raining--again!).  Anyway, the fish are still there but will just take a little more angler effort. However, the EASY FISHING of July won't likely happen again this year.  Crawlers are still a good bet, and we've had a lot of success this summer with MAC's Walleye Popper, especially when switching to the larger blades.  Both are available at Frank's Great Outdoors in Linwood.  Some days some colors produce better than others; however, we caught fish on every color the company makes.  Honest--these lures were so good we actually stopped using the metal spinner blades!  Tip:  buy the Walleye Popper and then tear it apart, retieing with a premium flurocarbon leader, a no. 8 red trebble hook on the end and a no. 6 hook about 2 1/2 inches ahead of it.  Add a couple of beads and slide the Walleye Popper on the new leader (three feet long will do) and add the new no. 9 blade.
  Fall is also a good time to break out those crankbaits again.  These will often take some very very nice fish late in the year.
 
As for "hot spots"--anywhere you caught fish during the summer will likely still produce fish.  Generally, this time of year there are some dandy walleye coming from the waters around Big Charity Island and the no. 3 and 7 bouys.  Locals caught fish in these areas last week, but not many and the size was generally in the 18-20 inch range.
 
An a safety note, the water is turning colder every day and this is no time of the year to take an unplanned dip in the bay!  So wear those life jackets--it won't save you if you are in the water and the jacket is in the over-turned boat.  Coast Guard statistics show the majority of people who drown WERE NOT wearing a life jacket.  Kind of like bailing out of a plane without a parachute.
 
I"ve stressed the importance of a marine radio before--you can't call for help if you don't have one.  And cell phones don't always work on the bay--trust me on this one!
 
Flares and a flashlight are a MUST.  A friend of mine who works for Tow Boat US out of Bay City says it's mighty hard to find someone in the dark at times unless they have some kind of visual signal device.  GPS will help  dramatically with your rescue--if you have one.  It's also a great idea to have a Personal Water Light attached to each life vest.  One fellow ended up in the bay this summer who spent a long, anxious night clinging to his boat.  A light attached to his vest would likely have made it relatively easy for the Coast Guard to find him in the dark during their air search.
 
An extra gas can and boat battery are also good ideas.  My Tow Boat US buddy took gas to several stranded boaters this last summer--at a cost!  It only takes seconds for things to go very very wrong when boating, and the better prepared boaters are the more likely the experience will be a temporary inconvenience.  The unprepared boater, however, and his passangers, could be facing some dire consequences.

Captain Ryan Sagady from Bay Sportfishing Charters reports from Saginaw Bay: 8-17-08

I had my last scheduled fishing trip on the bay today and we ended up catching 13 walleyes. We fished in 27-30 feet of water just south of Pt. AuGres. Crawler harnesses with silver and chartreuse blades were the hot baits. Hot depths were 25-35 feet behind the board. Bottom bouncers also took several fish.

08/10/2008 Captain Ryan Sagady -Bay Sportfishing
The walleye fishing is still going strong on the inner Saginaw Bay,

although it is starting to show signs of slowing down. Limits of 16-18 inch fish are still being taken, but the fish are scattered and tough to find from day to day. The last two fishing trips we had our limit of 15 and 20 fish by 11am. The trip before that we only caught 13 and my clients got the tour of the entire west side of the inner bay. Try trolling chartreuse, silver, and gold crawler harnesses over the 47s area of Saginaw Bay. Keep your speed between 1-1.2mph. Bottom bouncers are also taking fish first thing in the morning. .

08/08/2008 - Captain Richard Rang - Lake & Stream Sportfishing Charters

Nice Lake Trout - caught in Alpena, Michigan

08/02/08 6:44(CST)

Captain Terry Walsh of Termar Charters reports from AuGres:

The hot weather this last week really turned on the walleye in Saginaw Bay! This fishing was "red hot" all along the bay from AuGres to Sebewaing. Anglers fishing the 10 ft or less depths in the nearshore weed beds were doing extremely well using crawler harnesses. The weeds can be a problem, so check the baits often, as walleye aren't into "veggies"! A lot of big fish we caught this last week (4-9 lbs.), but the average walleye was 18-23 inches and there were lots of them. Crawler harness were the primary method of fishing however, some anglers were also doing well on Hot 'n Tots and catching some of the bigger fish. Small spoons such as Silver Streak Juniors and Stingers were also producing fish when run above the Tots off a 3-way swivel. Things quited down out around the Charity Islands for most anglers, as fish were hard to come by. August is generally a good month to catch fish in the deeper waters off Big Charity Island, so keep an eye on that, as fishing could get good fast--especially if the inner bay waters heat up too much (73.4 F on the surface yesterday (Thursday). Good fishing and be safe--keep life jackets handy and the marine radio at hand. Thunderstorms feed off the hot weather and invariably develop in the afternoon. If all the boats in your fishing area suddenly pull up and head shoreward, check the marine weather band IMMEDIATELY . Channel 5 covers Saginaw Bay with constant weather alerts.

08/01/08 6:43(CST)

Capt. Steve Berry From Freshwater Guide Service reports from Linwood:

Even though the fish are starting to spread out,there is still good fishing to be had on the Bay. Caught a 3 man limit on Thursday in 17 to 21 fow on crawler harnesses and 1 to 3 oz inline weights. The lines were set 20 to 35 ft back behind the boat. Use your GPS and once you hit fish stay with them. My hot colors were white/pink or white/purple blades with glow beads, and chartruse/purple blades with chartruse beads. 1.2 to 1.7 on the GPS was the best speed.