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Last changed: November 13. 2008 9:39AM Many anglers have now turned their attention to hunting so the reports will start to drop off until ice starts to form. Late fall and early winter is prime time for hungry walleye and spawning whitefish. Cold rain will bring on the better steelhead and brown trout fishing. Inter Saginaw Bay
Saginaw River - Perch anglers may want to start trying the lower river and the marina basins from now until freeze-up, as this can be the best time to fish for perch. Kawkawlin River - Had lots of angler activity, more than likely for perch. Quanicassee River - For perch, hit the lower river here and the around the marinas while fishing with minnows. Sebewaing River - Look for fair to good perch fishing in the lower river.
Outer Saginaw Bay
Au Sable River - Look for more steelhead below the dams especially after the rain.
Oscoda - Anglers fishing off the end of the pier have caught steelhead, whitefish and walleye. Catch rates were sporadic. Tawas - The pike action has slowed however walleye are still hitting after dark. Whitefish action should only pick up as we move further into November. Try a small jig or a plain gold hook with a single egg or wax worm.
Harbor Beach MI Fishing Report
Posted: 09/24/2008 A few King Salmon are being taken in 50 to 90 feet of water, straight out and North of the harbor first thing in the morning and later in the evening. Fish top to bottom for best results. Fish those color lines too, the fish have still been setting in them. Best lures are Spin Doctors in the green colors with green action flies, Pro Kings, small and medium size J-Plugs, body baits, regular and magnum size Silver Streaks and Dreamweaver lures in Greens, Silver, Blues, Copper, and Black colors with white or glow. You might want to try some two, five and 10 color lead (led) lines too. You might want to try in close to the harbor with J-Plugs as there have been some sightings of Salmon jumping in close.
Lake Trout fishing is fair fishing in the 90 to 126 foot of water areas straight out and North of the harbor, try using ghost colored, frogie colored, or green splatter dodgers with silver or green colored spin and glows and small spoons fished close to the bottom. Some other colors to try are yellow, white with pink dots, or blue colors.
Steelhead fishing is good, try Straight out and North of the harbor in 60 to 126 feet of water. Best lures are the Orange, Yellow, or bright Pink Dreamweavers or Silver Streaks. Don’t fish too deep, they have been coming in the top ten to forty feet of water areas! Look for those color lines for best results.
Some Walleye continue to be taken South of the harbor as well as straight out of the North gap trolling a crawler harness with night crawlers or small spoons and hot n tots for best results. Coral colors, greens, and blues have been working well. Fish the 30 to 70 foot of water areas, fishing top to bottom. A slow troll should work best.
Good luck fishing and keep those lines tight!
Saginaw Bay Area Fishing Report
by Captain DanPosted: 10/02/2008 Hey gang.
Long time no report huh? Well, my big boat came out around the first of September when the walleye fishing slowed down to almost a crawl. That hit and miss fishing that started early this year is not very conducive to return charter fishing clientele, so I started the winterizing process on my big boat early this season. I am already getting ready and gearing up for the coming fall/early winter river fishing as well as this winters Ice fishing season. Both kinds of these charter trips are unique opportunities to learn new techniques that you may or may not know exist on the river systems or on the Bay during the winter. I even have a night time trolling trip on the Saginaw that can (at times) produce some really nice walleyes.
I'm taking reservations now for all of these trips if anybody is interested in these late fishing charter opportunities with me. I'm submitting a few pictures for your viewing pleasure, from these particular trips I've taken in the past on both the rivers and the bay on these trips.
And please forgive my extensive charter plug in this report, as I don't do it often. So too balance things out, heres some good news concerning the Saginaw Bay. I just received the September Preliminary Trawl Results from my DNR buddy for Saginaw Bay, and the results of same is written below as I received it from him in an E-mail. And as always, be safe, fish smart and tight lines. . . (pictures). Hi Dan.
I knew you'd be after me as soon as September was over about the trawl results. All results are preliminary as of now of course. Early observations indicate a trawl catch rate of about 6 age-0 walleye per 10 minute tow (average). This makes it the 6th highest average catch rate for the trawl time series (since 1971). It means another good walleye year class for 2008. Its not as strong as the ones we have mostly seen since 2003 but still pretty darn good and solid.
The 2007 year class (based on the catch rate in our gill net collections) was the second highest we've measured since the surge in reproduction that began in 2003. No doubt you have been catching many of these little 12 & 13 inch fish. There are lots of them and that bodes very well for continued abundance of walleye in the bay.
Yellow perch remain in low abundance relative to past surveys but there was definitely some there. The age-0 perch were not nearly as abundant as recent years but that may be a good thing, meaning that they will grow better and survive better. We'll see.
Once we get all the lab work done (like aging the fish) and do the data analysis, we'll know a lot more. By late winter we'll have the annual creel survey results too. Check back with me on it around early March.
Saginaw Bay Fishing Report
Posted: 09/28/2008
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.
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
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.. . . Photos
Captain Ryan Sagady
Bay Sportfishing
Saginaw Bay Fishing Report - Au Gres
by Captain Terry Posted: Sept. 04, 2008
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.
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