Tales of the Tape

Saginaw Bay Update

Well, the 2010 Ice Fishing Vacation School was a success. About 16 students from across Michigan entered the class offered by walleye pros Mark Martin and Mark Brumbaugh. When I arrived on monday afternoon, the weather was as nice as you'll find out on the bay. Several students had limited out by the time I got to the group and several more were at 3-4 fish and hoping the evening bite would seal a limit.

Now for the fishing report. We were fishing fairly shallow in 8-10ft and downsized to smaller lures. At the end of the day's fishing, the school meets at Linwood Corners restaurant to debrief and hear what was working for everyone and what didn't. It can be very interesting and a good chance to learn because there are lots of anglers, trying lots of different techniques, presentations and equipment. Because the fishing was so good, it seemed like any color was working. Most guys were using Do-jiggers, Swedish Pimples and Little Cleos in the smaller sizes. But, using a small piece of walleye minnow (didn't matter which part) or a whole perch minnow seemed to be the ticket to the shallow water we were fishing.

One thing to always keep in mind on the bay is safety. Warm weather after the bay had froze up, created some highly variable ice conditions. Where most of the ice we encountered was about 8-9" of good clear ice, there were some places that only had 4-5". There were also a few slush spots and we had a couple guys drop their quads. One had to be winched out and the other hit the ice on the other side hard but made it out. The first guy had been fishing the bay for over 20yrs and is considered by many, a very safety conscious angler. Luckily, nobody went completely through. Just keep that in mind while on the bay. She can treat you very well at times but can also take your life. Be safe out there bacause there's not a walleye swimming that's worth losing your life over.

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