Higgins lake

[tjhalbisen]

Heading to higgins lake to fish for lakers, and perch. Anyone want to share fishing tactics that work for that particular lake? Any help is appreciated

[Swedish Pimp]

Bring a under water camera. You can pull it away from the dinks while waiting for bigger small perch to move in. Find weed beds. Green weed can be found in 60 fow.

[jdgambler]

green weed is better than brown weed from what ive heard!!

[GourdneckGills]

Is the ice on higgins still good for snowmobiles? It's getting pretty bad down state and I will be heading up this weekend

[CWlake]

Bring a under water camera. You can pull it away from the dinks while waiting for bigger small perch to move in. Find weed beds. Green weed can be found in 60 fow.

            bigger small perch?   Not sure if I want to wait for them.

[scout 2]

Is the ice on higgins still good for snowmobiles? It's getting pretty bad down state and I will be heading up this weekend

Shore ice is still good and UTV are out today

[Swedish Pimp]

            bigger small perch?   Not sure if I want to wait for them.

All depends on what your idea of a keeper perch is. There are hundreds of people out there for some reason.

[DaveSS1]

All depends on what your idea of a keeper perch is. There are hundreds of people out there for some reason.

Well if you rip them out of 50+ FOW, most of them are going to be keepers.  I love my black betty 6061 for speed fishing but in deep water they can really take them up fast along with their air bladders.  Now, if I know I have a dink I finesse it up. 

Sure some of the fish swim away but a lot of them end up dead floating up below the ice if you try to release them with their bladders out.  I ideally love 8"+ fish but if I happen to have a few 5-7" in the mix so be it, I can still clean them and eat them.

[tjhalbisen]

What's the best way to catch perch on higgins?

[tjhalbisen]

Come on guys someone share a tip on how to catch lakers and perch on Higgins.

[scout 2]

Sand Kickers for  Trout

[rpdog]

You might look thru the other northern state posts for lures and ideas as well. Some pretty neat stuff comes out of Ny, also Canada. Personally I've never ice fished Higgins.
  Rp

[scout 2]

You might look thru the other northern state posts for lures and ideas as well. Some pretty neat stuff comes out of Ny, also Canada. Personally I've never ice fished Higgins.
  Rp

You had ought to try it. Super clear water and you can see bottom in 20 foot of water. When the smelt fishing was on you could sight fish them all day long

[DaveSS1]

For perch:  Halis tipped with minnows, spikes, waxies, wigglers, minnows heads, eyes, plastics.....you get the point, need to change it up.  One thing I can say that wigglers and minnows tend to be consistent up there.
Also try small jigging raps tipped with spikes.  Also small Swedish pimples.  Occasional bump the bottom to stir up the sand.  You can use teardrops or jigs, but I would suggest a tungsten in probably 5mm as it can take some time to drop to the deeper depths.
Another option is to use a traditional perch rig but make sure you have a wide enough hole to accommodate your rig so you are not hanging up on the ice when bringing fish up.  A lot of times I will just tie a small dropper loop above my hali with a lighter teardrop or plain hook.  In this case you want to avoid tungsten as the heavier jig on the dropper can tangle your main line or take away the action of the hali.
If you don't catch fish within an hour, move to find active schools.  Higgins is a big lake so there is plenty of water to try.  Sometimes the crowds are on the fish, othertimes they are not.  Sometimes moving 20 yards can make a difference.  This is about as much basic info I can give you.  Good luck.

[tjhalbisen]

Thanks everyone for the replies.

[scout 2]

 If you are on foot you can go just past the dropoff out from the north state park for perch and maybe catch a smelt. I have caught a couple of trout there also. Make sure you have a state park pass as they are writing tickets this year

[tjhalbisen]

I will be on my snowmobile so I am mobile. Also staying at place right on the lake so I should be good. Any other places worth checking out?

[rpdog]

I'll put it on my list Scout. Problem is there are so many lakes and never enough time.
Rp

[bobberbill]

green weed is better than brown weed from what ive heard!!

Passed everyone on the last lap!! 

[rpdog]

Watching Higgins Lake on michigan outdoors right now. It can be watched off their website as well.

[compli123]

I will be on my snowmobile so I am mobile. Also staying at place right on the lake so I should be good. Any other places worth checking out?

I like the hole at flag point. Never a crowd and the perch usually show up/ also straight out from Hoffman on the east side.

[Mike Wagner]

Be careful around Detroit Point, from other reports, 2 snowmobiles through Fri and a side by side yesterday. I was up yesterday off the Big Creek, took a while to find the perch, when I did alot of sorting but did OK over all.
 

[SgtLange]

If anyone is in the area this weekend / next week i'm looking for a safe ice report for Higgins/Houghton. I've got a trip a week from tomorrow but it's supposed to be warm 4 days prior. Hoping we can find some safe ice. Any info is appreciated.

Thanks

[IFallThroughForFun]

I'm headed to higgins and st helen this weekend, i will let you know.

[tjhalbisen]

Yeah post a report of higgins if you get out. Thanks.

[junobeans]

Fished Higgins today 10-12 inches of ice 4 inches of snow off of west dr launch

[DaveSS1]

Anyone been out there today, 3/7?  Heard things were good ice wise Sat and Sunday with a little melting sunday afternoon.  Looking at possibly going tomorrow or maybe Friday after the rain.  Had to cancel my trip up due to getting sick on Friday.  Any information would be appreciated.

[scout 2]

 I stopped by the north tae park a short while ago and one guy coming off said there was 8  inches of ice with about 2 inches of water on top

[IFallThroughForFun]

I was out there Saturday all day and the ice was about 1ft thick off flag point, shore was beginning to recede about 1.5 ft. fished in 35-65ft of water, but had the most action in the 40 foot range and by action I mean I seen the most fish on my bird radar. no bites, super slow threw every bait and lure I had at them. That made me go to St Helen on Sunday and we caught some eyes, rockbass and panfish around the hole of the 3rd lake in 10-15 ft.

[bigfishy101]

I was out there Saturday all day and the ice was about 1ft thick off flag point, shore was beginning to recede about 1.5 ft. fished in 35-65ft of water, but had the most action in the 40 foot range and by action I mean I seen the most fish on my bird radar. no bites, super slow threw every bait and lure I had at them. That made me go to St Helen on Sunday and we caught some eyes, rockbass and panfish around the hole of the 3rd lake in 10-15 ft.

You go up to St. Helen often? I usually go up there most weekends I can. Occasionally I will fish the hard water of other lakes but not too often.