NEVER ICE FISHED MICHIGAN, BUT WOULD LOVE TO. HELP!

[minnesotaboy]

Can someone please help here. I am from Minnesota but live in Ohio now. I would like to meet my old fishing buddy(from Mn.) in Michigan this year to ice fish, but we have no clue where to go. He has a tow behind "sleeper" that he is bringing.

My question: Do we have to travel to the UP to actually drive a full size p/u on the ice or can we fish the LP w/ same eqipment? We have lighter stuff, portables, etc, if needed. We are not planning on fishing until late Feb/ early March.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!!

Thanks,

Will

[slimechaser]

five years ago you would have only needed to drive a few hrs North. But this year, I would expect your better off back in MN or the U.P. If you dun mind "roughing it", you could still just run up I-75 and find a lot of great in-land lakes, just West of  Detroit. Unless we get a proper arctic blast, you'll be hard pressed to find any ice thick enough for your purposes in the LP.
End of Feb, you do still have hope, but it will be the far Northern extremes of the LP, Good luck, hope this helps.

[minnesotaboy]

Thanks Slimechaser! Same thing here in Ohio. Any advice for the UP?

What are the names of the lakes west of Detroit??

Thanks

[flockshot]

little bay de noc in the up will be good for alot of load probably in a few weeks..and thats probably a good meeting spot for a guy driving from minnesota..its in the UP....hell...in a few weeks head to st.clair. great perch fishing..lots of little hotels and stuff..guys drive their trucks out..but i wouldnt suggest it. lol.

[walleyechaser]

There are a ton of good inland lakes all over the state.  Depends on what you want to fish for.
I wouldn't advise driving a truck out on the ice that late in the season though. 

[calvin21]

I would say that the best lake to go to for multi species is probably lake St. Clair (in my opinion).  It might not freeze good enough this year to get where the best fish are but if it does i would suggest going there.  You definetly won't be able to get a truck out there this year though.  The best thing about it is that it bottom is relatively flat so the fish move a ton more and don't only hold in certain areas (less moving on your part).  It also has huge perch and good sized walleyes and pike.

[Lobes]

Best thing to do is to stop in a Meijer's somewhere along your way and invest in one of the (large size) Michigan County Map books. Then you can find every lake and how to get there. They are also marked where public access is located.

                                                   

[somerset_ice]

Well, the Irish Hills have a lot of lakes to fish, with many having public access. Lenawee and Hillsdale counties are full of lakes. Vinyard Lake isn't bad, and Wamplers lake is good also but can have a lot of pressure.

[Reel-Easy]

Depends on what you're going for, fished lake St. Clair on Sun. 4 inches of ice, me and a buddy caught plenty of perch, couple gills and crappie but mostly perch, had to sort through a lot of smaller ones, kept 82 fish all together.

[calvin21]

Depends on what you're going for, fished lake St. Clair on Sun. 4 inches of ice, me and a buddy caught plenty of perch, couple gills and crappie but mostly perch, had to sort through a lot of smaller ones, kept 82 fish all together.

Did you fish on the lake or in the canals.  If you were on the lake where.

[Reel-Easy]

Did you fish on the lake or in the canals.  If you were on the lake where.

Fished the canals behind the baitshop, by DNR launch, Selfridge Airforce Base