Advise for newbie and 9 yr. old son - Higgins Lake

[n4cer126]

Hello,

My son and I went ice fishing for the first time a couple of weeks ago and had a blast.....we now have a shanty, and all necessary equipment as a result of that good time.  I made reservations in Houghton Lake for tip-up town and just learned that its not really about fishing but getting blasted and billions of snowmobiles everywhere.  Looking at a map I see that Higgins Lake is not far and will be heading there for fishing instead.  The trouble is I know absolutley nothing about Higgins Lake.  Not really looking for monster fish....just some decent perch / panfish I guess.  Can someone advise where to park and access the lake.....as well as fish.  I would really like to give my son a weekend of fishing he will always remember.  Any help or advise is greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
Mike

[Gill-N-Time]

You heard right about Tip-Up Town, no place to bring your son!
A good place to start on Higgins is pobably the northwest boat ramp,off of old 27.
You will see shacks all in one area go there,talk to some of them,most of them will be willing to help you out.

[n4cer126]

Thanks very much for the info.......I really appreciate it!

[iceman29]

I would start out the west boat ramp or the north state park for smelt and look for shanty town not sure on the perch

[superslabs]

Higgins Lake is large and deep. The groups of permanent shanty's you see will be smelters. There will allot of people out in portable shanty's scattered all over. These guys are after perch and lakers. If its perch your after there is a ton of them in there. Finding ones with any size can be tough. I have taken nice perch in 4 feet of water near the island and also out to 70 fow. The best action tends to be on flats in 40 to 60 feet of water.

[1buckeye]

Stop in to Lymann's in Houghton Lake and talk to them. They are very informative and were more than willing to help me and some friends when we fished Houghton a few weaks back.

[browning13]

I've fished houghton but never made it out the higgings good luck to you guys, hopefully you get into some lakers