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Heading North!

jagermeister

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Ohio
Well ice season around here in NE Ohio has been non-existant this year. Oh well, that's just the way it goes sometimes. As a result, my brother, my cousin, a buddy, and myself are all heading north next weekend... We'll be fishing either Houghton Lake or Higgins Lake, or both. Higgins has over 12" of ice right now and is making more every day. And to top it off, they're catching some nice lake trout on a daily basis up there. We'll be about 45 minutes or so east of Cadillac, so that may be another option TOO. Now, time to start getting some gear ready!... good thing my fridge is stocked with beer right now. :)
 

jagermeister

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Supporting Member
18,060
223
Ohio
We'll be staying at a cottage owned by Lyman's on the Lake, right along the shore of Houghton Lake. Everything's tentative at this point, but so far the plan is go after panfish in Lake St. Helen's on Saturday morning, then head to Houghton or Higgins for some afternoon laker/pike/walleye action. As for Sunday, well, that depends on what happens Saturday. lol I plan on taking a bunch of pics during this trip... Hopefully there are some fish in them. :)
 

jagermeister

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Supporting Member
18,060
223
Ohio
Trip Recap

All in all, it was pretty disappointing. We only caught a handful of keeper-size panfish and a couple small northerns. It was unusual... Normally for me, a shitty day on the ice consists of catching a bunch of dinks all day, but at least it's action. During this trip, we would go hours without even seeing a fish on the camera. No one was catching much all around us. And we walked a BUNCH.... fish two different lakes (Houghton and St. Helens) and covered a lot of ground. Heck, the first afternoon, my brother and I were 0.9 miles off shore... without a quad or a snow machine.

Even though the fishing was garbage, we still had a great time up there. Six of us were packed into a small cottage along the shore of Houghton Lake. We drank enough to keep us happy, played cards every night, and had a hell of a good time giving each other a hard time. The only bad part was, there was no exhaust fan in the bathroom. Six grown men, drinking whiskey and beer and eating fast food for a couple days, NEED an exhaust fan in the bathroom!!! lmao

Due to the lack of fishing success, I only took a few pictures.

Laid back swervin' like I'm George Jones...



Walking off the ice Sunday night...





An awesome sunset, Saturday night...