I wanted to go to budd, but my father wanted to go to wixom and try to pick up some walleyes if he could.
Water temps were 46-49.5 degrees
weeds gone in a lot of the spots i like to fish. We mainly fished one canal, one of the largest on the tit. side. Deep 35 ft, marked tons of fish, did some jigging, trolling casting. Dad managed 2 lil pike and one nice 22" walleye on shad raps(blue silver). I picked up a really odd looking pike, like it had lost some pigment, was like light green, brown and white. Really kinda sick looking, but was 29", got it trolling canal. Most docks were pulled so I didn't have to put up with any bass fishing.
At the mouth of my fav. canal it comes up fast from 30ft and there is a stumpy weedy flat there, before dropping back down to over 20+ feet on the main lake. I could not believe it, but we seen 2 fish on that structure. First one came in on a glide bait. Other one fallowed a jig style bait. They were nice looking fish, I figure 8'd forever on both of them as I wasn't sure if they just dropped down, or swam away. I would guess 35" on one and close too 44-45" on the other. This spot where we seen them is a giant stumpy flat that I usually never fish, just drive over it slow and with caution so I can enter the canal. Next year, i'm going to spend some time there for sure. As I have told others I do believe there are some fish in wixom and some BIG ones. I wish i could have fished it more this year.
I got a chance to fish a lot of the SWM lakes this year and everyone is a tiny little hole that gets over stocked every other year (not knocking the stocking system at all, just sayng). I have fished sanford most of the time, and its 15 mins from my house, so with good reason. Since I started muskie fishing in mid summer of 2003 I have caught 14 muskie on sanford and seen maybe 24 total since I began. And most of them were giants. True trophy fish, the kind that makes you want to fish in rain, snow, sleet, anything. Well, My first trip to ovid I seen 20 fish in one day, caught none. But my 2nd trip I seen about 25 and caught 3, and every time i fish it seems i'm fishing a pond in a way. Don't get me wrong I love seening more fish and catching. But the same with murray and the heavy stocked SWM lakes, anyting 450 acres and under that has been piledrived with stockings, well there is definetly a difference into the approach on fishing those lakes. One of the big things about chasing muskes is the "lore"..the fish if 10,000 casts, the one true big fish that rules the lake. I know why know one wants to come to fish wixom or sanford, because you have to work very hard to catch them. And not everyone has the time I understand that. But There are monster fish lurking here, you have over 2,000 acres including the upper sections, up near estey there is great fishing. Really, you aren't going to see 20 to even 4 fish in one day. You may only see one, or none, and if your lucky you will catch one. But it will be one hell of a big fish. Yea you gotta drive far, But these 2 big titabawassee chain lakes, wixom and sanford have some giant fish in here and I think a lot of you out there are missing out on some in state trophy water. Don't over look these lakes. Especially wixom, in the next 4 years there will be some hogs in there, from main stockings and the fish that will come from ross lake via the tabacco river.
Next year if anyone out there wants to try some new water i definetly recommend these lakes.
Bryan-
You raise a point that has come up before, what is your personal definition of a "trophy"? There are many people who have passed the magical fifty mark and many who never will. This leads to various definitions of what constitutes a trophy fishery. For some it is a legal fish, for others fifty, for some fifty-five + with weight exceeding fourty five pounds. Some of these targets are more realistic than others. When you say they are hard to catch I believe it. I have spent entire seasons on one lake fishing for "a" particular fish to no avail, but one day… This may help you to undersgand why more people don't fish there, either the fish are not big enough or there are not enough of them leaving the lake off the destination list of many anglers.
Kevin
yea i understand you. There are not mumbers like in swm because our dnr doesnt do many stockings. As far as trophy size, 30+ pound fish.
the forage bases in both lakes is great, so they get pretty fat. or you could say shot at a 50" is there too, just not in numbers like LSC for 50" fish.
They are both just big lakes that provide a good challenge that could toss you a 30lb fish
Probably will and hopefully you will be on the other rnd of the line!! I have learned also that it is difficult to fish many lakes and do well. I try to limit it to a few lakes each year and pattern those fish instead of going for a random shot on a bunch of different lakes. Unfortunately I think the lakes in the more populated areas like where you fish suffer from a lot of accidental harvest and the few that go back from delayed mortality, We can just keep on tryin to get the word out and stocking some fish and hopefully it will turn around some day.
Kevin
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