Fellas I will be at Ludington State park from Aug 3rd to 11th. I could use some help with what to bring for walleyes, muskie and perch if possible. I will be able to bring my boat this year. But i don't want to bring everything I have to try to catch these critters. Any help hill be much appreciated. I do have my sportsman mapbook that will be going with me.
Thanks Rod
For muskies bring a lucky horseshoe and pray for a miracle cuz that lake is tough! Walleyes havn't been as numerous in recent years prolly cuz of the break in stocking but basically trolling crawler harnesses on some of the flats and along drop offs in the lower lake from 15-40 fow or casting cranks like shad raps in the cabbage along the sanddunes can work too. Gold and chart blades on harnesses have worked there for me before on walleye.
I've never fished there and if the lucky horseshoe comes out….I would take musky off of the menu lol. Failure and depression comes up to much when it comes to Muskie fishing…. I like an eerie drierie (sorry on the spelling) or a crawler harness rig but if you don't want to go live bait until you've Hooked up I've had a lot of luck trolling hot n tots for walleye. Most of the time that was Canada so if it sounds stupid don't jump my case! I used to troll 2 to 3 lines with hot n tots on a break of en edge and when I hooked up I'd throw a marker buoy behind the boat and come back to pick the walleye off jigging minnows. Good luck go light up some fish baby! [smilie=brows.gif]
my best walleye bait out there has been a 7" phantom soft tail… caught 3 7+ lbs. last year in two trips… I am not going to say its that much more of a lucky horse shoe lake than our natural lakes in michigan, but for as many fish as they've put there it sure seems like it'd be better. Ive been fortunate enough to see a couple each time Ive been there. The main problem is the amount of places they can hide. so, basically cover a ton of water and keep your eyes peeled. as for walleye, I'll refer to what steve said, plus the phantoms.
I was out there last week, and Lower Hamlin was too rough to fish effectively so we were forced to fish the upper. Good bass and pike contact throughout the upper in the cabbage on big willow leaf spinnerbaits. I only fished a few hours but caught decent numbers, and the spinnerbait minimized weeded up wasted casts. Trolling spinnerbaits hammered the pike too.
Screw the little water and go cath a few Kings around the pier head…Had lots of luck on Hamlin in late summer on the eyes trolling cranks, Deep Jr Thundersticks, Reef Runner 600's (deep little rippers) and of course 1/4oz tots and 3/8oz rattle tots. Caught lots of decent pike on my favorite deep trolling bait for big bass/pike the old powerdive minnow 30ft back. Slip bobbers and leeches caught a lot of fish as well with big gills mixed in.
Hamlin muskies keep me up at night. My personal theory, which I shared with Mark Tonello of the DNR, is that the muskies need to be stocked in lower because it was a hell of a tiger muskie lake when they stocked those in lower. Most of the muskies stocked in Hamlin to date have gone in at Victory Park, way up in the upper lake. I just think there are too many pike up there in the fall when they do this for many of the 10-12 inch muskies to survive. And that's also the hub for spearing. Trust me, a lot of "shorts" are going out each winter.
The last stocking, roughly half of the muskies went into the lower lake and I've seen some pics of 20-inch-ish fish that have me optimistic those fish will take off.
I think everyone here summed it up nicely, though, carry a horseshoe. I've had just a few sightings and follows. My personal theory is the fish are way up near Victory still — the ones that survived, anyway. Tons of cover, tons of food. Victory Park is near a spring perch spawning spot and it's an easy spot to catch a bucket of master angler bullheads, not to mention a lot of nice bluegills and spawning crappies. Then the weeds come in and the fish don't have to move much for food. Once they get bigger than all the pike up there they're home free unless an eagle catches them napping.
Check out the musky hunter article on flipping and that may be something that could work way up on Upper.
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