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Just got back from a little over a week at Houghton Lake in Mi. First time there, camped on the nroth end at the State Forest Campground with the wifes family. Had 3 boats between us and had a great time camping and fishing. Had a storm come through last friday that messed with the boats at anchor pretty good but all in all would recommend the lake. For the week we caught fish on every trip out with the wife and I mostly fishing the new boat. Species caught, Walleye, Pike, Smallmouth, Largemouth, Rock bass, Perch, Crappie and Gills. Leech rigs was the go to for the wife, yeah they freak me out so I used everything else, LOL. hot baits were Ripple shad swim baits, Havoc subwoofer and grass pigs, Chatter baits, and of course the crawler harnesses. Trolled and drift fished mainly but I think I found a few good areas for gills and wish I could of had enough time to anchor and give them a go one day but just ran out of time.

Thanks for that report. I have always thought about fishing it but seemed like quite the party lake. How was the boat traffic?

I was worried about that also when we left but it really was not that bad. We were there over the fourth weekend and through the next weeknd, there were a lot of Pontoons that collected on the north side of the lake, their version of boaters beach I guess. We fished from 6-11 ish daily and then after dinner till dark or a little after which was almost 10 and you would have some boats coming or going but not bad at all in my opinion. We fished the North bay most of the time with a couple trips out to the main lake but the main lake is so big did not see any issues at all there either. The busiest part of the lake I would say is within a hundred yards or so off shore which is where the drop off from knee deep sandy beach water is and seems that is were everyone wants to speed through. It didnt really hurt on the fishing just when you wanted to relax or take a swim from the beach was a little scary with the boat traffic. The other busy part is where the North Point comes out and splits North Bay from the main lake, didnt really bother us fishing off the point but with the pinch point it does see more traffic.

The one thing we did learn about the party aspect of the lake is that the first weekend in Aug is Bud Bash. the Brother in law says the State park gets filled and trashed with pretty bad partiers and junk left over that you would expect from a Animal House type event. So if your young and want to relive the college party atmosphere that is the place to be the first weekend in Aug.

found some time to add a few pics, didnt work last time see if it does today

nope didnt work again. Cant figure it out.

Jeff,
I assume your trying to load up from your phone? If so and you can find in your settings, size , try going to the smallest setting possible and try again. That has helped a few others.

Ed, I was trying from my laptop. Tried adding file, inserting, and copying. I guess I am not sure how to reduce file size as they were taken with my phone. I tried doing 1 pic at a time also no luck, just got errors everytime.