# West Michigan walleye rivers



## Fishndude (Feb 22, 2003)

Walleyes seem to do best in big shallow bodies of water. Lake Erie, Saginaw Bay, and Little Bay DeNoc are prime examples. The west coast of MI doesn't have much of that type of water. I saw the biggest Walleye I've ever seen about 8 years ago, on the Big Man, while I was boating for Steelhead. She was hanging behind a gravel hump and may have been 20#. I guessed the length at close to 40". I've seen quite a few BIG Walleyes get caught by Steelheaders below Tippy Dam, but never big numbers of Eyes.


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## centraltrapper (Feb 7, 2014)

Caught this one the muskegon a few years ago steelhead fishing. Hit a hot and tot behind the boat.


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## lancenelson (Jun 10, 2009)

357Maximum said:


> Everytime I fish that beautiful work of art in Chesaning, I spend most of my time thinking how nice it would be if the RAPIDS came back to GR. The theory is already panning out and working on the Shiawassee in much smaller scale.
> 
> I still have hope


I grew up fishing in Chesaning, is the dam gone now? Haven't fished there in probably 10-12 years.


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## 357Maximum (Nov 1, 2015)

lancenelson said:


> I grew up fishing in Chesaning, is the dam gone now? Haven't fished there in probably 10-12 years.



Yep been gone for a few years. Replaced with a beautiful cascading stair step with pools in each step. Really cool design. I have kin that live upstream and it is working to let them spot tailed suckers with the reflective eyes upstream. The fishing directly below where the dam was is not what it used to be, but there is a lot of great water above the staircase getting fish now. My 200 lb frame will do a backflip the day 6th street looks similar.


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## ericzerka24 (Aug 12, 2010)

TK81 said:


> I love hooking a rocket off the pier or when they first get the in river and I make sure I get a couple trips each spring and fall. A young steelie or a fresh coho / king in the smoker or on the grill is good, but 1 or 2 fish a year would be plenty for me. The rest of the family won't eat it, so I end up taking it to work and giving it away. I have done my share of big lake trolling and that's OK, but not nearly as fun as hooking a 10 lb steel on 6 lb test. I know this sounds weird, but I would rather sit on a 5 gallon pail on a frozen lake than I would troll for salmon. And I could eat gills and perch twice a week for life.


I think you mean twice a day for life


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## sfw1960 (Apr 7, 2002)

Yup


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## A.M. General (May 3, 2001)

Every year the DNR does an egg take on the Muskegon usually at the end of March. Growing up fishing the Saginaw and Tittabawassee rivers, I was shocked at the size of the walleyes they shock on the Muskegon. Lots of big ones in there but the egg take is usually during the closed portion of the season.


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## ericzerka24 (Aug 12, 2010)

There are some hawgs in the Muskegon. It's amazing how many are right where you are steelhead fishing. You would think that you would catch a pile of them. Here's a couple decent ones from the MO:


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## Benzie Rover (Mar 17, 2008)

Fishndude said:


> Walleyes seem to do best in big shallow bodies of water. Lake Erie, Saginaw Bay, and Little Bay DeNoc are prime examples. The west coast of MI doesn't have much of that type of water. I saw the biggest Walleye I've ever seen about 8 years ago, on the Big Man, while I was boating for Steelhead. She was hanging behind a gravel hump and may have been 20#. I guessed the length at close to 40". I've seen quite a few BIG Walleyes get caught by Steelheaders below Tippy Dam, but never big numbers of Eyes.


Actually, northern Lake Michigan is a wonderland of walleye habitat. Granted, from Point Betsie south it's pretty slim. The big rock shoal off Arcardia has held them forever, but otherwise, I agree they seem to scatter. From Platte Bay north though there are literally 100s and 100s of miles of rocky shoals in 20-50 FOW. That's the problem actually - there's nothing to concentrate them except for spring spawning runs around rivers. There's plenty of fish out there, but unfortunately also A LOT of water to cover. One thing about Lake Michigan fish in the open water is that since it's so clear they go a fair bit deeper than the more turbid shallow bays. It's not uncommon to fish in 50 fow in outer Green Bay for example. I did a fair bit of cast netting for bait last fall in the northern harbors. We had a big fall run of spot tail shiners (grays) which was awesome to see, but along with them I caught at least a few walleye fry (2-3"). But the most surprising thing I personally saw last fall were alewife runs after the first big coldwater turnover in October. The lower platte and several other rivers filled up with ales for about two weeks. Hard to say if it was an unusual number of them signaling yet another comeback, or if they just concentrated themselves in the rivers, but none the less it was there were a lot of them in the rivers. Mostly all in the 3" cohort range.


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## Jimbos (Nov 21, 2000)

Benzie Rover said:


> Actually, northern Lake Michigan is a wonderland of walleye habitat. Granted, from Point Betsie south it's pretty slim. The big rock shoal off Arcardia has held them forever, but otherwise, I agree they seem to scatter. From Platte Bay north though there are literally 100s and 100s of miles of rocky shoals in 20-50 FOW. That's the problem actually - there's nothing to concentrate them except for spring spawning runs around rivers. There's plenty of fish out there, but unfortunately also A LOT of water to cover. One thing about Lake Michigan fish in the open water is that since it's so clear they go a fair bit deeper than the more turbid shallow bays. It's not uncommon to fish in 50 fow in outer Green Bay for example. I did a fair bit of cast netting for bait last fall in the northern harbors. We had a big fall run of spot tail shiners (grays) which was awesome to see, but along with them I caught at least a few walleye fry (2-3"). But the most surprising thing I personally saw last fall were alewife runs after the first big coldwater turnover in October. The lower platte and several other rivers filled up with ales for about two weeks. Hard to say if it was an unusual number of them signaling yet another comeback, or if they just concentrated themselves in the rivers, but none the less it was there were a lot of them in the rivers. Mostly all in the 3" cohort range.


I mentioned this a year or two ago, so to be repetitive, I had a Charlevoix county road worker chat me up one day and we started talking walleye, I mentioned Lake Charlevoix and he opened up about Lake Michigan, I'll say it was August, and he mentioned that just offshore just south of 9 mile point and north of North Point, the walleyes were stacked 30 down over 60 and no one was fishing for them, I'm sure someone was, but at that time of year it was most likely incidental catches trolling for salmon.

So I agree, that area is rocky as hell but gin clear but may hold fish. I have never fished for them as launches in that 9 Mile Pointe area are pitiful and lacking and I just can't trust a long run in that exposed area, and for all the years I've fished just north of there I've never caught a walleye.

Now I do have to one of these days launch at Medusa and head towards the Pine river channel for some nighttime eye fishing, but I hope like hell that Little Traverse Bay/Petoskey area would eventually get some sort of walleye run.


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