Higgins lake Bass fishing???

[motocross269]

I am headed up to Higgins/Houghton lake area next week for a few days of R and R with the family...
I have never been on Higgins....I see from some reports that there are a few smallies in there but I haven't heard much about tournaments on that lake...So it makes me wonder...
Anyone have any info???
Thanks..
B

[djkimmel]

I've only fished it around Memorial weekend a few times in recent years. It's got some big smallies. We've caught them when we've stopped there on the way farther North. My old friend Larry had a backlot cabin back while he was alive.

The bass are spotty. Big lake. Lots of sand. Find the few rocky areas and the smallies are nearby though they might be way down that old dropoff this time of year. That water is so darn clear! I hear rumors that they move shallow at times just like other lakes and that there is the occasional summer tournament and they weigh bass in.

They do have a few tournaments there every year - clubs and small opens. You don't hear about them much. Many are held during the spawn and I think the lake fishes very small for bass. The big sunken island attracts some - we've caught our biggest there on the South side of it.

Lots of rock around the big island in the North half. Yup, they spawn there so I imagine there's bass still in that area - we usually hit it prespawn but there were always a few early bedders. That's pretty much mostly where I've fished for bass in recent memory.

I've caught them in the way past while messing around fishing for perch deep here and there. Spotty. Big underwater bar in the North I've caught them around. I know there is a rocky point farther down the lake that is the other spawning hotspot that gets hammered in tournaments but I'm not sure which point it is. Just haven't fished there enough. I would think it is the one at the narrows or maybe the one down by the South island? I would be suspicious about that South island too. I also caught few feeding early in the day at the mouth of the small creek up in the North end - tannic water.

Bonus - the lake has a good population of dogfish even though some of the residents won't believe it or don't know what a dogfish is. We were there one spring when the doggies made a move shallow and all at once we surrounded by big doggies swimming up out of the depths. I was fighting a toad doggie and a guy up on shore on the big island asked if it was some kind of salmon! Very funny! I guess it could sort of look like a deformed taimen but how many people have even heard of those?!?

One minute, dead clear water as far as you could see, and the next doggies coming up over the deep sand drop in waves! I love sightfishing the doggies!

It can be a loud lake on the weekends.

[MIBasser]

As Dan said, the spring is the best time up there.  Mainly around Treasure Island.  In my 20+ years of going up there I don't think I ever remember seeing a tournament up there.  Maybe just a spring C&R??  I've only really fished it a hadfull of times as I know how busy it gets in the summer.  Here are a couple from this spring.... 20" and 21".  My dad and I both lost one of equal size as well.

[djkimmel]

Nice fish. About the same as a few we would get every other spring. But... where's the dogfish?!?

Maybe they don't have tournaments there anymore? I know they were having them because I have had clubbers call me in the past and my friends have fished some of the opens up there and talked about how fun it is having 15 to 25 boats all trying the fish the same few bedding areas!

I've never fished a tournament there. We never really tore up a lot of bass because most years we only went for part of one day and often hit the lesser weather. The one time we had weather like in your picture, they started moving up fairly good as the day progressed and we caught a respectable number of smallies. One of the trips, there were already a bunch of empty beds. One of the trips we got to do a fair amount of sight-fishing for a few hours but the beds were spread out.