r/MichiganFishing • • Jul 29 '26

Volunteers sank 189 fish shelters across Torch, Elk, Bellaire, Clam and Intermediate. I mapped all 63 documented locations — free GPX/USR/HWR

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40 Upvotes

Between 2012 and 2017, volunteers from the Elk River Chain lake associations dragged loaded sleds across the ice in the dead of winter and sank fish shelters at 63 documented sites across five lakes. Three structures per site, mixed from three designs: hardwood crates packed with brush and rock, slab trees, and stump clusters with the roots still on. All in 15 to 25 feet.

The associations published the coordinates. I cross-checked them against the state permit records, ran every point against the lake polygons to catch anything that had drifted onto dry land or into the wrong lake, fixed three errors, and built waypoint files in GPX, USR and HWR — per lake, plus a whole-chain file if you fish more than one.

https://shorelinescout.com/fish-shelters/elk-river-chain/

everything's a free download, nothing to buy. It's my site.

These aren't secret spots — the associations published them because the whole point of sinking habitat is for people to fish it.

Figure about 80 feet either way, so idle over the mark and trust your sonar, not the pin. Divers checked the Torch structures in 2019 and the crates were holding up fine. One Torch site shows up at two different spots on two official maps, 298 meters apart, so I left it out rather than guess — you're getting 25 of 26 there. And these are only the documented ones; plenty of structure goes in without paperwork.

Heads up before you keep anything: several of these lakes carry consumption advisories — check the current Eat Safe Fish guide.

None of this is my work, really. Volunteers built it winter after winter; I just found the paperwork and cleaned it up. If the files are any use to you, the Three Lakes Association and the Elk-Skegemog Lakes Association are both still active and could use members.

Anyone fished these? The oldest are 13 years old now and I'd love to know which sites are still producing — and which lake I should map next.


r/MichiganFishing • • Jun 03 '25

Michigan Eat Safe Fish Guides

17 Upvotes

https://www.michigan.gov/mdhhs/safety-injury-prev/environmental-health/topics/eatsafefish/guides

We've got a lot of people posting now and some talking about eating fish. Michigan recently updated their guides and a significant amount of bodies of water and fish species have been added. Make sure to check where you're going before you take anything home with you.


r/MichiganFishing • • 2h ago

Anywhere getting some fish within 40 minutes of sterling heights?

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5 Upvotes

Ive been Fishing rivers lately but ive only been getting dinks, catfish, pike, bass, panfish, gar, walleye, even bowfin. i just want to catch something decent in fishing from shore


r/MichiganFishing • • 22h ago

St Clair river fishing

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24 Upvotes

Hi guys what rigs/ methods or lures would you use to fish the st Clair river I want to target steelhead, musky and walleye thank you!!!


r/MichiganFishing • • 1d ago

Resident and a migratory

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12 Upvotes

r/MichiganFishing • • 1d ago

St Clair river fishing

3 Upvotes

Hi guys what rugs/methods would you use to fish the st Clair river I want to target walleye and steelhead thank you!!!


r/MichiganFishing • • 1d ago

Bonus fish while trying for steelies.

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17 Upvotes

Smashed the chartreuse spinner fly!


r/MichiganFishing • • 1d ago

Heavy-cover punching baitcaster reel selection

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1 Upvotes

r/MichiganFishing • • 1d ago

East Lansing Fishing spots

1 Upvotes

Anyone know of good spots for bass/pike fishing near East Lansing?


r/MichiganFishing • • 2d ago

Fishing Travel Input Needed

4 Upvotes

My name is Gavin. I'm a student at Western Michigan University. I'm currently doing a design project to create a product that will make traveling with a lot of fishing equipment in cars or truck a lot safer and easier. If you have just a couple minutes, I'd love to hear what you have to say. Please fill out my 4-question survey. Thank you for your opinions.

https://forms.gle/VHjJsnRnHGNsPLD1A


r/MichiganFishing • • 2d ago

Huron River

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28 Upvotes

Some beautiful smallies out of the Huron in Ann Arbor. So far best one out of this section 3.53 lbs

Mostly Jerk baits, Swim Jigs, and Glide Baits for me.

Whats everyone else using for dam fishing small mouth?


r/MichiganFishing • • 2d ago

What are some good bass fishing lakes in the Caledonia area?

2 Upvotes

Looking to go out with a couple buddies and they’re in the Caledonia area and that’s not an area I’m too familiar with lake wise. Doesn’t have to be your honey hole just a lake with some decent bass


r/MichiganFishing • • 3d ago

Pretty Chinook on fly gear

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79 Upvotes

r/MichiganFishing • • 3d ago

Muskegon Salmon

7 Upvotes

I've been fishing the muskegon river and I see the salmon. The issue is they're not biting. I've tried beads,spinners, yarn, thunderstick, and they're just not having it. They even move out of the way. What do I do?

I'm using 3 splitshot for the current


r/MichiganFishing • • 3d ago

New to fishing

3 Upvotes

I’m fairly new to fishing and would love some friends in the hobby. Maybe someone closer to my age ( early 20’s). I’m in the metro Detroit area


r/MichiganFishing • • 3d ago

Made a free site + app for Michigan's Eat Safe Fish guidance (+ all other states)

3 Upvotes

Mods gave me the go-ahead to post this.

I got tired of trying to read and interpret the MDHHS's Eat Safe Fish guidance. Its a PDF and its super long. Not to mention its not easily searchable.

So I put it somewhere usable. Every Michigan water with advisories, somewhere around 550 of them, all searchable by water and species, with the size breaks spelled out in plain English. It worked so well, that I decided to build out the same for the 49 other states. Each one has adapter for collecting and updating the data. The data itself is regularly refreshed, so anything new will get picked up.

It reads straight from the state guide and links the official source on every page, so you can check my work. If something looks wrong for a water you fish, tell me and I'll fix it.

I built in a ton of neat features into the application, including the ability to take a photo of what you caught, and where you caught it, and have the system automatically give suggestions on the species of fish, and whether or not its safe to eat.

Everything on the site is free. The app is also free, but there is a paid tier that unlocks some additional features, which helps cover the cost of running the application. Theres no ads or anything like that. I built this because I myself am a fisherman (in Michigan!) and put a couple of my passions together.

Site: livewell-app.com
Android: play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.livewell
iOS: Coming soon!

Check it out and tell me what you think! Thanks

EDIT: Here's a link directly to the Michigan advisories. https://livewell-app.com/advisories/michigan


r/MichiganFishing • • 3d ago

How I found my hunting land Marquette county.

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5 Upvotes

r/MichiganFishing • • 3d ago

Fishing buddy.

7 Upvotes

Anyone in west Michigan wanna go out in my boat for some pan fish or bass maybe northern this morning or this evening?! No weirdos please.


r/MichiganFishing • • 4d ago

My creek hopper.

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66 Upvotes

Finally dialed in my fishing bike.


r/MichiganFishing • • 4d ago

Fall smallies

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22 Upvotes

The fall bite is on fire for smallmouth in Northern Michigan. The best part, I watched two boats in a tournament pick this spot apart yesterday with their FFS for an hour and not catch a fish. My biggest 5 in just under 2 hours were 16.96lbs.


r/MichiganFishing • • 5d ago

Catfishing impacted by salmon run?

4 Upvotes

Looking to catch some channels but curious if they’re gorged on dead salmon at this point


r/MichiganFishing • • 5d ago

Otsego Bank Fishing Spots

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6 Upvotes

Hey yall, I'm down in Otsego for the weekend, looking for some spots to bank fish on either the river or a lake. Just need a spot and I'll be a happy man!


r/MichiganFishing • • 5d ago

Can you legally keep fish from the huron river?

0 Upvotes

I'm talking about Gallup Park on the Huron River by Ann Arbor . Usually I don't see people keeping fish out of the Huron River . But over the past week I've seen three different people with buckets keeping fish at Gallup Park . Is this legal? Because it's so populated that doesn't seem very sportsmanlike. But if it's legal I guess I can complain too much either .


r/MichiganFishing • • 7d ago

A year into reintroduction, no grayling seen in Michigan wild. Hope remains

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89 Upvotes

r/MichiganFishing • • 7d ago

Why didn't you stock my lake?

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12 Upvotes