Saginaw Bay ice fishing

Saginaw Bay is the big bay on the Lake Huron side of Michigan's Lower Peninsula, with the Thumb on its east side. Bay City sits about five miles south of the bay, roughly 111 miles or two hours from Detroit, and it's the natural base for most trips. When the bay freezes, it's one of Michigan's main winter walleye destinations.

Where people fish

The bay is big, and people fish it from all sides. On the west side, anglers head out from spots like Linwood, Bay City State Park, and Whites Beach, and farther north from the stretch between Standish and Au Gres. On the east side, the shoreline from Sebewaing up to Caseville, including Wildfowl Bay and the Finn Road area, sees a lot of perch and walleye traffic. Near Bay City, places like Vanderbilt Park and the water around Spoils Island get fished too.

The Saginaw River is part of the picture as well. In a good winter, walleye anglers fish from the river mouth upstream toward the I-675 bridge, with Veterans Memorial Park in Bay City a well-known spot.

What you're fishing for

Walleye are the main reason people come, and the bay has the most generous walleye limit in Michigan. Jumbo yellow perch are the common bonus, and northern pike and burbot show up too, burbot mostly early and late in the day.

Jigging spoons and minnow-style baits do most of the work, with some anglers deadsticking a minnow-tipped jig just off bottom. Sonar helps a lot here, both to find roaming schools and to see how fish are reacting.

When people get out depends completely on the winter. In many years the bay starts to see anglers in early to mid January, and fishing can carry on into February and March, but some winters see open water and thin spots hang around well into January. Plan around local reports, not the calendar.

Kinds of trips

Saginaw Bay is mostly a mobile fishery. Serious walleye anglers run snowmobiles, quads, or side-by-sides and haul lightweight flip-over shelters so they can move to find schools of roaming walleye. Plan on bringing your own shelter and gear unless you book a guide.

If you're new to the bay, the usual advice is to hire one. Local guides and charter captains run ice trips in winter, and they're out on the bay often enough to know how it's changing from day to day, which matters a lot here.

Licenses and rules

Anyone 17 or older needs a Michigan fishing license to fish public waters. Michigan's license year runs from March 1 through March 31 of the following year. Nonresidents can buy an annual all-species license or a daily license.

As of the current regulations, the walleye possession season is open year-round on Saginaw Bay and the Lake Huron waters around it, and the daily limit is eight walleye with a 13-inch minimum. The lower Saginaw River in Bay and Saginaw counties, from the mouth up to the West Center Street bridge, has also been open year-round for walleye since January 1, 2023. The perch limit on the bay has been 25 a day. Check the Michigan Fishing Regulations before every season.

Michigan sets removal dates for ice shanties. In recent seasons, Bay and Arenac counties have been in the northern Lower Peninsula group, with a removal deadline of midnight March 15. Other counties around the bay may fall under a different date, so check the current Fishing Guide. Shanties also have to come off as soon as the ice can't hold them, no matter the date. After the deadline you can still use a shanty if you take it off the ice at the end of each day. Michigan also requires identification on shanties, and the Fishing Guide spells out what's accepted.

Before you go

Saginaw Bay is known for ice breaking off and drifting. Wind pushes sheets of ice together into pressure ridges, and it can also open cracks that cut anglers off from shore. In February 2023, the Coast Guard rescued 14 people from an ice floe in east Saginaw Bay in an operation that took about three hours.

• Talk to a guide or local bait shop before you go out, and stay in touch with conditions through the day.
• Watch the wind and temperature forecast. If temperatures are rising or wind is shifting, reconsider going out at all.
• Use great caution around pressure ridges, and avoid gray or dark-looking ice.
• Carry a spud to check ice as you go, wear bright colors, and make a plan so someone knows where you are.
• Don't use the weather as a stand-in for ice conditions. Cold days don't make the bay good.
• Check the current walleye and perch rules and your county's shanty date before you set up.