Department of Natural Resources biologist Steve Sendek -- an avid winter angler himself -- said the standard winter walleye fishing tactic here is to find and work the weedbed edges, especially where big cabbage beds give way to open waters about 10 feet deep.

That's the hot zone as day gives way to dark, or vice versa. Not ready to give up when the sun goes down? "Sometimes, after dark, they come up onto sandy flats in about 5 feet of water," Sendek said.

Tip-ups are the most common walleye tool on Houghton Lake, especially smooth-releasing "boards" spooled with light line and baited with a gray shiner. You can hedge your bet, though, by setting one tip-up and jigging a light spoon. Sendek likes small Mepps Cyclops, Williams Wobblers and Doctor spoons -- lighter lures that flutter instead of dart -- tipped with all or part of an emerald shiner.

Houghton Lake has more surface area than any other Michigan lake, but it has more access points than most lakes, too, with a DNR site on each of the four sides of the lake, plus other drive-on points at road ends. Most years, some shuttle services carry anglers to rental shanties and other fishing spots. Any place on the lake can have its good walleye day, so check with local bait shops for the latest reports.

For local information, check out the Houghton Lake Area Tourism and Convention Bureau's Web site at www.visithoughtonlake.com.

LAKE ST. HELEN
Like a middle child in a family or the girl next door at prom time, Lake St. Helen sometimes gets overlooked in all the fuss over nearby Higgins Lake and Houghton Lake. But this medium-large shallow source of the Au Sable River's South Branch has a secret: some mighty fine winter walleye fishing.

Much of the walleye fishing is in the eastern of the three-section lake, which is great, because you can hop out of your vehicle at the DNR access site in town, trudge onto the lake and be walleye fishing in minutes.

Sendek calls Lake St. Helen "a sleeper." He added, "Our plants have been catching on and are finally producing some fish -- some nice-sized fish -- in 8 to 12 feet of water."

The standard approaches -- jigging spoons or shiner-baited tip-ups -- work here, of course. But here's a Sendek twist: "I like to find some large flathead minnows, and fish them after dark, higher off the bottom than I would usually fish." Flatheads, he said, "are constant swimmers, like leeches in the summer."

That makes a tip-up rig, which is usually a stationary presentation, an active one while you can sit a snowball's throw away and watch for the twinkle of a clip-on nightlight that tells you it's walleye time.

For more information, contact the Houghton Lake Area Tourism and Convention Bureau at their Web site, www.visithoughtonlake.com.

BURT LAKE
This large northern Lower Michigan lake -- our state's fourth-largest by surface area -- was a walleye winner long before plants created or restored other fisheries elsewhere throughout the state. And biologists say that Burt remains one of our better walleye lakes.

Burt Lake produces its own walleyes. The DNR hasn't had to stock any walleyes for a decade or so. Just-legal 15-inchers make up most of the catch, but plenty of them are caught each winter.