Daylight fishing is better in deeper water, probably because this lake's water is quite clear and weedbeds are scarce. At night, you can find fish moving into the shallows. Whatever the depth, Sendek said you'll find your best action on flats or steps. "My favorite areas are depths of 15 to 20 feet, wherever you have flats."

Slip onto the lake at Burt Lake State Park, provided there's a State Park entry sticker on your windshield. Another access option is the Maple Bay State Forest Campground on the west shore at about midlake.

SANFORD & WIXOM LAKES
These impoundments of the Tittabawassee River -- Sanford Lake beginning at the tailwaters of the Wixom Dam -- are productive through the ice for so many species that few anglers target walleyes on them. These reservoirs are full of northern pike, crappies and bluegills. But those who do seek walleyes often return with happy smiles, because populations are strong and building.

Now, you'll hear locals grumble that Sanford Lake isn't nearly as good as it used to be for most species. They may have a point, but they're either keeping it secret or don't know that walleyes are plentiful here. The good walleye fishing on Wixom Lake is better known. Part of that is because walleyes are planted in these lakes as well as upstream lakes. But also, resident walleyes seem to be producing more of their kind.

Most of the 'eyes caught on these lakes wave tip-up flags. It's unclear whether that's the top method because walleyes fall for it most easily, or because that's just what most anglers use. Either way, you can't go wrong with a 3-inch blue or grey shiner offered on a light line or leader and suspended beneath a hair-trigger tip-up. The river channels meander through the impoundments, and the best fishing comes where walleyes can move between deep channels and weed-rich shelves, often in 6 to 10 feet of water.

Since the channels still have river currents, extra attention to safety is needed on these and all impoundments. A change in flow through the lake can render safe ice treacherous in less than a day.

If you don't nervously and carefully check your tip-up from time to time to make sure your minnow hasn't swum into some weeds, you're either fishing in the wrong spot because it's too far from weeds, or you're willing to find at the end of the fishing session that you were out of contention all along.

Productive fishing here comes in a short window. The most serious walleye anglers set their tip-ups an hour before sunset and count on most of their action coming between sunset and darkness, so a lighted strike indicator is needed to learn of bites.

Access? It's tougher on Sanford than on Wixom. Sanford Lake's only public access site is the Sanford Lake Park operated by Midland County near the dam site, and it gives safe access to the basin only at that end of the lake. Otherwise, you'll have to seek permission from area property owners. The DNR operates a public access site on the Tobacco River arm of Wixom Lake, and it's a short hop from there to the Tobacco spillway where walleye anglers gather. To explore the Tittabawassee arm of the lake, get upriver at the snowmobile race site at Albright Shores just off Estey Road.