BURT LAKE
Dave Trudell has it made. During the warm-weather months, he practices his trade as golf pro at the beautiful Boyne courses. And with plenty of free time in the winter, he usually can be found practicing his other favorite pastime on the ice of one of the area lakes. Talk about the best of both worlds!

I had the good fortune of tapping into Trudell's ice-fishing knowledge last winter while attending a Michigan Outdoor Writers winter meeting. One of Trudell's favorite lakes for ice-fishing is Cheboygan County's Burt Lake. When I met Trudell, he assured me Burt Lake had been producing some excellent evening walleye action, as well as giving up some jumbo perch. He wasn't kidding.

Our group of writers and guides headed out of the public access on the west side of the lake at Maple Bay. Trudell directed us to some holes in about 30 feet of water that had produced some good walleye and perch action just the day before. We spotted a few tip-ups and Slammers as I readied my standard deep-water perch/ walleye rig. I baited them with a pair of 3-inch shiner minnows and sent them toward the bottom. I was daydreaming, enjoying the local rock station and savoring one of my favorite Nicaraguan cigars when I noticed my slip-bobber jiggle and then slowly start sinking.

"Walleye," I said to myself as I reeled up the slack and set the hook. The hookset was met with solid resistance. I gently pumped the fish up from the depths as it tugged against the drag, and when it was about 10 feet below the hole, I could make out the olive bars on the fish, its orange fins and yellow belly. As the fish neared the hole, I excitedly knelt down and scooped 14 inches of yellow perch onto the ice.

Dave quickly came over to see what all the whooping and hollering was about. It was about then that I noticed that my second bobber was gone. I scrambled for the rod and a few minutes later, a twin to the first perch was flopping on the ice. The action was not fast and furious, but a few hours later, I had 14 nice perch on the ice and only one of them was less than 10 inches. Trudell said the perch I caught were not all that uncommon on Burt Lake.

"There are a lot of really nice perch in Burt," said Trudell, "and winter is one of the best times to catch them."

Burt Lake has a bounty of forage, even though the lake has few weedbeds. The pristine water produces plenty of mayfly larva, other aquatic insects and minnows that perch and walleyes can grow fat on. At 17,260 acres, perch in Burt Lake have plenty of room to roam, and moving and cutting holes is key to finding them and staying on top of them. Prime winter locations include the mouth of Maple Bay, off Kingsley Beach, off Resort Road and on the flats west of Greenman Point.

Like most places, Burt Lake's biggest perch have an affinity for big minnows. The big shiners also appeal to the lake's walleyes.