Shortly after Mark Martin reached the pinnacle of professional fishing by winning the first-ever walleye fishing world championship, the west Michigan-based angler launched a plan that would become the nation’s longest-running and most successful fishing school.
And whether you don’t know a treble hook from a jigging rap, or you consider yourself a hard-water season veteran, Martin and his team of fishing pros are ready to teach the basics — and the subtle tricks they’ve learned over the years — that can mean the difference between coming home with either dinner or an empty bucket.
They’ve been doing it now for more than three decades, most recently on Mullett Lake near Cheboygan, Houghton Lake near Prudenville, and Saginaw Bay near Bay City.
The goal, Martin says, is to let students learn another way of enjoying Michigan’s three months of snow and cold comfortably and safely. In three days, his team will set most participants on the path from never being on a frozen lake to becoming an accomplished angler.
It all began 36 years ago with Martin’s Minnesota fishing legend friends, Gary Roach and Al Lindner. Roach, who earned the nickname Mr. Walleye, holds several major fishing titles and also is an inductee in the National Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame.
“Gary asked me to be a part of the promotion for his Mr. Walleye products, and he was always doing schools and promoting ice fishing products on Lake Winnibigosh in Minnesota to get people hooked on the sport,” Martin recalls.
Photo Courtesy of Bill Semion.
Eventually, Roach and Lindner became too involved in other activities, and asked Martin to take over. He brought their ice fishing promotion to the Upper Peninsula at Escanaba’s Little Bay de Noc 36 years ago, and added his professional fishing friends as staff. The event took place on the U.P.’s biggest inland lake, Gogebic, and was a huge success.
“I did it there another time or two in the winter and (then) started bringing it down on the opposite side of the (Mackinac) bridge,” Martin says. He started with Lakes Cadillac and Mitchell in Cadillac, and Saginaw Bay. Then one of the attendees gave him an idea: Why not offer his years of knowledge and experience to the everyday angler?
Martin, a “why not?” kind of guy, latched onto the idea like a walleye hitting one of his favorite lures and ran with it. The result is his Ice Fishing Vacation School.
The classes run Sunday through midday Wednesday and include classroom time, followed by two days of on-the-ice instruction from Martin and his professional staff. If you don’t have the gear, he’ll help you buy it on a visit to a local tackle shop. Need the right clothing for the cold? He’ll tell you what you should buy. Want to include a heated shanty for a little extra rental cost? There’s that option, too.
With all of that taken care of, Martin just needed consistently safe ice that was easily accessible and close to local accommodations for student anglers. That led him to his present locations at northern Michigan’s Mullett and Houghton lakes, and what many say is the country’s best walleye water, Saginaw Bay. Classes take place during the coldest time of the year, mid-January to early February.
What will you learn? If you’re already an ice angler, it depends on you. “They may start out wanting to teach us and keep doing what they’ve always done, instead of what we ask them to try. But by about one day in, they realize that because the people doing really well in our school absorbed everything we said and set up their fishing rods the same way we had ours, they were having a better time and were more successful,” Martin says.
Each day on the ice, which begins with safe light and ends when the sun sets, all students spend time fishing with a staff member, including Martin. The instructors hop from one portable ice shanty — an insulated tent on a sled — to another.
Photo Courtesy of Mark Martin Ice Fishing School.
One of the main teaching tools is Martin’s after-dinner fishing roundtables. Students and staff explain how their day went, talk about the techniques they used — what went right, what they learned, including where the fish were and weren’t — and what lures worked best.
“That becomes a favorite part of the day for them,” Martin says. “Students want to brag to the rest, or they want to hear what the others have had success with. By the time each meal is over and the roundtable is done, we all know where and how we’d better fish tomorrow. Everyone learns faster than if you were by yourself and went to only one spot every time.”
School Tips: Ice fishing takes patience. Fish are cold-blooded, which means that in winter, they’re less active than in summer. “Bite windows,” or the times that fish go after food, are usually narrower and more infrequent. Always set up your ice fishing spot on discolored or snow-covered ice, not clear ice. Otherwise, the fish can see you.
“Not only has the school taught students a lot more confidence, it’s also taught all of us. That’s where the school shines. You’re not just getting my ideas, you’re getting them from a whole lot of other pro anglers. There’s 700 years of fishing knowledge out there on the ice with you. You learn from all the mistakes that the staff and I have made to get to the top.”
PLAN IT!
Dates in 2026 are Jan. 8-14 on Houghton Lake, Jan. 25-28 on Saginaw Bay, and Feb. 8-11 on Mullett Lake.
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