Fishing Report -- posted on Thursday, July 2 2009

The hot weather of last week has been blown away on gusty winds and cool temperatures of last weekend and the early part of this week. Fishing, which was pretty good at that time, took a real shot and has not yet recovered. Snappy winds kept anglers off the lakes or fighting to hold boats in position and the fish were not very cooperative. The best we can hope for is a gradual warming trend and more stable weather that may bring fishing back in time for the 4th of July weekend.

When the fish start to bite again we think we will find most of them in slightly deeper water than 10 days ago, when it was last good. Then the bluegills were still in the shallows and muskies had moved in after them. That period is past. Muskies should be in deeper water off the drop-off on most lakes. This will vary with water temperatures. It is cooler now than a week ago and it all depends on how fast water temperature comes back up to seasonal norms. We would suggest using mid-depth crankbaits and bucktail spinners during the day and toss some larger surface lures later in the day when it is less windy.

Walleyes should be in deeper water near weed beds. This is the time of the year when crawlers and/or leeches will usually outperform minnows so look to make that adjustment in bait. Evenings are best unless we get some good cloud cover during the day. Walleyes have been slow going into the cold weather of this week. We do not expect them to come back like before, but they should be feeding consistently. One factor throwing fishing success off has been the mayfly hatch, which brings large amounts of natural food into the cycle. Walleyes often gorge on mayfly nymphs and ignore all else.

Bass fishing will improve this week. Largemouth should be responding to surface lures in evening and now is a good time to find a weedless frog imitation and throw it into weedy cover. That and some active surface lures will usually produce largemouth in early July.

Smallies are in deeper water. Look for fish cribs and rocky areas in deeper water. Deep running crankbaits and minnow imitations will put smallies in the boat.

All this will hinge on weather. The long-range forecast is for warmer, more stable weather into the weekend and that should mean improved fishing success.