Fishing Report

Good morning from the Quiet Lakes, some much needed rain has fallen since yesterday afternoon, with wet conditions continuing on and off through Tuesday. Tomorrow we see a dip in temps down to the 40s but the rest of the week and opening weekend look to be nice with temps in the 50s and 60s. As of the forecast now, it’s going to be dry for the opener, but that is a little far out for an accurate weather forecast in my opinion!

The crappie and panfish bite has been heating up from what I am gathering from anglers in the area. Crappie seem to be up shallow on top of weed beds and eating everything thrown at them. Anglers have said crawlers, crappie minnows, and leeches (yes we have panfish leeches in stock already! ). Work these baits under a bobber on a small jig hook or plain hook. Anglers have found perch a little deeper in 8-10 FOW using the same set ups.

Only one week until opener and everything seems to be shaping up nicely for anglers. Moose lake is at full pool and the Chip is somehow coming up also, most of the other lakes in the area have good water levels so anglers should have no issues getting to their favorite spots. I am also hearing early reports from the fisheries guys that the lakes they have sampled so far are returning great results, with great numbers of all species of fish in both size and quantity. If you haven’t been through your boats yet, now is the time to do it! Make sure batteries are charged, plugs are in good shape, lights/electronics are working properly and the motor starts and is running smoothly. Nothing worse than figuring that out in the middle of the lake…….. I’ve been there…..twice! But those are stories for another time. Have a great weekend everyone!

Greg

Good afternoon from the Quiet Lakes, I apologize for the later report. We have company in town and it slipped my mind to get you the report this morning. A slight cool down this weekend and then temps warm up and look to stay there for a while. I am seeing pretty decent chances of rain early this week and then again next weekend. We still need as much rain as we can get to help keep the lakes in decent shape for the fishing opener. It sounds like Moose Lake and the Chip are really the two main concerns at this point, all of the other lakes in the area are at good water levels.

A few anglers have been in the bait shop and doing okay finding fish. It sounds like the crappie were up shallow on the lake they were fishing and they found perch slightly deeper. They also reported to see some weeds growing as well. The crappie and perch were all caught on nightcrawlers (which is somewhat odd for this time of year) which tells me fish are active and hungry. A simple little spinner blade jig under a slip bobber is how they were catching fish.

Only two weeks left to get the boats ready and the chores done before we get to the fishing opener! Turkey seasons are also underway and while I have seen a lot around I have not heard of any successful hunts as of yet. I will be trying to fill my tag starting May 1st. Good luck to all who have tags for this year!!

That is about all I have for this week, still not many anglers out quite yet but that should change with the warmer weather we have coming this week. Have a great weekend and we will talk soon!

Greg