Good morning, we had a nasty storm bring a color of sky I have never seen on Thursday evening. It was an eerie shade of green and it brought the hammer down around here. Not a ton of damage from what I am hearing but a few trees down across upper A and about 3-3/12″ to the immediate area here. Reports of a tornado about 9 miles north in Seeley. While we did need the rain, 3″ in 45 minutes is a little much!! The rain should help the lakes out both by cooling them down (they were right around 80 degrees) and get the water level up some (they are down about 18″). I have heard they did drop to about 75 degrees yesterday so that is a good sign for fishing. This next week looks fantastic with temps in the upper 70s, low 80s and very little chance of rain until next Sunday. Enough playing weatherman, here’s the report!
Musky–The musky bite has continued to be good despite the weather. Fish still seem to be favoring smaller baits and most are relating to shallow weeds. Some nice fish have been taken on topwater baits as well, so again I would start shallow and work weeds/rocks/timber types of structure for targeting musky.
Northern pike–The pike bite has seemed to have tapered off a bit recently. I think some fish are still being caught, but not the numbers or sizes like earlier in the year. Look for fish in and around weeds in bays or weedy shorelines and use baits such as spinnerbaits, small bucktails, and any kind of crankbait right now.
Walleye–A few anglers are finding some ‘eyes but they are scattered and take some patience. On the lakes around here, most anglers are still using live bait (leeches, suckers) to catch fish. Look for where deep weeds transition off into the basin and get baits close to the bottom.
LMB–Lots of anglers have been doing well for largemouth on all sorts of topwater baits. Whopper ploppers seem to really be hot right now as are frogs and buzzbaits for a topwater bite. Spinnerbaits and live bait such as crawlers are still catching fish that are suspended in deeper water.
SMB–Deep running cranks seem to be working for smallies right now, look for fish on deep rocky points or hard to soft bottom transitions. Leeches were working for a while but I haven’t heard much on that lately. Deep is relative so on some lakes that may be in the 12-15 FOW range and others could be in the 18-22 FOW range.
Crappie–I am hearing of two different crappie bites right now. Some anglers are doing well in the cabbage with small jig/spinner combos (think beetle spins) just cast out and retrieved while other anglers are finding suspended fish out over the basins. In the basin scenario anglers were doing well on hooks/jigs rigged under a bobber and tipped with a crappie minnow.
Bluegill/perch–Nothing to really report on the panfish bite. Lots of anglers have been buying leaf worms and crawlers so that should tell you everything you need to know! Plain hooks under a bobber, a split shot and a chunk of worm getting it done!
Have a great weekend and we will talk soon!
Greg