Fishing Report

Good morning from the Quiet Lakes, chilly nights and cool days have surface water temps plummeting!  The forecast this week looks to come up a little bit and hold in the low to mid 70s, although it looks like we may see rain from Thursday through next Sunday.  According to the reports I am getting, water temps dropped from 78-79 last Saturday down to 70-72 by Thursday of this week.  With the forecast this coming week, I don’t suspect the water temps will change too much if that holds true.  The fishing has still been solid for anglers putting in the time.

Musky–The cold fronts have not really affected the musky bite.  I had a group of anglers that boated 6 fish this past week and just got info of an upper 40″ fish caught yesterday in the area.  Smaller baits up in shallower weed beds were the key to all of those catches.  

Northern Pike–Lots of pike still being caught as well, mostly on bass/musky stuff and almost all on artificial baits right now.  Spinner baits and small bucktails thrown in and around weed beds is the key to catching numbers of pike.  I am not hearing of any significant size to the pike, but the numbers are there.  

Walleye–The walleye bite has slowed down quite a bit and it seems they are not very predictable right now.  It is either that, or not as many anglers are targeting walleye because I am just not hearing much on that bite.  My guess is ‘eyes are holding tight to cover on lakes with a predominant “weed bite” or they have pushed to deeper water where rock meets sand or the deep weed edge.  Trolling or bottom bouncing can work to find fish or jigging deep water with plastics or minnows could work too.

LMB–Some largemouth are still being caught, but the weather change has definitely affected them.  Baits worked in the water column have seemed to work better than surface baits for bass lately.  If we do see some sunny days, fish may be more apt to start hitting lures up top again.  Right now spinner baits and chatter baits are good choices for largemouth as well plastic rigged worms worked down in weed beds.

SMB–Smallies are also suspended right now, but not very deep from what I am hearing.  A few have been caught on topwater baits such as Whopper Ploppers and a few this week were caught on spinner baits thrown around rocky points.  Work baits anywhere in the 6-12 FOW range.

Crappie/Bluegill/Perch–Anglers have done very well on panfish in about 6-8 FOW on small Beetle Spins and Mimic Minnows.  Simply cast and retrieve is what I was told.  Crawlers rigged under a float have also done well for anglers off of docks and in shallow water.  

Hard to believe it is August as it feels more like late September right now, but I will gladly take this over 90 degrees any day of the week.  And as long as the fishing stays good thats even better! Have a great weekend and we will talk soon!

Greg

Good morning from the Quiet Lakes, the weather last week was HOT, the upcoming week looks to have a pretty big cool down.  A big cold front Monday with lots of rain predicted.  Highs won’t make it out of the 70s according to my weather app.  That will be good news for the water temps but may hurt the fishing a bit.  We were seeing water temps mostly in the upper 70s all week.  We didn’t boat any musky but had a few follows and a big miss on a fish that came out of the water for a Suick.  All other species were cooperative for us, as we had a big fish fry for everyone last night!

Musky–Like I said above we did move a few musky but didn’t get any into the net.  We saw them on both fast and slower moving baits.  Bass sized spinner baits seemed to be the size they preferred and we also saw a couple nice fish on topwater baits and a Suick thriller.  All of the fish we saw were around shallow weed beds or points adjacent to weeds.  

Northern Pike–We caught enough pike to feed an army, I think total for the week was 24 or 25 fish.  We kept most of them aside from a few small hammer handles.  PIke were mostly caught on spinnerbaits and bucktails.  All of the pike were caught in shallow weed beds or shallow bars with weeds on top.  

Walleye–We targeted walleye a little bit and had some success on leeches jigged around rocks.  The surprise walleye catch we had was my nephew catching a nice 22″ fish on you guessed it…….a bass spinnerbait on a deeper weed edge.  Wouldn’t have been my first guess when his rod doubled over, but I was happy to get the net under it!!  Both fish we found were in about 12′ of water.

LMB–Our group got some big bass throughout the week as well, both above the 3lb mark.  One on a spinner bait and the other on a bucktail.  These big bass were also in the weed beds we were fishing for musky and pike.

SMB–We managed a few nice smallies as well as some average ones.  The average ones came on leeches jigged deep and the biggest one came on a Whopper Plopper first thing in the morning off of a rocky point that extends into deep water.

Crappie–Some of the anglers in our group found some nice sized crappie on weedy shorelines in shallow bays.  Small jig heads and plastics were all that was needed to catch them.  Cubby mini-mites and tattle tails were the best choices for baits.

Bluegill/Perch–We didn’t find many big bluegill or perch, but the kids caught a bunch off the docks around the resort.  On the boat a few were mixed in the weed beds we were fishing for crappie in.

Have a great weekend and we will talk soon.

Greg