Good morning from the Quiet Lakes, another warm week of weather on tap with temps right around 80 until next weekend. Slightly cooler today (75) with a chance of rain this afternoon. Almost zero chance of precipitation after today’s rain so it should be a nice week. Water temps have stayed right around the 70 degree mark and will probably continue through this week. Fishing has been pretty good with the consistent weather for most species.
Musky–Anglers are still seeing fish on faster moving baits such as bucktails and topwaters. That trend should continue this coming week with the warm weather, and fish should still be relatively shallow in and around weed beds. Good throw back baits on raised fish would be Suicks, Bulldawgs, and gliders such as Warlocks.
Northern pike–Pike have still been active and hitting most everything. Anglers are finding them in and around weeds on all sorts of baits. Spinner baits, chatter baits and even smaller baits such as crappie minnows are all working to catch fish.
Walleye–Walleye have been elusive lately as I have just not heard much on a walleye bite. Time of year and weather would say walleye should be in deep water on rocks or bottom transitions from hard to soft bottom. Jigs and minnows or walleye suckers anywhere from 12-20 FOW may find fish. Trolling deep crankbaits or using bottom bouncers with crawler harnesses could work well too.
LMB–The topwater bite should get good again for largemouth with warm weather and warm water temps for this time of year. Whopper Ploppers, frogs and buzzbaits would be good lures to throw. Spinnerbaits and skirted jigs should work well to find suspended fish.
SMB–I have not been hearing much on a smallie bite right now either. My guess is you will find smallies mixed in with walleye on deep rocks or deep bottom transitions.
Crappie–The crappie bite has been great with anglers finding them all over the water column depending on the lake. Shallow weed beds have been good on lakes with a typical weed bite and crappie have been schooled up deep on lakes with a deep basin. Most fish have been caught on jigs and minnows (either crappie or fathead) in both situations.
Bluegill/Perch–Bluegill and perch have still been caught in shallower weed beds mostly on crawlers and leaf worms.
For those curious about a hunting report, I did get some reports of some nice bear being harvested in the past couple of weeks so the woods have been good. The archery season starts today and I have a few nice deer on my trail cams I am going to target this year! Might be a little warm yet to target them but good to know they are around! Have a great weekend and we will talk soon.
Greg