Good morning from the Quiet Lakes, the weather looks to be all over the place this week, with highs today topping out around 80 and some scattered T-storms in the mix. Pleasant Sunday at 70 but a big cool down by the end of the week with highs in the upper 50s and lows in the upper 30s. Rain also looks to hamper any outdoor activities as Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday all show at least 60-90% chances of rain. Memorial weekend looks decent with temps in the mid 60s and less than a 50% chance of rain next Saturday, but that is a little far out to make an accurate guess. Fishing has been pretty solid overall so let’s jump in:
Musky–Musky opener is next Saturday, but some inadvertent catches from other anglers are showing Musky are relating to mostly shallow weed bed/flat areas and actively biting smaller baits. Yesterday I watched an angler on the chip have a big fish escort his crappie all the way to the boat for him. That was right off of a bog so pretty shallow water and on the smaller size for bait.
Northern pike–Pike have also been in and around shallow weeds and are eating just about everything. Anglers are catching them on all sorts of live bait from nightcrawlers to walleye/northern suckers and on smaller baits such as Rapalas and Beetle spins.
Walleye–The walleye bite has been a little bit tougher than the rest. I have heard reports from last weekend until yesterday of anglers finding walleye pretty deep. Deep is relative as it relates to lakes, but it sounds like fish are relating to structure adjacent to basins. Look for deep points, mid lake structure that has deep water around it and deep weed edges in bays. Live bait such as suckers and leeches are working as well as deep running crank baits.
LMB–The largemouth bite has seemed to taper off a little bit and a few anglers have seen them up on beds already. Sight fishing largemouth on beds is a blast and using drop shot worms or wacky rigged worms is a great way to target them. Simply find some beds, look for fish protecting them and drop either style in front of them and most likely you will get a strike!
SMB–I apologize but I do not have much of a report on smallies right now. They really aren’t being targeted and I haven’t heard many anglers catching them while fishing other species. I would think they would be in close proximity to walleye right now on deeper structures that have rock to sand transitions.
Crappie/Bluegill/Perch–Anglers are doing very well panfishing right now for all species, and in most lakes fish are shallow. Look for fish in 2-6 FOW and I would start with live bait. Crawlers and crappie minnows are hot right now and fish are hungry! Artificial bait such as Gulp! minnows on the same set ups as live bait can be excellent right now too. Other options include small beetle spins, small mimic minnows, and even small Rapalas will work.
That is all I have for this week. We will be out at the Lake Chippewa Campground helping with Fishing Has No Boundaries so stop out and say hi at this great event! Have a great weekend and we will talk soon.
Greg