Good morning from the Quiet Lakes, the weather looks pretty good to head out into the woods this weekend with temps hovering right around 40 degrees. Snow showers Monday will give way to ice making temperatures starting Tuesday, and if the forecast holds true we will be seeing highs in the teens and lows in the single digits by next weekend!!! I know that doesn’t excite most folks, but I am ready to get on the hard water to do some fishing! Water temps have dropped significantly and the last report I got water temps were in the upper 30s. Lake levels bounced back a little bit as we had some good rains last week. We saw 1-1/4″ of rain in one day last week and we had plenty more than that off and on. I have had very few anglers in the bait shop this past week, so I really don’t have much of a report for this week.
Musky–There are a few musky anglers still hitting the water and from what I am hearing most action is on suckers if folks can find them. SLOW presentations will be key with water temps dropping into the 30s as fish are looking for larger, easier meals to bulk up before the ice sets. Look for fish on deep weed or rock edges and work through areas slowly as well.
Pike–Bigger pike should be putting the feed bag on as well, and will likely be in the same general areas as musky. They too will take advantage of bigger, slower moving baits and live bait as well.
Walleye–Eyes’ were holding in deeper water over the past couple of weeks, and that sounds to still be the case. Look for fish in 15-25 FOW and work deep rocks and weeds. Jigging with walleye suckers or bigger plastics seems to be getting the job done for walleye right now.
LMB–No report.
SMB–No report.
Crappie/Bluegill/Perch–Nothing to report on a panfish bite right now either. Crappie and perch should be pushing to deeper water and schooling up, but that is more of a guess than an actual observation.
Good luck to everyone hitting the woods in orange this weekend and we hope everyone has a wonderful holiday!!!
Greg