Good morning from the Quiet Lakes, today looks to start a little heat wave with the next three days hitting the mid to upper 80s. Tuesday and Thursday have chances of rain and temps look to remain in the 70s all week. Labor day weekend looks like it may cool down even more, but anything can happen in a week! Water temps should still be holding in the low to mid 70s as the weather has been pretty stable. This week really slowed down at the bait shop and I did not get much from anglers who got out on the water.
Musky–The musky bite has been pretty good, especially during the moon phases. Last week’s full moon had fish moving and a few anglers saw multi fish days. Bucktails and faster moving baits have been consistent in catching and raising fish. Dive and rise and pull/pause are great throwback baits and work great to throw all day as well. Fish are mostly related to weeds and edges in shallow water.
Northern pike–This report is going to sound like a broken record as far as the pike bite goes. Spinner baits, chatter baits, and topwater baits are all still catching pike. FInd a weed bed, throw one of these lures out and get ready for some action!
Walleye–The walleye bite has been up and down, both literally and figuratively. Some anglers are finding walleye off of deeper structure while others are finding them still in “shallow” weed beds. Trolling crankbaits seems to be working for deep fish, while jigging seems to be the ticket for shallower fish.
LMB–The largemouth bite has been decent and anglers are still doing well on topwater baits such as Whopper Ploppers and frogs. For suspended fish, spinnerbaits, swimbaits, plastic worms and live bait have done ok. Look for fish anywhere from 2-6 FOW and fish lily pads or any other shallow weeds.
SMB–The smallie bite has pushed deeper and anglers are doing okay fishing deep rocky points and jigging plastics. Running crawlers harnesses deep on these points can work well too. “Deep” could be anywhere from 10 -20 FOW depending on the lakes structure.
Crappie/Bluegill/Perch–Panfish are still holding tight to cover on lakes without much basin. Look for those fish anywhere from 6-10 FOW and target them with jigs and minnows. On lakes with deep basins, look for crappie suspended over deeper water and perch schooled up on rocky bottoms. Dropping jigs and minnows down to these fish can be productive too. Gills should still be in shallower water compared to the other two panfish species. Those fish can still be caught on crawlers and leaf worms under a bobber.
Greg