Good morning, the colors are definitely in full swing around here and mild/warm temps are favorable for driving around or hiking to different places and looking at them! Aside from writing this while watching a lightning show and thunder/rain pouring down it looks like only a decent chance of rain on Wednesday this week with a big cold front coming in for next weekend. Water temps are still hovering right around the mid 60s mark on almost of all the local lakes from what I am hearing from anglers. The bite overall has been decent but not great, as I think these unseasonably warm temps are keeping fish from putting on the fall feed bag right now.
Musky–Anglers are doing well with the musky action lately, most fish still coming on bucktails and top waters, while a few fish are coming on musky suckers. I have had a few anglers tell me that they have seen some ‘ski’s just kind of hovering behind their suckers but not commit to eating them. Fish are still in and around shallow weeds or shallow structure right now with these warmer water temps.
Pike–The pike bite has picked up some lately and most anglers are catching them while casting musky baits. I also had one angler tell me they did catch a pretty big northern on a musky sucker, so it sounds like the pike are ready for the fall bite! As with the musky, pike are haunting shallow structure/weeds right now.
Walleye–I have not got a whole lot of info on a walleye bite right now as most anglers that have been in are chasing musky, but from what I can gather anglers are finding walleye in deeper water and jigging aggressively for them right now.
LMB–The largemouth bite has been good on live bait lately…..mostly walleye suckers and whole nightcrawlers rigged under a bobber and fished in and around weed beds. I have also had lots of anglers all year telling me they are catching nice largemouth on inline spinners such as Mepps #3, #4s and #5s.
SMB–It sounds like smallies are hanging in deep water as I have had a couple of anglers using slower presentations for walleye deep and catching smallies on those. Deep rocks are where I would look for smallmouth right now.
Crappie–At least on the lakes by me, I am hearing the crappie are still set up deep and stacked up pretty good. It sounds like 16-20 FOW is where anglers are marking lots of fish on their graphs and catching some nice crappie out of those schools. Using jigs tipped with crappie minnows or plastics to get down to them seems to be the tactic to use right now.
Perch/Bluegill–Honestly nothing to report on a panfish bite. I’m sure there are a few fish still hiding in weed beds from predators and the perch might be schooling up out in the basins but I have had no reports from anglers targeting them.
That’s all I got for this week, too warm for my liking this time of year, but it sure is pretty to look at with the colors of fall right now. Next weeks musky report may or may not have much validity as I will be participating in the 45th annual Muskies Inc. Hayward lakes chapter tournament. Have a great rest of the weekend and we will talk soon.
Greg