The fish are settling into their normal summer patterns. Walleye are 8-12 feet in most cases but may be found slightly deeper. For a live bait presentation, leeches with a bright colored spinner or on a jig are the best bet. For artificial bait connoisseurs, Deep Hit Sticks, Flicker Shads, Reef Runners and swimbaits all trolled slow over classic walleye structure, rock outcroppings, humps, points and steep drops.
Bass, both large and smallmouth, are exploding on topwater presentations right now. Look for them to be shallow and aggressive. Whopper Plopper’s, Live Target Frog or Dragon Fly topwater crankbaits have been doing extremely well. Also producing quite well are soft plastics, Ned, Texas and Whackey Rigged.
Pike are shallow, feeding on the panfish that are up on their beds. Search shallow weedy bays or shorelines. A large flashy spoon, large swimbait or buzz-bait retrieved through shallow, 3-5 feet, weed cover or a large sucker minnow under a slip bobber is sure to yield some large, hungry pike.
Panfish, we stated above, are on their beds and shallow in heavy cabbage cover. Brightly colored Beetlespin’s, crappie minnow, leeches and night crawlers have been doing the best as of late.
Lake trout are deep. Deep diving Salmo’s, Reef Runner or spoons trolled at 40+ feet will be very effective. Alternatively, a frozen smelt jigged on a large white and red tube jig is a solid option.
