It’s been a great week to be a duck, enough of the rain already! Heat, humidity, smoke and rain were the name of the game for the last week, at least until Wednesday when a cold front slid on in.
Prior to the arrival of the cold front our guides and fishermenreportedfishingsuccesswas typical of mid-summer bites. The walleye are primarily wanting crawlers and leeches for live bait options with jigs or slip bobbers working best. The fish are holdingsuspendedatabout8-18feetover rock piles and main lake breaks in 18-25 feetofwaterinmostplaces.Inafewshort weeks we should see the transition from leechesandcrawlerstolargerminnows like pike suckers and lite pike, but that won’t be until mid-August.
Bass are still happily slobbering top-water crankbaits. But they are also readily striking large minnows under a bobber fished in 6-10 feet of water suspended at about 3-4 feet. Of course, they are not going to turn their nose up to a crawler or a leech fished in the same fashion.
The small snake pike are going to be in the same areas as the bass, relatively shallow and peskily hitting whatever you are throwing for the bass. If you’re get deep. With water surface temps warmed to the mid to upper 70s, especially in those shallow bays, the big pike, who do not like the warm water, headed for the cooler thermocline of the deeper water column. Start looking in 15 to 20 feet of water and beyond. Big sucker minnows suspended just off the bottom or large spoons or deep diving hit sticks are very effective; but be patient, the big ones are not as aggressive as the little guys you find up shallow.
Lake trout have not changed in the last week, deep, deep, deep. Look for humps and rock piles that rise from the depths of 60+ feet and rise to 30-40 feet. The biggest thing is to get your bait down to them. Adownrigger or lead core line will likely be needed if your plan to troll a Deep Hit Stick, spoon or Salmo. Otherwise, jigging a large spoon, tube jig or bucktail jig is going to be the best approach.
Panfishremainintheirusualhaunts, weedybayssuspendedat8-12feet.Beetle Spins, Thumper jigs (tipped with acrappie minnow or a piece of crawler), small Fuzzy Grub Jig (tipped with same), or simply a crawler or crappie minnow under a slip bobber.
