Well, that was a fast turnaround, from cold and freezing to temps in the 80s and nearly 90! The high heat warmed our lakes very quickly which caused an almost immediate change in fish behavior. Walleye transitioned from mostly shallowandaminnowbitetoaleechbite for the most part. They have moved off the shallows and anglers are reporting finding them suspended over structure at about 12-14 feet in the evenings. Jigging a leech or crawler on a ¼ oz jig, (whites, pinks and blues seem to be getting the job done best), or on a marabou jig will likely produce your best results. You can also try trolling a leech or crawler-tipped spinner over the same structure. Again, the onset of evening or very early mornings are going to be your golden hours. Look for humps or sunken islands, points, sudden drops and main lake breaks.
The bass, both large and smallmouth, are still shallow. I, along with other anglers, have been catching them in as shallow as two feet of water on sandy or rocky weed flats. They are now actively taking top water presentations like Whopper Ploppers, Live Target Frog and Dragon Fly or the new Rapala Claptail. Soft plastics like Mr. Twisters, paddle tails and Whacky or Ned Rigged plastics hopped along the bottom have also been producing very well. Northern pike have been all over theboardandaggressively hitting most anything, even when you don’t want them to. The smaller pike are still pretty shallow with the larger fish out slightly deeper in tall cabbage. Look for the bigger pike in 8-12 feet of water, suspended off the bottom. For live bait, simply a large minnow suspended under abobber is going to be the easiest. For artificial, any bright spoon or action-filled crank bait will prove effective.
Lake trout are deeper now with the rapidly warming water temps. Start your search around 30-40 feet. Large bucktail or tube jigs, tipped with a frozen smelt, vertically jigged, are an easy approach. You can also try a large Dr. Spoon, (copper, gold or silver), tipped with smelt or even jigged bare to produce some nice fish. For trolling, large, deep diving Salmos, Reef Runners, or Rapala Deep Tail Dancers should be your go-to lures.
