Bass Week(!), a monster cold front, and a reality check.
I was on the beach cleaning up after shorelunch on Sunday when the front went through and it was a good one, complete with lightning, hail, torrential rain, and 60 mph winds. We had heavy rain that night and the next few mornings we started in the 40s. The surface temps on the North shore of Lac Seul dropped 12 degrees F in one day.
That was the first major front of the 2025 fishing season and it had a huge effect on all 3 species. The walleye fishing was still good after the front, but the sunny flat calm days that followed were a bit of a challenge. The front effectively scattered several populations of walleyes into different depth zones and the flat calm sunny conditions resulted in neutral to negative fish. The middle of the week was tough. At the round table, guides reported catching walleyes in 5 – 35 ft. of water, catching fish on Gulp at speed and dead sticking, and finding walleyes in the weeds and on main lake sand. They were everywhere and they were not very hungry.
Guide sheets averaged 30 walleyes over 18 in. per boat per day. The highest daily total was 72. For the week, we caught and released 52 over 27 in., including, 10 – 28s, and 6 – 29s. Plastics pulled at speed were responsible for about half of the big ones. Light jigs and minnows made up the rest of the production. The speed and depth of presentations were absolutely all over the map.
It was Bass Week and our group from Richardson, TX lit it up. They are very good bass anglers in the first place, but when the timing lines up like it did this week, it made for an excellent week of bass fishing. We have very distinct regions and areas where we target bass. Some go early and some go late. In general, the North shore is later than the south shore. The cold front absolutely slammed shut the bite on the North shore. Shorelines that were thick with bass one day were vacant the next. The only fish caught from them were one level deeper and they were clearly pre-spawn fish.
For the week we caught and released 46 bass over 19 in., including 7 – 20s. Versatility was the key. topwaters were hot for big fish in spots. Ned rigs with 3 in. TRDs or Lil Generals were always solid. Tubes ruled when you had to slow down. Texas rigged flukes were great in the weeds. I think the cold front will likely extend the bass bite on the North shore into the first week of July. I have written this many times before, but the mayfly hatch is the marker we use to predict when a bass bite is over. As of today, only 20% of our regions have seen a significant mayfly hatch.
Pike fishing was neglected this week. I don’t push to book pike anglers during transition, but we are now getting pretty close to July 1. Cabbage weeds on the main lake usually top out around the first week of July and that is the start of summer pike fishing. They are very close today. For the week, we had 3 over 37in, including 1 – 38, 1 – 40, and 1 – 42.5.
For those of you that read this report wondering what is going to happen next week…..
My answer is – Me too! Buckle up!
