I usually reread the previous week’s report before I begin the current one. With the busy summer, it does become a bit of a blur, but I honestly forgot how cool it was last week. It was anything but cool this week. It started warm and ended blazing hot with no wind.
It wasn’t hot enough to move the walleyes super shallow, but it was enough to change the bite. The young of the year perch are now about an inch in length and the clouds of bait are often 5 – 15 ft. thick in many of our best spots. The good news is that the walleyes are well fed. The bad news is that the walleyes are well fed, and when the weather is not in your favor, it is tough to get them to bite. A late afternoon with a high of 90 degrees and zero wind is just such a condition when the weather is not in your favor and that is how we ended the week.
Overall, it was still a good week for walleye fishing. We caught and released 45 walleyes over 27 in., including 6 – 28s, and 2 – 29s. Volume was good with the average guide sheet reporting 45 walleyes over 18 in. per boat per day.
Main lake sand in 20 – 35 ft. was the best, but rock on the main lake was also good at times. You really had to fish it all to find a pattern. Gulp worked occasionally, but live bait, dead sticking over arcs with 1/8 oz. jigs was the overall most productive pattern for the week.
The heat helped the pike bite. We didn’t have many groups targeting pike this week, but the ones that did had good results. There was not only action for smaller fish, but the big ones were back in the weed beds and biting. For the week, we caught and released 9 over 37 in., including 2 – 39s, 2 – 40s, 1 – 41, and 1 – 42.
The Take away: If you are a lodge owner and a guide, don’t write the fishing report at 10 p.m. on a 90 degree day with no wind when you got smoked. (It was still a good week, but I can’t help but take each day personally!)
