A Schizophrenic Week:
Pretty much across the board, every great walleye bite was dead the next day. I reviewed the guide sheets tonight and was surprised to find several days where a guide put over 60 on the page one day with a group and then barely filled the front (23) the next day. As you may have already guessed, the weather is changing and so are the walleye patterns. Overall, they moved deeper this past week. Rock was still way better than main lake sand, but most of the walleyes were caught in and around 30 ft. of water with much deeper water very close by. Main lake basin structures were key.
Guide sheets averaged 30 – 35 walleyes over 18 in. per boat per day. Again, the average does not explain the week. There were smoking hot bites and there were some absolute grinds. For the week, we caught and released 41 walleyes over 27 in., including 4 – 28s, 1 – 29, 2 – 30s, and Colin Schmitt caught a giant 31.25 in. walleye of a lifetime.
We are at that time of year when we rely on the extremes. This week, speed with big jigs and big Gulp turned about 25% of the walleyes. Live bait fished vertical with lighter jigs, ¼ oz. jigs and minnows long lined had some wins, and even drop shots were the answer when the marked fish just would not bite. If you decided to be stubborn and fish a 3/8 oz. jig with a minnow in 25 ft this week, then you got Smoked!
We had a few anglers that chose to spend some time fishing for pike last week and their results were “okay.” It was very similar to walleye effort. There were some great windows and there were some quiet spells. This is where the guide decisions pay off. We give options, but we also evaluate results on the fly. If it isn’t working, then we stop and shift gears. For the week, we caught and released 8 pike over 37 in., including 1 – 39, and 2 – 40s. Weeds and spoons next to deep water worked again. Sometimes.
The Take Away: Feast or Famine
What do you do when you return to the spot where you smashed them yesterday and now they are just gone?
This is a Lac Seul issue. There is so much food out there, that the walleyes can be anywhere. They are well fed. They do not have to eat today.
We don’t love it, but these facts are already baked into our system.
The answer is collective intel. The power of the group that wants everyone to succeed wins every time. We talk, we share, we shift, we move on, and we win. Eventually.
