This week saw many of our guests begin to focus on big pike. Though the weather varied throughout the week, we did not see the extremes of last week. Some rain and some sun but overall fairly stable. Regardless of the daytime weather typical cool fall nights meant lake surface temps continued to drop, and the main lake weeds are already well into their fall die off. Add some cool sunny days to that mix, and the guides here started looking for the big pike to really get going and encouraged their guests to devote more time to hunting for ‘gators’.
Our best success for pike this week came from the remaining weed patches with access to deep water. As the main lake weeds died off, the big pike concentrated in the remaining patches available, and put the fall feed bag on. Buck tails and spinnerbaits were our baits of choice in the weeds but spoons produced best for the big ones we found on rocks. For the week we caught and released 12 northerns over 37 inches including 4 over 39 inches, 3 over 40 inches, and a huge 42.75 incher.
As our guests and guides shifted their focus toward northern fishing, less time was spent searching out the next move of the walleyes. The big fish we caught kept with the trend they were following last week and stuck to the rock structures through this week too. Sand continued to produce good numbers of fish up to the 22 inch range but the guide staff dedicated their time to main lake rock structures when searching for the big ones. General production was fairly good with the average daily guide sheet totalling 30 fish over 18 inches per day, and top-end size was strong for the week. With 51 guided days this week we caught and released 24 walleye over 27 inches including four over 28 inches and three walleye over 29 inches.
A guide’s takeaway this week – looking forward to more good pike fishing next week.
Brett McCallum
At Silver Water Wheel Lodge
