Walleyes – Main Lake Basins
We spent most of our time chasing walleyes in the main lake basins this past week and overall, the results were very good. You know what I am going to write, it was all dependent on the weather. I will add some details later on in the report, but results were way better when we had wind. And I mean any wind. We had a few flat calm afternoons that were tough bites, but they were balanced out by some knockout mornings when the wind was blowing.
The takeaway from this week’s nightly guide round table meetings was that versatility was the key. I almost never heard a daily guide report of a single depth, pattern, or spot that made the day. It was much more common to hear reports that mentioned big gulp at speed for 20, then vertical with minnows on the next spot for 12, and then long lining quarters and minnows for 10 on the sheet. Mixed in between were 4 spots that were a blank. The patterns and details changed daily and every successful guide changed with them.
Both rock and sand in the main lake basins held walleyes this week. The walleyes on sand responded better to plastics and big jigs pulled at speed. The walleyes on complex rock structures required more slow and vertical live bait presentations. For the week, we caught and released 38 walleyes over 27 in., including 10 – 28s, and 2 – 29s. The number of walleyes boated per day was directly correlated to wind. We averaged 40 walleyes over 18 in. per boat per day.
The key depth range for the week was 17 – 25 ft. At this time of year, it is not uncommon for us to be fishing 15 – 35 ft. and we did check it all. But if I had to guess, I would tell you that 90% of our walleyes were caught within the narrower range this week and many were found where the rock meets the sand.
We did have a few anglers put some serious effort into chasing pike this week. The results were – Okay. We found action and volume in the weed beds near the main lake basin, but there were quite a few days with limited results. For the week, we caught and released 9 over 37 in., including 2 – 38s, 4 – 39s, and 1 – 40. You won’t be surprised to hear that big spoons were the top producer.
Most of you read this report for the meat and potatoes. And now that I have given them, I can tell you that it was an Awesome week. It was year 20 for the Willmott group and me, Darryl Benham from the Eagan group celebrated his 60th birthday, the Lagus group of fathers/sons/ friends were here as well as two other groups of fathers/sons…. The stories, the memories, the loved ones that are no longer with us, the fun, and the big fish caught and released… We are fortunate to welcome so many groups this week and throughout the season that return year after year to fish with us. We also had two of our long-time staff members, Orrin and Raelene here to visit with their 6-month-old son Sawyer. For Missy and me, it was a joy to see people that we care about become great young parents.
It is more than fishing up here, it is family.
