More Great Bassin’, Higher water, and Walleyes in transition:
Overall, it was a week marked by unstable weather but trending toward more summer like conditions. We had 1 full day that all boats spent more time on a beach than on the lake because of thunderstorms. We had wind, flat calm hot sun, and Wed. morning felt like an early Sept. fishing day. Even with the instability, the overall bite was good with some days better than others.
The biggest surprise to most of our long term guests is how high the water levels are. I don’t know If I have ever fished the lake when it has been this high. Shore lunch beaches are more than scarce. We now have to plan lunch spots off the dock in the morning, because if one is full, you may be traveling 20 minutes to get to another.
We didn’t put quite as much effort into bass fishing this week, but the results were still excellent. For the week, we had 109 bass over 17 in., including 24 – 18s, 4 – 19s, and 1 -20. Top water was often much more productive than standard presentations, although some groups did very well fishing light jigs and tiny plastics.
The walleye bite bounced back and forth between shallow water weeds, transition spots, and deeper water summer spots. As usual, some of the biggest fish were the first to move onto deeper water summer spots. Walleyes were caught between 5 – 35 ft. on the same day this week, yet there was still no pitch bite for super shallow water fish. Jigs in 1/4 – 3/8 oz. tipped with minnows accounted for most walleyes this week.
Overall, walleye volume was good this week, but not as good as last year. It is human nature and we can’t help it. If last year was great, we never hope that this year will be half as good or normal, we hope that it will be better. Daily guide sheets averaged 35 walleyes over 18 in. per boat and the highest daily total was 98. For the week we had 31 walleyes over 27 including 8 – 28s, and 1 – 29. It was a good week, but results came in streaks. On a day that switched from breezy and overcast in the morning to flat calm and sunny in the afternoon, most guides shifted gears and went bass fishing.
A few groups spent time on pike this week with poor results. The only 40 inch pike of the week was caught off the dock.
As always, the weather will determine which way the bite trends this coming week and I don’t have the confidence in the forecast to predict the pattern. I plan to systematically check the weed bite, sand and rock transition spots, and also push it out onto the main lake summer spots in deeper water in search of bigger fish. I’ll keep you posted on how we do.
