Early Summer comes to a Grinding, Screeching Halt:
We began the week with continued summer like weather and another cranking hot bite. We finished the week with a major cold front, rain, and raging winds. At the beginning of the week, we saw surface temps on the main lake as high as 75. After the wind blew 40 mph today, surface temps plummeted into the 50s. There was one report of high 40s.
The summer conditions dominated the week and the fishing was excellent. The walleyes were shallow and they were aggressive. Most of the high-volume days were the result of moving quickly with jigs in 8 – 15 ft. of water. It was an even split between 1/8 oz jigs and 1/4s. There were some walleyes caught on plastics this week, but the majority were caught on minnows. The trick was to figure out when to shift gears. There were multiple reports in the same day of guides catching fish vertically with lighter jigs while guides in other areas were floating 1/8ths behind the boat at speeds over 1 mph.
Walleye volume was excellent with guide sheets averaging 45 over 18 in. per boat per day. For the week, we caught and released 112 walleyes over 27 in., including 25 – 28s, 3 – 29s, 3 – 30s, 1 – 31, and 1 – 32.
The pike fishing was a little less predictable. The weeds are starting to grow in some areas on the main lake and some of the back bays have weeds almost to the surface. It still takes some time for the big pike to settle in, and many are still in areas that we consider transition zones. The best tactic is to fish windblown areas and cover as much water as you can. As always, spoons are fast and efficient. For the week, we caught and released 23 pike over 37 in., including 3 – 38s, 6 – 39s, 1 – 40, and 3 – 41s.
The smallmouth bass moved towards spawning areas, but only a few were on beds. All the big ones were super fat, pre-spawn females. At the peak of bass season, we catch most of our fish between 2 – 4 ft. This past week, bass were near those areas but were feeding aggressively in 4 – 8 ft. of water. I think this cold front is likely to stall the spawn by at least a week. For the week, we caught and released 33 bass over 18 in., including 5 – 20s. Plastics with 1/4s were the most effective presentation. If you didn’t get your baits into that 6 ft. zone, then you were not catching big bass.
The last few weeks of summer like weather produced a steady and predictable pattern for the walleyes. The results were excellent. As I write this report, we are in the middle of a dramatic weather change that we predict will result in a reset. Some of the traditional spring and transition spots will still produce, but I am guessing the walleyes that moved quickly out onto the main lake will not be doing the same things as they were last week. Stay tuned.
