The weather warmed throughout this week. We had lots of sun and calm or light winds from varying directions, and concentrations of walleye were not common. In these conditions finesse presentations were the key – that meant lots of time spent in search mode, and less time in catch mode – and the numbers reflect that. The nightly guide meeting reports had a wide variety of depths, locations, and presentations checked, but all week the fish answered only to finesse type presentations. Our best bites this week came from the guides switching their anglers to different styles of presentations rather than different depths or locations.
The walleye numbers: This week we averaged 7 boats on the water per day, for a total of 50 guided days. We boated just 9 walleyes over 27 inches, but the top end was strong with three 28 inchers, and 2 over 29 inches. Our boats averaged 29 walleyes over 18 inches per day, and the highest daily total was 110 walleyes over 18 inches in one day. Overall, the number of big fish was down, but the top end was strong.
A good part of our story this week is pike fishing. A lot of boats chose to pursue pike for at least a part of their day, and that provided us with a better idea of what the big northerns were doing throughout the week. Looking back at the daily reports the movement of the big northerns is clear. We can see from where each big fish was caught that they moved from straight rock right after last week’s weather, to completely in the weeds as the warm weather and light winds continued through the week. Spoons were the bait of choice by far. A few mid size fish were caught on spinners and blades, but spoons produced all the biggest fish.
We caught and released 10 northerns over 37 inches. We had a good top end for the pike as well, with three 40 inchers, a 41 incher, and 2 over 42 inches.
It seems numbers of bass we catch increase every year, and we often catch incidental bass of good size in the fall. It’s something the guides are keeping an eye on, and we’ve begun experimenting with a few hours of bass fishing here and there. This week we caught only a few bass, but two were over 19 inches.
