We are slowly approaching the ‘dog days’ of summer, if we aren’t there already. Water temps are pushing 80°, bugs are hatching, and the fishing is great.
The walleye have slowed up a bit with the bug hatches. When we have these hatches, the fish tend to scatter out. They are not isolated to certain area anymore, so its really important to cover water. Crawler harnesses have been the go to method for large amounts of daytime fish. Power bobbing (or power corking) has produced some solid fish as well. Plenty of fish out deep on the gravel and mud (24-32 FOW), but also a decent population hanging out in the rocks closer to shore (12-20 FOW).
The bass bite has been decent as well. These fish are not relating to their boulders like in years previous. It seems we are finding more and more fish out off the deeper edges of scattered rock (12-16 FOW). We are still finding some fish up shallow (5-8 FOW) on the rock flats, but they are typically smaller in size. Best baits for up shallow have been jerkbaits in a natural pattern, and the best bait for when you’re out deeper is still the ned rig in orange pumpkin. The tube jig is starting to pick up a few fish as well, but not competing with the ned rig.
The pike and musky bite has been hit or miss. A lot of fishermen have been finding pike along the weedlines in 10-14 FOW. We have reports of a good amount of musky follows but only a few have bit. Casting over the top of drop offs with rubbers or bigger bucktails as well as trolling deeper water have been the ticket.