My wife and I just returned from our annual week long vacation in the Aitkin Area. The weather wasn’t great, in fact we had at least some rain every day. Water temps started in the lower 60’s and in the upper 60’s by week’s end. The lake we were on is a classic Bass/Panfish lake that get’s a lot of pressure. In spite of some stocking effords by the DNR the Walleye fishing isn’t worth the effort.
Panfish:
The Sunfish were just wrapping up their spawning efforts when the cold temps of the previous week delayed things. This resulted in a scattering of fish all over the lake. Some fish could be found along the weedlines, some were hiding in the newly emergent cabbage beds, and some were still to be found on the hard bottom areas near shore. We were able to connect with some nicer Bluegills and some very large Pumpkin Seeds. I was using my 6 weight flyrod and small nymphs. There was a large Damsell Fly hatch all week and the Sunfish were keying in on the nymphs. I started off with a bead-head pheasant tail nymph, and was astonished to see them refuse the offering. These were sunfish, not Rainbow trout on the Henry’s Fork of the Snake River! I substituted a smaller (#14) hare’s ear nymph and that was the ticket. Wednesday I had a Pumpkinseed up to the boat that might have pushed the state record but it got around a lily pad and popped my 4X tippet (about 5 pound test)! At least I got a look at him. No Crappies were caught this week by anyone fishing out of the resort we were staying at.
Bass:
Like the sunfish, the Bass were scattered in different locations. You had to “stay on your bicycle” to come up with numbers of fish. That being said, we still caught dozens of nice fish. The mid-day dock bite was a lot of fun, mainly producing 12-15 inch fish as well as some husky sized Rock Bass. The best presentation for me was a White or Oyster colored B-fish-N Paddle tail on a 3/0 Gamukatsu hook. It would fall slowly but still shake seductively when twitched. It was great fun to see the Bass come out of the shadows and deliberately eat the Paddletail. We also found some fish on jigs in the Cabbage, but this was a slow way to put numbers in the boat. The fast action was found in the heaviest weed cover: pads, junk, and reed banks. I did find some fish on buzzbaits but hands down the best presentation was a swimjig. A slow steady retrieve that let the jig make contact with the vegetation on the way back worked well, producing fish as big as 20 inches. I also spent the prime hours of morning and evening with the flyrod and enjoyed catching some nice fish on topwaters.
Walleyes:
We spent last Friday on Farm Island Lake. We found Walleyes on mid lake humps in 17-20 feet of water. They seemed to like crawlers better than leeches and they also were hanging higher up off the bottom. When we went to 8 foot snells the action picked up noticably. My wife had the hot hand catching the most and the biggest fish.
Flyfishing Notes:
This was a landmark week for my wife. She started learning how to cast this spring and last week she caught her first fish on the long rod. She landed several nice Bluegills, a few Rock Bass, and a Largemouth on poppers.
I can’t believe it’s over already and tomorrow I’m back to work. And back to Pool 2 
Rootski
