Conducted an open water trolling clinic on Sat and caught 13 walleyes and a 36 inch pike out in the open basin. Water temp was only 60 degrees and it didn’t move all day. Fish were relatively deep which probably means they were most likely feeding on more perch then tullibees. The tullibees were scattered all over the place and we could not find large schools where they usually congregate. I think the unstable weather had something to do with it combined with all the rain that kept the lake from warming up. Earlier in the day you couldn’t even tell which way the wind was blowing because the waves were coming from every direction. Unstable weather scatters the smaller baitfish and the zooplankton they feed on causing a domino effect.
Deep Tail Dancers – clown flash was the best color, trolled on braid with planer boards – 140 feet back.
After the trolling clinic, a couple of buddies hopped in my boat and we decided to troll cranks in the shallows. Conditions were not ideal as we fished in 3 footers and dense fog. It was so thick, my gps would lose a signal. We battled the conditions and ended up catching 39 more walleyes before we were chased off by t-storms. We targeted depths of 13-15 feet and looked for break lines that had some vegetation growing. It was non stop action and it got to a point we only fished with two lines even though we had 3 guys in the boat.
Soon the air temps will push the water temps up and more walleyes will be moving out to their summer locations. The open water trolling bite should be in full swing in a couple of weeks.