Report…10/15-10/16

To sum it up in one word….TOUGH!!

Spent most the day Sunday and about 5 hours on Monday fishing the pond during the daytime hours. The very first thing I noticed was that the water had the color and clarity of chocolate milk, and the temp had dropped 10 degrees from last week. That major cold front with all those high winds last week really stirred the lake up. So my first thought was to see if I could find some cleaner water. Not much luck with that. I started out of Twin Bay and worked my way north. The water clarity on 3 Mile reef was so bad that I was in 2.4 FOW and could not see the rocks under the boat!! I knew the sunlight was shining on something, but you could not make out what it was. I looked in the deep water between 3 Mile and Lakeside Reef where I had a large school of fish sitting in 31 FOW last week and didn’t see a thing. Agate Bay reef was my next area of searching, nothing there either, off the sides, on top, or even in the rock/sand transition areas. My search took me further north to the sand areas out from Fisher’s and south towards the deep rock humps, still nothing! I then headed west and still further north and searched from Carlsona all the way to Barnacles, shallow, deep, and everywhere in between, and only saw one here, and one there. Nothing worth even trying to fish. Finally I found my only concentration of fish on a deep rock pile along the north shore west of Barnacles, and the water was still very dirty there as well. I was able to coax 2 fish off of that spot in a little over an hour and a half. One rigging with a leech, and the other jigging with a minnow. One was too big (23.5″) and the other was too small (14″).

Monday, as misserable as it was with the rain and cold, I went out again, thinking that the water might have settled some and with the dark sky the fish might be a bit more active……WRONG AGAIN! Only managed one short bite on a bobber and leech.

I guessing that it might take a few days of calm winds and stable weather for the fish to get more into the normal patterns we expect at this time of year.

In hind sight, there are 2 things I didn’t try that might make a difference. First, look at the deeper gravel humps in the SE part of the lake. A few years ago we had a similar situation, and we managed to get some fish to go off those deeper spots. My thinking is that as stirred up as the water was, they went deep and only came up as high as about 16′ when they fed. My second idea, ties into the first in some way, and that would be to try pulling cranks on boards above those deeper areas close to shoreline structure. As stirred up as the lake is, the minnows are scattered all over, and walleyes might just be on the hunt in the upper water column where the dirty water could work as their camoflage as they hunt those disoriented minnows.

Good Luck out there if you go. You couldn’t do any worse than I did, thats for sure!

Thanks for the report Jack!

Good to know the day bite is matching the night bite.

Thanks for the report Jack! I am hearing the same from quite a few sources. I watched that blow from my house for three days up there! It was amazing to see the lake that riled up!

I think this is a great example of a ‘bad’ report. I always analyze what I should have done differently when I have an off day. I love hearing what other people do to try and find fish as they go down the game plan list. Thank you Jack!

Great report! Thanks for posting it. I think you have set the format for a great report, whether the fishing was good or bad. I especially liked your last bit where you discussed what u would do in retrospect. Thank you so much!

I was on the lake on Sunday pm and night. Only got one 21 inch eye on the S shore. I think I also took it at 16 feet or deeper. Was cranking perch shad rap. Was told to fish 8-14 FOW by the locals, and thus was concentrating in those areas. But I think that day, the fish were deeper, prob around 20 FOW or more. That was my thought because as we were getting ready to go, the boat drifted out to 20 FOW and we were getting more marks in that depth range. So I guess, you are right…deeper may have been the ticket for last weekend.

Jack

The night bite on Sunday / Monday was darn slow for me as well. Monday I got out in the afternoon on a VERY dark and rainy day and caught fish until the sun set. After that the bite vanished. I’ll be interested to see how long it takes to get the bite straightened back around a bit.

Jim…where were the fish when you finally found them? What depth were they? How did you catch them?

Jim? I assume you’re talking to me?

I was fishing the NW corner. Trolling HJ’s. #10 Firetiger. 6.5 – 8 feet deep. Typically night trolling stuff just before the sun set.

I am headed back tonight thru Sunday so I am hoping things hre back to normal. Hopefully the past couple days have done the trick.

I’ve not heard of any improvement from guys that fished last night. 9 hours of trolling. 3 guys. 2 fish.

A couple – three calm sunny days with mild temps would do the trick in my opinion. These windy, dreary days put the walleyes on the feed during the day… there’s no reason to wait for sundown to gain the advantage over their prey given the poor water visibility and low light conditions that we’ve seen during the day.

I’m back “home” in EB and the last time I did fish was the night of the 7th / 8th but I was working around the place after that & I was really struck by the number of 4″ to 6″ perch around the dock and lift. Far more than I have ever seen. I think that I’ll try pulling a small floater as I leave the dock Friay night & see what happens.

Sorry, I thought that Jim is short form for James. My bad.

Quote:

---

I was really struck by the number of 4″ to 6″ perch around the dock and lift. Far more than I have ever seen. I think that I’ll try pulling a small floater as I leave the dock Friay night & see what happens.

---

Our larger walleyes, 26 inch plus, were throwing those little perch up in BIG quantities as we got them to the boat. But they weren’t the 4 – 6 inchers… nearly all of them were in the 2 – 3 inch range.

Wade and Steve had a fun time helping me pick up those little perch off the carpet of the boat the night we fished together. And we’re not talking about a couple perch per fish. Usually it was 12 – 15 or so.

I did have a few fish “up” a solitary large perch with one 29″ eye giving up a perch that was 9 – 10 inches long. And it still had enough room for a #12 HJ. Or it thought it did anyway.

I’m still shivering from being out last night. BBBBRRRRRRR!!!!!!

Trolled from 6:30 until midnight, 2 fish boated.

We did get quite a few hits though but they came off shortly after you would start reeling. The fish we did get to the boat were hooked on the outside of their mouths.

So I’m guessing the cold water has slowed their metabolism and they need to adjust or the water is stirred up and they are having a hard time zeroing in on the crankbait???

I’m hoping that the bite gets better by Friday night. I was going to go out tonight, but the thought of being in my nice warm bed tonight sounds WAY more appealing.

When we got back at midnight the harbor we launched out of was packed full of 2 inch perch. It was incredible how many there were. You could reach over the side and scoop a handful they were that thick. You’d shine a light anywhere and they would boil in huge schools. I’ve never seen so many little fish packed together like that before. I took a few pics and if they turned out ok I’ll post them tomorrow.

The “kids” have been catching “eaters” off the dock. I’ve never seen 10″ perch consistently in there. Makes me wonder….
All that forage and all those 10″ walleyes make me smile for the outlook for next couple years.
Expect a slot change though. I have it on good source that ML regs will comply w/ state regs. Specificly only 1 over 20″. You pick if it is 20″ to 22″ or > 28″.

Thanks for that post. It is nice and reasuring that I am not the only one that go’s out and doesn’t catch squat for fish. I hope it clears up for the weekend.

It’s gonna clear up for the Friday night “HOT BITE”!! The lake knows I’m comin’ up and she’s gonna let loose for the boys and I!! We’re gonna the big piggies!! I’ll report our success on Sunday night!!