Thursday- Got on the lake at 2 pm. We fished the Tamarack area in 7-9 feet. We jigged very slowly and caught a lot of 12-14 inch fish. We also caught some nice 17-21 inch fish in 6-7 feet. Green and chart. were the hot colors. From 5-9pm we hit the north end shoreline. We fished just West of the Gap. Most of our fish came from 8-10 feet of water. Most of the fish were again in that 8-10 foot range. From 8-9 pm the bite was fast and furious. We had numerous triples in the boat…AWESOME. A little faster speed and a horizontal jigging motion seemed to work the best. Another boat in our group did very well in the same area, but in 12-14 ft. They caught more fish in the 17”+ range.
Friday- 10am to 2pm were very slow. We tried the shoreline east of the gap with limited success. Usually this area produces much better at night. 5-9pm was another successful night. We fished the same area as the night before. We found most of our fish in 6-10 feet. Slow horizontal jigging worked the best. The key to catching fish in this area was to find small patches of new weed growth. Blue, chart., and white were all very good colors. Usually all we used were 1/8oz. jigs, but the 1/4oz. seemed to work better on friday night. Many fish in the 12-14 inch range, but we did catch about a dozen fish over 17 inches.
Saturday- We caught one fish after another. We started the day at 11 am at an area we were told is called the bushy tree. Our first drift produced 6 walleyes and many more misses in 10 feet. The wind picked up and the walleyes shut down. We did catch some more walleyes in 7 feet after the wind picked up. There were more fish in the 15-17 inch range. We ended the day just north of Ravens Point. The first thing we noticed was a little warmer water. The fish were jumping in the boat. Red, chart., white, and green all put big numbers in the boat. The key depth was the 6-9 foot break. Fishing the 9 foot+ produced some action, but most were shallower. At about 5, the wind picked up and the walleyes went suicidal. They started hammering our jigs and hooking themselves before we set the hook. We found some very nice fish in as shallow as 4 ft. We caught 20 fish in the 16-22 inch range in just an hour. Finally, we ran out of minnows and that meant that fishing was over and the bumpy ride home began. I put on a 4” ringworm for one drift and I did catch a nice perch. The pictures are from Saturday.
Good luck fishing and I am sure things will only get better as the shiners move shallow. We tried seining a couple times and we did not do too well.