Deer Lake

I was up on Deer Lake last Saturday from about 6 a.m. til Noon scoping it out for an upcoming club tournament. I threw a Mann’s Tidewater Taildragger rotating between weeds in 10 ft and also along the shore and around docks. I was getting a lot of blow-ups and landed a few, but nothing over 14 inches. Since I value my topwater, I put it away before it fell prey to a famous Deer Lake musky. I then swithed to a tube in some deeper water with sparse vegetation and managed some more under 14 inches. I found a few nice patches of coontail to throw a jig in. I did manage one scrawny 14 inch fish along with more illegals doing this. I then went around trying various depths rotating between a c-rig lizard, jig, and tube. I found fish in most depths, but not another legal. I fished a few docks, but found no legal fish. However, fishing docks on this lake can keep you entertained, if you know what I mean I worked my way back to the landing and plunked some milfoil for a few more and caught a few with a scum-frog in the slop. Again no quality fish.

In six hours I did manage 2 legal fish. 1 14 inch and one solid 4 lber. I know there are big fish in this lake, but I am bewildered as to what they are doing. Should I look for weeds in 15 ft of water and hope I stumble onto a good spot or should I plunk the coontail and sort through the dinks and hope I can at least catch a limit. Any suggestions or anyone have any prior luck on how to find quality fish after a day of dinks.

Thanks

Brad

A few years back I was fishing Muskies on Deer with a guy from work. We were in his boat, a 17 foot Monarch fiberglass rig. We were working our way down a weedline, when I noticed a good dock. I mean a REALLY good dock, like 5 or 6 of them were out there in the sun. Several of them waved at me so I tried to act cool and wave back. From the front of the boat my partner said:
“They’re waving at the boat”
“Huh?”
“They’re not waving at YOU, they’re waving at the boat”
“Oh……”

It was fun while it lasted.

I’ve has my best luck Bass fishing on Deer up in the slop. My theory is that between the Muskies and the Pike, the outside weedline is a tough neighborhood for the Bass.

Rootski