red89:
I would fish either lake that you feel more familiar with, sounding like LCO. Water temps on our larger lakes in the Minocqua area crept in the low fifty’s in the past two days.
If I were targeting ‘eyes, try to find out which shorelines they were spawning on or still in the last week. If no one will tell you then its time for a boat ride with a good map. You need to find the gravelly rock shorelines starting on the north side of the lake first. At least right now, most of our daytime fish have been coming from 12-20 with fish moving up in to 5-10 feet just before dark. If your fish are still spawning, it seems like once you get to dark dark, the fishing/biting ends. I say that because most boats start to leave the lake and are off by the time I get back. What am I doing??? I am confirming with a spot light where those ‘eyes are… so that tomorrow night I am in a better spot, if I haven’t already found it!!!
As for bass, I know there is becoming a bigger following of prespawn fish and have heard of some guys finding fish in north side bays over here during the opening weekend. These fish if you can find them are going to be some of the biggest fish in the system!!! One of the guys I work with told me his son got a prespawn smallie at 24″ opening weekend!!! If healthy, that fish could have weighed 8#’s…, minimum 6-7#!!! Now that’s a toad!!!
Later in the day as the water warms, I would look for cruising shallow bass and then try to catch them. Once located, you should be able to target them off the break.
Mark
