Hayward Lakes update, Aug 7-9

Despite dropping water levels that show no sign of easing, continued cooler than normal water temps have kept significant numbers of gamefish in the shallow portions of Hayward Area Lakes.

I arrived in the Hayward Area on Friday night and found water temps of 67 degrees. August 7, and 67 degrees. Unbelievable.

Over two days and two nights, we found walleyes and smallies during low light periods, and abundant largemouth during the day, prowling the inside edge of well-developed cabbage beds. A sample of our catch is shown below. Casting SSR7s by night and soaking leeches under corks by day kept fish coming to the net.

Boating is getting tricky in the area. All sorts of interesting gravel beds, which are now shallow enough to be in play, will be giving the area prop shops their own version of a stimulus package. Trim up and go slow!

Great report Jason and nice pics. as well

From Jeff

Well I closed up my camper on the SE part of the flowage on the weekend of 10/3. Crappies were in very large schools with very nice fish if you find the right schools. They were running deep anywhere from 18-30ft. I used ice fishing tactics with a jigs n spin jigging spoon tipped with either a minnow head or waxies to get the larger crappies. Walleye bite was bad but on the other hand the smallmouth are absolutely going nuts. I set up on a couple of my late season walleyes spots using up what was left of the leech’s I had been nursing along and it was constant smallie action. Caught approx 20-25 smallies and 3 over the 20 inch mark.Black twister tails(Large) hooked through the tip like you would a leech worked good as well. Hook the tail through the head end using a slip bobber and and jig it back using small sharp jerks. Black with orange also worked. Hope this helps.