Fishing

I haven’t been after walleye in a while but the panfish bite is very good. Water quality on the river lakes is pretty poor but the “non-flow” lakes have never looked better. The weeds are gone for the most part so fish have little room to hide other than the obvious places. Good time to get out and give it a try.

Anyone else been out?

Walleye fishing has been dead for me the past month, Bass and Northern fishing have been really good though!

Scott, any tips on the panfish bite to share? Are they up against the shorline or suspending off the drops and remaining weed clumps?

Very shallow. With most of the weeds gone right now, the fish are having to relate to shallow cover. Try 2-3 ft of water and you will find all you are looking for. The size is VERY impressive this year. I am talking Minnewaska size gills

Mykal, you should see the smallies I have been getting. Fish up to 19 inches…some of the biggest smallies I have caught in the Chain ever

Scott, any tips and where and how to catch (and, of course, release) those big smallies?

I have been working 6-10 ft of water with Plastics. Rocky areas have been best. I don’t want to give out exact locations because the other day some resorters had 3 nice ones on their stringer . I hate to see people keep those smallies, as they are just starting to really get established in the Chain.

Thanks for the tip. I agree completely on releasing smallies, and largemouth for that matter.

Any particular colors or types of plastics working better than others lately?

I wasnt aware that the chain even had any rocky structures, what lakes have that scott?

LOL, Good one. Yes, plenty of Rock in the Chain. Just look at the shorelines. The shorelines that have natural Rock are the same ones that I have been fishing.

Scott, nice report! I will have to give her a try tomorrow. As usual, the big Gils and all Smallies go back. Scott I sent you PM. Thanks.

I finally caught some Walleyes this weekend, biggest was 3 lbs trolling the current areas with shadraps. I had the biggest Pike followup ever this weekend, jigging a jumbo leetch in Horseshoe nears Krons when out of the murky water a huge pike came out of nowhere and scared the crap out of me (It had to be near 20 lbs) took my leetch and was gone…makes me feel good about the future of this fishery when I know things like that are swimming around…Hey Scott, what lure/colors were you using for the smallies, I know the places where your talking about.. Send me a private PM!

REMEMBER PEOPLE…CATCH N RELEASE!