They’re there. In the summer you need to target the deep rocks and it’s better in early morning or late evening.
You might get a musky to latch on to one when you catch one…
what was/is the water temperature on WBL??
I have had some success early in the year on the north west side of the lake (basically just west of the Island) fishing the shoreline that loaded with sand. I have also got some nice fish on the north side just east of the launch. there is sand/rock/weed mixture here.
the lake has some nice fish but you will definatly need to work for them. Good luck and let me know how you do.
I know a few guys that do quite well early in the season, after that you really need to hit the water early in the morning to get a decent bite.
I have seen a pic of a pig that hit the tape at 21+ inches.
Good luck and let us know how you do,
Ron
Haven’t fished that lake in decades but back in the early 80’s it was your limit in tourneys was about 50/50 smallies and largies. And the average smallie was about 16 inches so I have to believe there are some real pigs in there now. But with that said…they didn’t used to have as many muskies in there either which I’m sure has hurt the population.
Thanks for all the info. I am going to go out soon & play !
Quote:
what was/is the water temperature on WBL??
I will let you know !
found spawning temps 65 right now !
dang!! thanks for getting back 
I wasn’t able to really connect on any in the shallows. A did manage a few on a spinner bait but that was it after getting frustrated on not catching any on jigs or other baits 
More or less that means they are post spawn 
Im not a real fan of fishing this time period as fishing is slow but i will get out more once temps get around that 75 degree mark for summer patterned fish 
are you sure they are post spawn or are they just staging to spawn. I started to see some beds forming in the shallows on forest, water temp was around 61. I am almost betting that they are just starting or staging to spawn.
just a thought, we connected on fish shallow and some in the 4-8 FOW range.
shane
but ive found that they start spawning/making beds at around 56 degrees….anyone else finding anything different??
the only reason that I am thinking that they are a little late on the spawn is because of the whacked out weather. I was looking shallow and didnt find any fish. I also didn’t see any males hanging out on the beds to protect them.
shane
Ive heard reports from Tonka that the water temps are very scattered. Ranging from 72-74 in some bays and low 50’s in the main lake 
Thats gotta screw a lot of things up…This spring sucked!!!
They were just starting up in a lake I was fishing near Grand Rapids this weekend, temps ranged from 55-58 degrees. Saw about 10 beds but fish weren’t on them until the afternoon and they definately weren’t locked on them yet.
I caught a 21 inch 5 pound smally on white bear lake in fall. It was a cloudy day, and i caught it in 3 feet of water on a topwater buz bait. this is only out of 3 smallies I’ve caught on white bear, so they are really scattered.
What a slaunch! Hoping to run into some in the spring. I musky fish bear a lot but have yet to run into a smallie although I did see a decent one floating last year.
Holy Smokes this post was started awhile ago! I’ll have to check it out in the Spring. Lot’s has happened on that lake since I originally posted, specifically lawsuits and plunging lake levels.
Anyone been out here recently for smallies? I marked a few rock piles last time I was out, but it was pretty packed with boaters and hard to stay on top of a few of them. Getting to mid-summer now so they should be out deep…
No smallmouth in that lake……. 
In all honesty rocks are what you want to look for. You won’t find schools of them and they are big time roamers in that lake. That’s all I’m going to give away…..Good luck!
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