Who's Been Out?

I’m still stuck at home going crazy waiting for my mechanic to be done with another boat so he can fix my motor issue. Hoping by this weekend it will be done. But who has been out? What are water temps? What has been catching them?

I haven’t been out in 13 days. Basically since it’s been super hot and muggy out. I also purposely avoid the major holiday periods because of crowds.

I also had to do some minor repairs. Replaced some bunk carpet on the trailer and replaced the 2 deep cycle batteries. I’ve done both.

I intend to go tomorrow morning for a few hours if there aren’t any t storms. I expect the water temps to be VERY warm. They were in the low 70’s when I went 13 days ago. Wouldn’t surprise me if it was low 80’s now.

I’m gonna soon start fishing rivers for smallies. When the heat of summer kicks in, the bite is ferocious on rivers. And it often slows down in lakes, so the switch may be coming soon for this guy.

I’ve been out the last couple of evenings around Brainerd. Water surface temp last night was 84. Crazy. A number of the fish I caught last night, including a pike, fought very lethargically and barely flopped when handled. I’ve gotta think the warm temps had an effect on that. I’ve been catching fish on chatterbaits and wacky worms in cabbage 8-12ft, some fish on shadow shad raps. Nothing under docks, nothing on swimbait on the deeper weed edges.

I’ve been out 2 or 3 mornings each of the last 3 weeks. I’m usually out for a couple of hours. I fish from shore and the fishing has been heating up for me. I’ve been catching one or two each time, on Texas rigged senko or shim-e-stick, at floating weed edges and pockets. Most are in the 1-2 lb range but one was a 4 lb.

Bob P

I got out sunday morning for a couple hours and got on a good bite. Deep weed edges in 8-12ft on the lake I was on.
I caught bigger fish (21.5″ was the biggest) on a Texas rigged 7″ power worm. A drop shot got me more bites but mostly smaller fish. Water temp was 85°.
It was a great morning but the bite got slow by 9am.

82 degree water in Baudette… if you are around any areas of rainfall draining into lake or river right now, that water can be considerably cooler and will attract fish.

Update: I fished for 3.5 hours in the east metro this morning and it was pretty good. Caught 11 bass and 4 pike, all on moving lures along the weed line. Biggest was 19 inches, most were 14-17 inches. The water is bath tub warm, 81 degrees. And that was with a recent rain and overcast conditions.