The few and far between. That is what this report feels like. In recent years the reservoir has been an intimidating body of water, in which it still is. But, with that being said, the cards were stacked in favor of the fisherman, and we had the upper hand.
Pictured above is one of the nicer fish I caught. I am guessing that in three hours of fishing, 40-50 of these bruisers were caught. The majority of fish were in that 18-22" range, very similar to the ice bite that happened this past winter. However, there were some bigger fish caught this time!
We were concentrating our efforts in the flooded areas, that normally don’t see water at all. In effort to protect spots on the spot, I would encourage hucking a lot of baits in different areas, and watch for fish schooling on top. Also watch your graph for these large schools of fish. Depths ranged from 19′ up to 8′-
Equipment used: We were using 6’6" St. Croix Legend Tournament rods, coupled with shimano reels, and eight pound test mono filament line. Baits of choice were rattle traps, flukes, xraps, or even tubes. We are always hearing "match the hatch" or match the forage base. So we stuck with colors that were white in order to mirror the main forage base in the res, which is a gigantic shad population. Some of the bruiser fish 27"+ definitely put our rods and reels to the test. I have faught/caught many big bass in my short lifetime, all of which fail in comparison to fighting these fish. Pound for pound they put even upper miss smallmouth to shame. They will never give up, even after you lip them.
I am so thankful that Sarah was able to get out and share the boat with me. There is nothing like hearing a loved one, or a little kid express their enjoyment of fishing when something is pulling on the other end. I’ll bet she will out fish me next time!
These fish are so much fun, and in my strong opinion, a catch and release fish only. Please release these fish for the future enjoyment of future generations.
Good Luck, stay safe, and we’ll see you on the water!
Luke, it looks like you found the fish before I did. Nice catch. We were catching a few below the dam on Saturday night on jigs and ringies. Those things are brutes!!
Awesome fish Luke!
Awesome sounds like you had a great time.
Now that looks like fun!
Nice job Luke. Nice report to!
Boog
Didn’t recognize you without the Sno-suit on Luke
Those are some tank wipers,bet you had a blast!
Great report
Nice report Luke.
Those are some dandy fish 
Oh yeah, I almost forgot nice pants.
Great report Luke! I was wondering when we would see some good stuff from you again! Now I may have to venture South instead this weekend! ARGH!
Darn Lip for getting the nice pants thing in before me! Very Nice!
Great report Luke! That’s one even Zach Fries would be proud of.
Nice report Luke and some nice fish too, I’ve heard they feed like that most of the time through the warm months, good report!
Awesome report and fish luke! I bet that was an awesome 3hours on the water
Nice fish Luke….
Excellent report!
Looking to get in on those.
Geez they look like some fun fish.
Great report
Hey Luke great photos, and Sarahs smile is allot bigger then yours, keep them coming.