The water was very high this year, fishing the northern end of the lake we were docking our boats on shore. The good news is that even with all the rain we got last week the water was going down every day and hopefully will be back to normal levels soon.
Keep in mind that this report is for the Northern section of the lake, we didn't travel to the south end this year. All I can say is if you are interested in panfish, this is the year for you. Practically anywhere there was weeds next to shore, you would get into Sunfish, Bluegill, and Perch. Crappie were hard to come by, but the rest were like just mean. I agree with the earlier report that for the first time, the sunfish were much bigger than the bluegill as a whole.
Also, for the first time ever, I caught walleye in the northern area. One next to an island on a crank bait and one trolling a spinner down the middle of the lake, both within an hour of each other. Unfortunately, that's when my boat broke down and I didn't get to keep going.
One was 23" and the second was 25". Great fish, and of course, my son messing around in the lagoon at camp Carol caught one that big himself. He is lucky I caught mine first or I would have had to kill him.I have to say that up until the last 1 1/2 days of our trip, it was some of the worst pike fishing I've ever had. I think I caught one and our 4 man crew probably had a total of 5 or 6 for that time. Not caring about the rain, I headed out Thursday afternoon (in a rental boat) and was casting small spinners for large panfish near shore. I ended up with 15 pike that afternoon. They wouldn't bite my large spinners and big poles so I stuck with my ultralight and #1 or #2 spinners. It appeared that they were looking for a real slow presentation with a small lure. I was able to do that with the tiny reel and lures. My largest was a 28" and I have to tell you that it is one hell of a time on an ultralight pole. (I released it, by the way). I also did best for the first time on the western side of the lake rather than the bays and coves on the eastern side. The fish started biting on chubs the last day, so don't count that out. By the way, I caught ZERO fish on all of my "go to" stick, crank, and tandem spinner baits this year.
So, to sum up, if I were fishing the north end of the lake again this week, I would:
1. Leave my big poles for the big Bobbers and chubs, which I would have one out every time I was anchored.
2. Do all of my casting with a good ultralight pole, reel, and line. ( I was using 6# test). You catch more fish, that way.
3. I would leave my 4 tackle boxes back at the cabin and just bring a small assortment of small spinners.
4. I would slow retrieve like I'm trying to catch bluegill or sunfish on it.
5. I would use my fish finder to locate the areas with weeds, being that the water was high and weeds low for this time of year, it's harder to see them.
6. I would keep a few dozen night crawlers in a cooler with me for when the pike bite stops to entertain myself. A small pencil bobber, split shot and #6 LONG SHANK HOOK (they even swallowed those), went a long way for keeping us entertained.
I hope this helps.
JR
