Jeff's Guide Service
07-01-2009, 06:56 AM
FISHING REPORT – July 1, 2009
Some very good fishing going on around the area. Despite the ups and down in the weather and some large bug hatches, walleye fishing remains strong. With the arrival of the bugs we are now on a full-fledge crawler bite when it comes to walleyes. Fish have moved into shallow weeds on lakes where the bug hatch is all but finished. On lakes where the bugs haven’t arrived yet, fish can be found scooping larvae in the muddy bottoms. Either way, a strong bite is taking place. Jigs tipped with a whole crawler and worked slowly through coontail weed has been the most effective method. Hits have been very aggressive, but you need to back off about 10 to 15 seconds before setting the hook. You don’t necessarily have to fish very deep. Last Tuesday in the 90+ degree temperatures we were catching walleyes in 3-1/2 to 5 feet on stained water. Clear water lakes – again, not very deep -- 10 to 12 feet seem to work. Fish have responded well to slow fall jigs and popped slowly. Many hits happen on the drop.
MUSKY activity has also picked up dramatically. Some nice fish are being boated by area anglers and a wide variety of lures can now be used. We found fish in 8 to 12 ft. weeds on the lakes I’ve been on. Bucktails and my trusty Suick have been working the best. We also started to see some topwater action during that hot stretch of weather. Look for this to come back quickly when it warms up. We have lost close to 15 degrees in surface temp over the past 4 days, and this has brought as an increase in “lookers” instead of “takers”.
BASS fishing is still doing pretty good. The colder temperatures earlier in the month did push a lot of bass off their beds. They are beginning to show up in numbers again now, but I’m finding them in their summer haunts – these are places such as deeper wood or gravel bars. GULP bait has been very deadly on these fish along with Jumbo leeches.
That’s it for now. See you on the water. Jeff Winters
Some very good fishing going on around the area. Despite the ups and down in the weather and some large bug hatches, walleye fishing remains strong. With the arrival of the bugs we are now on a full-fledge crawler bite when it comes to walleyes. Fish have moved into shallow weeds on lakes where the bug hatch is all but finished. On lakes where the bugs haven’t arrived yet, fish can be found scooping larvae in the muddy bottoms. Either way, a strong bite is taking place. Jigs tipped with a whole crawler and worked slowly through coontail weed has been the most effective method. Hits have been very aggressive, but you need to back off about 10 to 15 seconds before setting the hook. You don’t necessarily have to fish very deep. Last Tuesday in the 90+ degree temperatures we were catching walleyes in 3-1/2 to 5 feet on stained water. Clear water lakes – again, not very deep -- 10 to 12 feet seem to work. Fish have responded well to slow fall jigs and popped slowly. Many hits happen on the drop.
MUSKY activity has also picked up dramatically. Some nice fish are being boated by area anglers and a wide variety of lures can now be used. We found fish in 8 to 12 ft. weeds on the lakes I’ve been on. Bucktails and my trusty Suick have been working the best. We also started to see some topwater action during that hot stretch of weather. Look for this to come back quickly when it warms up. We have lost close to 15 degrees in surface temp over the past 4 days, and this has brought as an increase in “lookers” instead of “takers”.
BASS fishing is still doing pretty good. The colder temperatures earlier in the month did push a lot of bass off their beds. They are beginning to show up in numbers again now, but I’m finding them in their summer haunts – these are places such as deeper wood or gravel bars. GULP bait has been very deadly on these fish along with Jumbo leeches.
That’s it for now. See you on the water. Jeff Winters