Fishing slow

[Lund21]

Back to the area for first time since last November. One fish for the effort this morning. Water temp was 52???? Has it been this cold or has the water temp dropped? This is the annual family trip, anyone want to point me in the right direction for some eyes? Size not necessarily important, just to keep the kids active. All help is appreciated.

[The Bait Shop Guy]

Diane and I fished the Escanaba River last night after work. Water temp in the river was 66 degrees, ( it was 83 last Friday!) We had that cold front parked on top of us since last Saturday, and it really cooled things off. It may take a little while for the fish in the lake to re cooperate. Of course, it doesn't help having the alewives in the bay and the mayfly hatches going at the same time.

Anyway, if you just want to put those kids on some numbers of fish, take them down to the river mouth. Apparently the lousy weather didn't put a damper on the fish in there. We boated 31 walleyes and a big rockbass last night in under 2 hours of fishing. Granted, we only had one keeper in the bunch, but we both had a blast. Sometimes it's just as much fun catching a bunch of small fish as it is catching a few keepers. Those little fish in the river don't know they're little, and hit like a ton of bricks sometimes! We were trolling small Rebel Crayfish and #6 Husky Jerks upstream, from the river mouth up to the burned bridge, in 3 to 5 FOW.

Good luck.

[CaptainKenLee]

The water temperature was up to 76 degrees before the north winds started blowing. All the warm water has been blown out of the bay and replaced with cold water from below. Great if you're a salmon fishermen...but not good for walleyes. I would imagine they're in a state of shock right now. The fishing was just starting to get pretty good too, now we're back to square one until the water warms back up. I would stick to shallower water and active fish in and along weeds. This has been the most productive lately. You can also try trolling crankbaits up high and just cover water looking for active fish. Early in the morning and late in the day this has still been working to pick up some fish. Deep Reef Runners kept in the top 10 to 15 feet of the water column over 30 to 40 foot depths should get you a few fish. Good luck Mark,

[YooperTroll]

I caught a keeper off one of the platforms in Wells this morning (worm).

[Lund21]

Thanks guys!!!! Much Appreciated. Headed out in the early evening and had only four pike (all small) to show for it. Will follow up on the advice tomorrow in the am and let you know how it goes.

[Lund21]

Well, I have taken the advice of those replies and, again, have little to show for it. One pike working the shallow weeds, one nice fish lost this morning working crawlers over 20-22 foot of water. Not sure it was a walleye, may have been a catfish. Water temp is creeping up a little bit, but I still can't get the eyes going. Chris- I saw you last night in the river when I picked up some more family to see fireworks- Tracker boat with about a million kids in it! At least the fire works were great and my son is keeping count of the fish he catches on the dock- apparently a 3 inch perch counts the same as any fish I catch on the boat.

[The Bait Shop Guy]

Looks like you'll have to change your handle to Tracker21. Yeah, we fished for about 45 minutes before running to the harbor to watch the fireworks. We caught 22 walleyes, 3 bass and a rockbass in that amount of time. All of the walleyes were undersized, but still a lot of fun in that small amount of time.

The bite was completely different Sunday. I fished the weed bed off the Gladstone beach for a couple hours in the afternoon, and only had 4 lazy pike follows. I took a couple friends to the Escanaba later in the evening and we only caught 8 walleyes between the three of us.

[Lund21]

Well the fishing remains slow and no sign of weather that will warm the water up. I took your advice Chris and my son had a blast last night in the river. Thanks for helping him to pick out some baits yesterday. We got 21 fish last night with 1 keeper. We got another 8 this morning with 2 keepers. Again, thanks for the info, my son thinks last night saved our trip and it helped dad remember that it is sometimes just about catching fish regardless of size.

[outdoorguy]

Went out last night with my wife and TRIED to find warmer water. (No luck) 53 degrees was the best we could find in the open water. Came back into the river and got up to 69 degrees and a bonus 18" fish.
Gonna wait to return until we get a number of sunny calm days to bring the bite back on. Until then, off to some warmer water down in Green Bay. :(

[Lund21]

Hey outdoor guy- I was the guy in the tracker with the little guy. I said I had 2 small fish and you gave a wave. Was that you or someone else? Guy I saw was with his wife. Good luck in gb

[The Bait Shop Guy]

Glad to hear they cooperated for you. Did you guys catch any on that brown crayfish? I've never tried that color in there, but the noise and action alone should have been enough to call them to it.

[outdoorguy]

No on the Brown Crayfish. Caught on hand tied Alewife imitator spinner rig.
FYI Had a blast looking around with the Hummingbird Side imaging in there !

[YooperTroll]

I have a small 12 ft boat with a 2 hp Johnson...obviously it doesn't get anywhere fast and I mostly use it on small inland lakes (also have the old oars as a stand-by)...is the current in the river too much for my boat to handle? I'm not talking about trolling as much as I am going from point A to point B.

[outdoorguy]

Your 12 footer would be fine in the river right now ( no recent heavy rain) If you get down there soon, take a close look at the current flow for future PRE -launching decisions. The smaller boat can get you into some areas that most boats can't/won't go. For years there used to be an older man that was coming off the water many mornings as the sun was rising with some really nice fish ! He mostly used the old standby of his day " Flat fish" with a piece of crawler and for the most part would verrrry slowly drag it up stream or hover it in past successful areas. Dont be surprized if you fine Walleyes in some very shallow water ! Good luck !

[YooperTroll]

thanks for the reply.