Report for June 18-25

[gregory]

Just thought I'd throw in a report also. Just got back from the Chip from the 18th-25th. What a week to pick. Fished the east side and had east winds everyday there except for Fri which was strong Northwest winds and bluebird sky. I fish walleyes exclusively and usually at this time of the year they are weed bed related. This was not to be the case this week. There was a pretty good mayfly hatch going on so I then decided it was time to head for the deeper mud flats. We found huge schools in 18-24 ft of water by drifting these flats and then threw a marker, anchored up wind and fished over the top of them with just a basic hook, line and sinker rig. It was not fast fishing at all but we were able to catch our limit (2), and several other species were mixed in like perch bluegills, smallies and tons of crappie. This is not the way I prefer to fish but this is what I found worked since these fish were not relating to shallower weed bed areas. This was one of the worst cold fronts I have seen in years. On Fri when the wind switched from the NE to NW these fish were on the move and made for a difficult day of fishing. Just another note. I fish hard and long days and never once all week did my partner or myself catch a large mouth bass. Also we did not boat a walleye over 16". We did catch quite a few in the 10" range so this should make the area guides happy. I'm not so sure I believe that the LM bass are the problem here. I'm more interested in what I'm hearing about the fluctuating water levels argument. The Chip is a great fishery and there are plenty of fish. I heard so much complaining up there but I think people get so set in their ways and are not willing to try different methods when adverse conditions hit. Be back up there same time next year. Did catch one 28" Musky on a crappy evening we just wanted to do something different.

[StorminD]

We were up at the same time. Also on the east side. Not many weeds to talk about. Caught a few Walleye, but concentrated more on the Bluegills and then Crappie. Bluegills were in protected channels near any downed timber in the water on leafworms strung under a bobber. We caught most Crappie over old cribs in the main lake areas on minnows. Most of the Bluegill still had spawn along with a few of the Crappies. We did pick up on Bass both Largemouth & Smallmouth tossing twister tails. For us, the smallies outnumbered the largemouth. Considering the weather, and what we were seeing on the fishing reports, we feel we did quite well for the lousy conditions.

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[walleyemaxx]

Hi everyone,

Thanks for the reports guys. Nice batch of fish storminD. Some good fish frys about to happen there. Your hard work paid off Gregory. Adapting to the conditions did the trick. Glad to hear you found some smaller Walleyes. the future is looking brighter for the Walleyes. The bass are dominating only because they have been over protected. The DNR were netting older LM Bass that averaged 11.3 inches. They cannot grow. With the lack of proper orage, they feed heavily on the Walleye fry, and that is still not enough. Once the LM Bass numbers are trimmed down, we will see a much improved fishery for not only Wallees, but the LM.Bass too.

Walleyemaxx