BlueRanger
06-03-2014, 11:02 PM
Spent the last two weekends up at the TFF and enjoyed some great weather, a couple fun nearby events and occasional bouts of good fishing action. Memorial Day weekend, I spent some time shooting pictures at the Hurley ATV parade and some nearby scenery on Friday afternoon and evening, and Sunday I went to watch the lawnmower races in Fifield. I drove around the west side of the TFF on my way back, met Ruff Fish, got some shots of a bear in somebody's driveway near Sportsman's Landing, and took some nice shots of the falls. But due to the large volume of shots from Hurley and Fifield, I haven't finished going through that batch or posted anything yet. And I'm still waiting for Iron County to mail me the annual park sticker I paid for... Surface temps over Memorial Day weekend were in the upper 50s, warming into the low 60s during the days but falling back at night. Bass action was hit and miss - I had a couple hours of great action Saturday evening, but overall they weren't very active, forcing me into a lot of slow tube and grub tactics that I don't really enjoy - but I picked up a lot of walleyes and a few perch and northerns in the process.
This weekend I was more optimistic - I put the boat in Friday morning and was reading low-70s surface temps, so I expected to find the shorelines loaded with smallies and have some great action. But it didn't materialize - again relying mostly on tubes and grubs, I had to work the shorelines slowly and thoroughly to pick up fish here and there, encountering a lot of finicky bites and again catching a lot of walleyes and northerns in the process. Despite the apparently adequate water temperatures, it didn't look like most of the smallies had moved into spawning areas yet. I saw only a few fish on beds here and there, and the big move into the shallows clearly hadn't happened yet. I did post some shots from this weekend, including some nice waterfalls and other scenery from the drive home.
I made a few halfhearted casts with the musky rods in a couple locations, but didn't spend any time seriously targeting them either weekend, and I didn't see any cruising the shallows while I was bass fishing.
This weekend I was more optimistic - I put the boat in Friday morning and was reading low-70s surface temps, so I expected to find the shorelines loaded with smallies and have some great action. But it didn't materialize - again relying mostly on tubes and grubs, I had to work the shorelines slowly and thoroughly to pick up fish here and there, encountering a lot of finicky bites and again catching a lot of walleyes and northerns in the process. Despite the apparently adequate water temperatures, it didn't look like most of the smallies had moved into spawning areas yet. I saw only a few fish on beds here and there, and the big move into the shallows clearly hadn't happened yet. I did post some shots from this weekend, including some nice waterfalls and other scenery from the drive home.
I made a few halfhearted casts with the musky rods in a couple locations, but didn't spend any time seriously targeting them either weekend, and I didn't see any cruising the shallows while I was bass fishing.