Paul Rothenberger
05-26-2009, 10:39 AM
Saw some really unusual weather ranging from snow to mid 80's and some very windy days.
Fishing just seems to be getting better every year. Our group got multiple limits so we had to eat more fish than anticipated. Caught most fish on bobber with minnows in medium depth areas 8-12 feet. Did get some afternoon walleyes in the shallows mixed in with big perch. Did not need to go to cribs this year we were limiting out without it.
Pike were the typical small flowage variety and the Smallmouth were on the entire time with many large females caught each day. I can't help but think of Don H. comments about getting smallies in walleye areas. I got 7 big smallies one morning floating walleyes in a timber/rock area which is a typical walleye hangout. Did get one eye in there but 7 smallies. Great fight on the smallies and they were all females still fat pre-spawn fish. All safely released so looks like the small mouth fishery will just continue to expand.
In terms of patterns it was pretty typical flowage stuff just follow the wind. We would look for structure in areas where the wind was either blowing into or had been blowing into for a few days and the walleyes and perch were there. Night time bite was the best but morning was good too.
We met Josh and Dennis, Josh seems to be a nice guy and I think he will be a good addition to the Mercer DNR staff. They came and checked out our campsite and verified that we were update on flowage regulations; we had met Dennis and Roger before. As previously mentioned in another post if you follow the rules and treat the DNR with respect they return the favor. After they left I realized I had neglected to ask about the fish survey so no new information on that front. Walleyes showed good year classes with the 14-17 fish especially strong. We did get some cigars and some fish in the 20" range as well so looks good for the future especially with that strong year class of 16" fish. The panfish also seem to be getting better and bigger. Perch numbers and size were both up from last year and we caught some gills too. We released all gills even though they were keeper size in an effort to see more in the future.
Enjoy the flowage and the great camping!
Paul
Fishing just seems to be getting better every year. Our group got multiple limits so we had to eat more fish than anticipated. Caught most fish on bobber with minnows in medium depth areas 8-12 feet. Did get some afternoon walleyes in the shallows mixed in with big perch. Did not need to go to cribs this year we were limiting out without it.
Pike were the typical small flowage variety and the Smallmouth were on the entire time with many large females caught each day. I can't help but think of Don H. comments about getting smallies in walleye areas. I got 7 big smallies one morning floating walleyes in a timber/rock area which is a typical walleye hangout. Did get one eye in there but 7 smallies. Great fight on the smallies and they were all females still fat pre-spawn fish. All safely released so looks like the small mouth fishery will just continue to expand.
In terms of patterns it was pretty typical flowage stuff just follow the wind. We would look for structure in areas where the wind was either blowing into or had been blowing into for a few days and the walleyes and perch were there. Night time bite was the best but morning was good too.
We met Josh and Dennis, Josh seems to be a nice guy and I think he will be a good addition to the Mercer DNR staff. They came and checked out our campsite and verified that we were update on flowage regulations; we had met Dennis and Roger before. As previously mentioned in another post if you follow the rules and treat the DNR with respect they return the favor. After they left I realized I had neglected to ask about the fish survey so no new information on that front. Walleyes showed good year classes with the 14-17 fish especially strong. We did get some cigars and some fish in the 20" range as well so looks good for the future especially with that strong year class of 16" fish. The panfish also seem to be getting better and bigger. Perch numbers and size were both up from last year and we caught some gills too. We released all gills even though they were keeper size in an effort to see more in the future.
Enjoy the flowage and the great camping!
Paul