This report should get everyone salivating and hopefully anxious to wet a line as the fishing has been unbelievable! This past week has seen me on the water pretty much every day and each one was equally as good as the others. With the high humidity, stable conditions had the water temps on the rise and the fish eating. I can’t remember how many walleye have been caught & released due to the new regulation slot limit, but there were plenty! I don’t even want to estimate how many pike were released either as it was insane. Although I was targeting walleye for everyone, there are always incidental hookups from other species and this week saw plenty of them too. The rarest one of them all had to be the shad hookup while trolling along a breakline. With their soft mouths, it never made it to the net for a pic and the hook just pulled out. Another muskie was also landed by my wife and there were a few bite offs too! Many walleye between 22 & 28 inches were put back, showing me the potential this lake has to offer. Loads of eater sized walleye were also landed and some of them harvested for meals. I just can’t believe how many walleye this lake actually has and how easy they are to catch when you fish for them. I might have another favorite fish to catch! Not likely though as the bass season is only a week away and I can’t wait. Apparently some others can’t either as I’ve seen plenty of boats already fishing for them! If anyone feels the need to get on the water and catch a pile of fish, now is definitely the time to take advantage of the activity, before the summer heat locks in. If it’s walleye & pike you’re interested in catching, there’s no better time to be fishing. Several openings are available in the coming weeks and I hope to fill them up and get everyone into some of the best action of their lives. I know I’ll be out there refining several other areas and catching many, many more fish once again in the process!!

I was back on the lake with Sheila this morning and once again in search of the elusive niche. After last nights many electrical storms, I was wondering what kind of impact it might have on the fish. The smaller creeks were now flowing like raging rivers, feeding into the lake a lovely shade of coffee. With two creams of course! Water temps were down almost 6 degrees when we dropped the flies in and began trolling. Along with the dirty water was the presence of much debris! It was difficult to be able to troll without fouling the lines from weeds, sticks and tree buds. We were however blessed with the conditions of the sky as both of us thought we would be fishing in rain all day. To our surprise, overcast and occasional sun, without the rain was what we were to see. Light north winds were also present and it looked like we had the lake to ourselves. I moved around plenty, dodging dirty water and floating crap, just trying to find fishable water. It seemed like wherever we went, we eventually hit one or the other. With the water temps mostly 54 to 55 degrees I thought we would get into them good but was only hooking up with the occasional small bass or perch. I was marking loads of baitfish and plenty of suspended fish in the upper 15 feet of water over 60 to 75 feet when the deep line went wild. It screamed off about 30 feet of line and then nothing. I knew that this time it had to be a salmon and by the amount of line it took out, it had to be a good one. When I reeled it in to check the fly I was shocked to see the how mangled it was. Besides wrapping all the material around the shank, the tandem wire was damaged beyond repair. I just couldn’t figure how the fish never got hooked! I replaced the fly and was back in the game when the high line ripped out another pile of line, just screaming again. As with the previous strike, it too was also gone and another mangled fly once more. I don’t know if it was the same fish or not but based on the number of arches I was seeing, I didn’t think so. We reset the line and made several more passes over the deep water without another touch. Eventually, I pulled the lines and relocated further up the lake in hopes of similar action. After another hour or so without anything to show for our efforts, I went back to where we had those two previous hits. I was surprised to see that there wasn’t any bait, or any hooks left in the area. It was like a ghost town, just barren wasteland! We tried nevertheless, but nada! I realized that I had missed possibly the only two good fish of the day, but wasn’t discouraged just yet. I headed down the lake hoping for a little warmer water and maybe more active fish. We managed to find 58 degrees in a couple of areas that had produced for me before but only came up with perch & bass once again. Although I did see a few good boils on the surface from either trout or salmon, we just couldn’t seem to get one to take. The entire afternoon was just like this morning and shortly after 4:30; we decided to call it a day. It may not have been the banner day that I had hoped for but at least we dodged the rain and caught a few fish. This will most likely be the last trip of the year for this lake, as I plan on heading back home in the morning. Local waters and close to home fishing sounds pretty good after a day like this!!

Today was the first trip on local waters for pike & walleye and Colin was with me to experience our tremendous fishery. The last two days had south winds blowing 20 to 30 knots and I wasn’t sure what kind of effect it would have on the water & fishing. We met up at 7:00 and were running across the water shortly after with high expectations. Being from Colorado, Colin had never caught a northern pike and was hoping to land one or two today. Boy was he in for a treat! Although the weather was a little chilly at 54 degrees due to the wind change from the north, the waves weren’t too bad. At less than 10 knots they were at best 1 to 2 footers and the water looked clean enough to score. I instructed him on the rod holders and set the first rod only to have the reel fire in less than 45 seconds. He was landing his first of many northerns in under a minute. Talk about taking the pressure off! Although it was only a couple of pounds, it was his first and he was glad. The second fish came almost as quickly as soon as the second rod was placed in the holder. Both fish came on the same lure color and I was wondering if I needed to make a change, when the other rod also took a hit. Unfortunately it was a drive bye and no one was home. It didn’t matter though as the day was only a couple of minutes in and we had plenty of time to get even. The overcast skies had me running brighter lures and with the 54.5 degree water temps, a slower troll as well. I was covering plenty of water and getting into fish here & there but not what I was accustomed to and kept searching for the mother load. Colin thought it was great as he had landed about a dozen or more pike up to 6 pounds and wanted more. We plucked one here & there for quite some time until the sun came out and the light switch was turned on! For about three hours in the afternoon it was non stop action with one rod after the other and fish after fish. As soon as the rods were placed back in the holders, it seemed like the reels were firing. The water temps were on the rise and the fish were active! We even managed to catch a bunch of perch and some of them were quite large. Eventually, the temps climbed all the way to 63 degrees and everything was feeding. The only walleye that we hooked unfortunately came unpinned as it neared the boat. I caught a glimpse of her under the boat and immediately went for the net but it wasn’t meant to be. It was a good one and probably close to 6 pounds by the mass in the water. It may even grow by the time Colin returns back home! We kept at it until 5:00 P.M. and finally called it a day after three more fish in a five minute period. Colin had gone from never having caught a northern, to landing close to 75 in one day. You might say that he had his fill but still wanted more. We couldn’t have had a nicer day on the lake and the fishing was just tremendous. I’m sure he’ll be a little sore tomorrow but it’s a welcomed pain and one anyone would be happy to have. Hopefully he’ll be back and maybe the next time the bass season will be open and we can have a multi species day. Can’t wait to get him back!!

After three near perfect weather days it was inevitable! The fourth one was almost a nightmare with heavy rains overnight and 20 to 30 knot winds from the south today. Due to the direction, I opted for a different boat launch and although it was less windy, it was still pretty bad. We decided to give it a try anyway and headed out after 8:30 to the main lake. I knew it was going to be rough out there but I didn’t think it would be ocean like. There were 4 & 5 footers on the lake and we headed only as far as a sheltered island would allow us. With the lines in the water we prayed the fish would be somewhat active. With all the mountains around us the wind still managed to hit us from different directions making boat control a little difficult. Add the cooler water temps, down to 54 degrees from the 58 yesterday & heavy floating debris and it was just perfect! Needless to say the fly rods didn’t stay out long before we went to the downriggers and a more controlled troll. A couple of the lines popped over 20 to 40 feet of water but there was no one there! I think either the light releases or surges from the wind made them go off or maybe it was more of those smallies coming in from the deep again. Either way, it was a difficult task nonetheless! We fished as long as we could but by noon, we were ready to call it a day and make the long drive back home. We did manage to get a few perch casting to the deeper points with the jigs but could barely feel the bites. Back at the ramp I could see that the winds had intensified and there were 2 & 3 footers rolling in making the take out a little tricky. I’m glad we ended the day when we did because the winds actually got stronger as the day went on! Tough day to be on the water but the 3 days preceding were just spectacular. Too bad the salmon didn’t think so but they were probably already full from all that damn bait in the lake!!

We got an early start today and were on the water before 7:30, hoping for better fishing than the two previous days. Although plenty of fish were being caught each day, we still weren’t getting the salmon that we were looking for. Would today be any different? I set the fly rods out immediately along an extended point and made three passes in different depths, looking for active fish. Water temps were around 52 degrees and air temps were expected to reach the high 70’s with mostly sunshine today. After 30 minutes of absolutely nothing and not much marking on the sonar, I opted for the riggers and open water. I had tried almost everything else, why not deep water. I set one at 40 and the other at 30, both with sliders and headed across the bay towards the other point. Some of the water was over 300 feet deep and there was definitely plenty of activity on the sonar in all depths. The amount of baitfish in this lake is just astonishing! The only release I had in the 90 minutes we did this was from the bottom when I tried to get too close. Oh well, there goes a couple of lures! There were more boats on the water today than the last couple of days combined and ironically, I never saw anyone actually hook up. With plenty of dead smelt present on the surface it’s not a wonder why the fish didn’t want to eat our offerings! Another change was in order and this time we were going to let the wind drift us along while we casted jigs and stick baits to open water. Maybe a slower approach without the motor might help and we were willing to try just about anything. The only thing we managed to get were piles of perch and an occasional bass from the open water. Some of them were suspended and others were on bottom in 20 to 40 feet of water. The perch had tails sticking out of their mouths and some of the bass puked out dead smelt while coming to the surface. It’s like an all you can eat buffet here! The remainder of the day was spent mixing it up between the fly rods and more of the riggers but the results were still the same. Although I did see plenty of fish on the sonar they seemed to all shy away from the cannon balls when I passed through them. The fly rods on the other hand managed to catch all kinds of perch and an occasional bass from as shallow as 8 feet all the way to open water exceeding 100. What a mess! Despite the results the weather was tremendous and the last few days on the lake were just spectacular for our anniversary weekend. Tomorrow on the other hand may not be and an early departure may be in the cards. At least we managed to get three fantastic days on the water!!