Despite the cold front, fishing has remained/returned to decent and will improve rapidly with the increasingly nice weather. Cool nights have lowered water temps to around 53-57 on most lakes but the walleyes and crappies haven't seemed to mind. Crappie bite was still decent in shallow weeds even three days ago with daytime highs in the mid 40s. Walleye bite was slow on that day but has picked right back up as of yesterday. The most action for walleyes has come from finding pods of eaters in the 12-15" size range. Bite was great with 30-40 walleyes caught in each evening outing. The larger females are more scattered but we have been contacting them, particularly in low light periods. Almost all walleyes have been on crankbaits and swim baits. A handfull on slip bobbers/minnows. Bass have made beds on many lakes and we did find a few holding to them at peak temps Saturday but they have largely been empty ever since. Almost all of the smallies we have caught have been hanging near the spawning grounds and taking crankbaits/plastics. Expect them to return to the beds/make beds in short order with the return of sun. Have found some perch mixed in with walleyes in 6-12 ft emerging weeds. Bluegills mixed in with crappie shallow but not bedding.
Though fishing for all species has been good, Musky activity has been the highlight in my biased opinion. Managed to get out for part of one day on the WI/MI border lakes and was rewarded with some nice fish. Should be a good opener this weekend as well! There really is no wrong answer on bait selection, but slower presentations seemed to be getting the job done. All action last weekend was on bucktails. Have also been catching them incidentally (daily) on walleye gear (jigs and cranks). Last night was the first time out of the last 9 outings that we did not catch a musky. Tight lines. From best agm battery
Though fishing for all species has been good, Musky activity has been the highlight in my biased opinion. Managed to get out for part of one day on the WI/MI border lakes and was rewarded with some nice fish. Should be a good opener this weekend as well! There really is no wrong answer on bait selection, but slower presentations seemed to be getting the job done. All action last weekend was on bucktails. Have also been catching them incidentally (daily) on walleye gear (jigs and cranks). Last night was the first time out of the last 9 outings that we did not catch a musky. Tight lines. From best agm battery