Hope you survived the heatwave intact. That was a rough run.
Despite the heat, bass fishing has remained fairly consistent. There's an early bite happening on most lakes up until about 9:30am. The fish are then moving into the weeds, under piers or into the slop. They can be targeted around overhanging cover or weededges adjacent to deeper water.
The bite is picking up again around 3:30 and remains fairly consistent until dark. Fish are being taken in shallow water on wacky worms, (white has been a hot color) tubes, skirted grubs and shakey head worms. Deeper fish are coming on jigworms, texas rigged plastics or jigs with a craw or chunk trailer. Live bait, chubs, leeches or crawlers on a slip sinker or lindy rig have also been catching some fish as deep as 25 FOW on the clear water lakes.
Northern pike continue to bite. As is typical for this point in the season, shallow fish are still being caught on spinnerbaits, buzzbaits and lipless crankbaits around shallow weed clumps on the flats in 5-10FOW. Deeper fish are being taken using live bait, chubs and/or shiners, long lined on slip-sinker rigs. Trolling deep-diving crankbaits in natural or metalic (ie shiny) patterns like the rapala DT, hot n tots, or wiggle warts around the weed edges has also been producing some fish. 18-22 FOW seems to be the hot zone for pike right now.
Walleye fishing has dropped off substantially with the heat, expect the bite to pick back up as the sun gives way to some clouds, and more importantly, some wind. The heat and sunshine are one thing, but the lack of wind during this hot streak has really pushed the walleye to low light activity cycles, and people's catch rates have dropped off. If you're going to look for them, I'd start by trolling small minnow baits around the ends of deep points and midlake bars trying to find some suspended fish, or back troll (slowly) around deep weededges in 18-22 fow with live bait.
Catfishing on the Rock and Fox has been very good, but most of the fish that are being caught are a little smaller. You want a meal...its a great option, if you're looking to do battle with a monster, you might want to wait a bit. Cutbait has been outproducing stink bait or nightcrawlers according to my sources.
Musky fishing has picked up a bit, especially early and late when people have been putting in the time. Most of the fish are being caught while trolling deep edges and over deep flat structure in 22-45 fow, but a few are still coming on topwater during low light periods, especially very early in the morning. Look for them around deep water structure, especially the deep end of long points.
Good Luck.
Cheers,
CT
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