Fishing Report 8-19-12

Sorry for the late post.

Fishing started to make a fall transition the last week. The nights have been very cool, and there has been a distinct drop in water temperature. Area Lakes are in the Low to Mid 70's, and expect that to drop off a bit.

Panfish are still deep, but more of them are moving to the weededges. This is classic early fall behavior. While I was out this week, I marked huge schools in 12-18 FOW right on the edges of the weeds. Slip bobbers with live bait is usually the best way to get at these fish, but tightlining vertically will also produce. Either way, contact with your presentation will be key. Down-size your hook a bit to help keep the weeds off your line.

Bass are making the move. I've still not seen a consistent batch of fish kicking up softshells. It's pretty late in the month for the molt, so I'm starting to wonder if the winter/weather this year was hard on the crayfish, or in some way changed the seasonal pattern. I've been on the water a bunch, so I didn't miss it, but I'm also at a loss to when it is going to occur. Regardless, the bass are moving to mid-depth weeds in packs. Look for schooled up fish on shallow inside turns, or around clumps of weeds on mid-depth (6-10 FOW) flat areas. On a cloudy day, topwater fishing with a floating Rapala or Pop-R can really produce, but wacky, skirted grubs, shaky heads and texas rigs are all producing. Caught some nice fish this week on a jig/chunk and jig/craw combos, and on gold flake jigworms.

Walleye fishing, at least locally, is still very slow. My usual sources for information on the walleye bite have been pretty quiet lately, but I expect that to change as fall encroaches. Stay Tuned.

Northern Pike fishing is picking up. Deep weedlines are still holding lots of fish. A few guys are starting to pick up some nicer pike using large-jumbo shiners, slow trolling along the weedlines. Cranks, spinners are reapers have all been productive as well.

Musky Fishing is set to pick up some as the days get shorter. With the water back in the 70's expect to see more people chucking hardware. For now, bucktails, gliders and jerkbaits are solid bets, especially ones with gold flash or in a perch pattern.

Cheers,
CT