Fishing Report 6-21-13/Labelle Wrap Up.

Hey gang,

I had the pleasure of fishing Lac Labelle every day for the last two weeks. Each day was a little different, but we caught fish consistently.

We caught lots of walleyes caught between 14 and 19.5 inches. We never got a legal 20"+ fish, despite catching several hundred over the twelve days we fished. In addition to the walleyes we caught a solid bag of smallmouth, largemouth, whitebass and even some crappies.

It is a great fishery, for catch and release fishing.

But I digress,

Panfish are still spawning on many area lakes. The crappie are done for the most part, but the bluegills continue to be in spawning areas in both shallow (2-6) and deep (10-18) FOW. The shallow fish are much easier to catch, but targeting the deeper fish will produce better size and numbers of keeper size fish. Try panfish leeches on split shot, light line -lindy rigs, or slip bobbers for the deeper fish.

Largemouth Bass are feeding heavily on juvenile panfish and pin minnows. They are really moving into summer patterns and can be found on docks, in the slop or in weed clumps in the shallow water, or on rocks or weedlines in the deeper water. Skirted grubs, wacky, texas rigs, jig/chunk, small crankbaits, or minnow baits are all productive. Smaller lakes are really hot right now, especially in areas where bluegills are still spawning.

Smallmouth are roaming flats, and running rock bars most days. The sunny days has them coming in early and late, suspending during the rest of the day, but they have been very active on the cloudy rainy days. Don't be afraid to look for them on rocks as deep as 25 FOW. Tubes, grubs, jigworms and small crankbaits are taking fish.

Walleye: My reports are biased a bit from fishing Lac Labelle, but the weedlines and deeper sandgrass is holding fish. Catching more drifting with lindy rigs than jigging, and I know some people are getting fish trolling cranks, or fishing minnowbaits over the top of submergent vegetation. We've been catching fish as shallow as 6 FOW and as deep as 30 FOW.

Pike: Pike are biting better on the cloudy days. Still plenty of action fish to be had in the shallow weeds on spinners, buzzbaits, lipless crankbaits or live bait. Bigger pike have moved to the deeper basins are are feeding on the deepest weeds.

Musky fishing has been slow the past week. A few fish were taken on bucktails or gliders in 12-18 FOW near deep weed edges.

FYI: There's a WABTA tournament on Nagawicka on Sunday.

Good luck!

CT