Fishing Report 8-2-13

Fishing has slowed a bit over the past week. Fish are still biting, but the bite has been slow, and often tough to trigger.

Panfish are suspending in deeper water, or holding tight to the bottom in areas where the weedline in adjacent to a steep drop off. A few keepers are in the mid depth clumps in current areas. Tightlining vertically, slip bobbers or light lindy rigs are your best options for chasing keepers. Drifting or moving as slow as possible with your electric motor until you find pods of active fish is the best approach. Look for suspended fish in 25-40 FOW, about 12-18 feet down.

The bass bite dropped off substantially this week. Fish are still biting, but the catch rate and size of the fish being caught is down a bunch from just ten days ago. Largemouth are making a slow move into transition areas, but it has been hard to pattern fish day to day. Docks and slop are holding fish during the sunny days, and fish are chasing bait early and late on the mid-depth (6-12 FOW) flats. Topwater, minnowbaits, grubs, flappers and jigworms are catching these schooling fish. Flipping into holes on the outside edge of the weedline, or on inside turns has been slow, but productive.

Smallmouth have been more active, starting to wolfpack mid depth transition areas. The crayfish molt is imminent and there will be a quick move onto the shallow rocks and gravel areas when that occurs, but for now, drop shotting edges, humps and current breaks, wacky, small cranks and soft jerkbaits are all catching fish.

Walleye bite has been hit or miss. The fish are tight to weed edges or in the deeper sandgrass. Lots of guys are reporting some short bites, and I certainly saw this when I was on the water this week. I didn't do any night fishing this week, but I'd guess the fish have been active after dark.  Slow death and back trolling lindy rigs with live bait has been producing, but like most of the fishing during the last week, some days have been far better than others.

Pike fishing has been steady for action, but inconsistent day to day. The fish are doing what they should be doing (chasing baitfish in open water along the weedlines) but connecting with them has been difficult to do. Live bait rigs are still catching fish in the 15-22 FOW range, and buzzbaits, spinnerbaits and lipless cranks are still moving fish out of isolated clumps of weeds in flat areas.

Musky fishing has been slow. Very few reports of legal (40+inch fish) coming in. Smaller fish are chasing bait Mid-morning and round dusk. The topwater bite dropped off, but I'm hearing about lots of follows on gliders and smaller jerkbaits.

Good Luck,
CT