Fishing Report May 31st, 2013.

A quickie report for today, more after I have a chance to compile the information which came in this week.

Fishing was a little slower the last week as the post-spawn blues set in on many lakes for bass fishing. That, coupled with the crazy unstable weather we've had this season, has made it hard to consistently pattern fish. Although polar opposites in terms of the actual weather compared to last year's drought, the premise is the same...you need to be able to adapt.

The best action is coming from panfish and pike. Panfish, especially bluegills are getting ready to move in and spawn, and can be found in the shallow areas around scattered weed clumps, sand, rock, or wood laydowns. The rain and the cooler weather ahead in the short term might slow down the process, but the fishing has been very good. Go small with your presentations, and be ready to mix it up some. I had much better success early last week by trying a mix of plastics and different live bait options. Waxworms outfished redworms 15-1 one day last week....and then plastics were better the next day.

Meanwhile, pike fishing has been very good, with some quality fish coming in. The larger pike are starting to move back out to deeper breaks, but there's decent action to be had casting around isolated cover with spinners, buzzbaits or lipless crankbaits....or working the flats with suspending jerks or spoons. If you can find some decent weeds standing in 8-15 FOW, smaller suckers on a slip sinker rig can really produce some nice fish.

The last thing I have for right now is that there's a fair number of reports on Lake-Link and otherwise that the whitebass are running between the Jefferson Dam and the mouth of the river. I just got back to town this morning, so I have not personally verified this, but my usual sources have been talking it up some.

Check back over the weekend for a more complete report.

Cheers,
CT