Fishing Report (5-7-18) (Quickie Update)

Hearing some mixed reports about success on the opener. Overall, sounded fairly average for opening weekend.

I was out for a bit today chasing trout and met with a functional, but still pretty tough bite, but the bass and pike were feeding actively. If I'd have stuck it out, I could have putting something more solid together, but had a few mechanical issues, so I called it a day.

Water temps range greatly, shallow bays and dark bottom areas are in the low to mid 60's, but open water, main lake areas can be in the low to mid 50's.Weeds are non existent.

Panfish are suspending/hanging off the breaks suspended, especially the larger crappies, but you can get onto some decent sized fish in the 4-8 FOW range.  Areas with green weeds will hold the most panfish, but there's not many of those around right now, so look for panfish around laydowns and docks that reach deeper water. Batches of nice gills are starting to school up around deeper docks right now.  Keep it simple, small bobbers and small bait. Minnows for the crappies, but otherwise plastics tipped with waxies or spikes. Remember the biggest panfish are on the bottom of the school, so get that bait down to them.

Bass fishing will be on fire through thus weekend, but expect it to come in flurries of action as you make contact with schooled up fish on the forage run. The fishing should be fantastic for at least the next 10 days/two weeks. Some fish are up on the beds, but most of the larger fish are still chasing bait and craws at the last major structural elements outside of the spawning areas. Jig and pig, wacky, floating worms, soft jerkbaits, grubs, drop shot minnows and lipless crankbaits will produce depending on the day. I caught a couple on my new shaky head rig today when I couldn't get the trout to cooperate.

I'll check back later this week. Get out there, there's fish to be caught.