Fishing Report 8-24-19

Fishing is going strong overall, but patterning fish remains inconsistent from day to day. Once you're on a solid bite, stick with it.

Conditions around the area are typical for the end of August. After this batch of stable, but cooler weather, weed growth is at summer peak and water temps are hovering in the low to mid 70's.

Panfish have really slowed down over the last ten days. Crappie and bluegill continue to bite along weedlines or suspended out over deep water. Plastics tipped with live bait, tail hooked minnows and leafworms fished vertically or with slip bobbers will produce, but you may have to put in a little time to find the keeping size fish. Evenings, especially both sides of dusk, have been better, as is typical for this time of year. If you're out with the kids and just need to catch some for "action" purposes, visually look for schools around the docks and fish for them with bobbers and small live bait.

Largemouth continue to run late summer patterns. On the sunny days, look for them around docks or slop, or out deep on the weed edges. Topwater bite has been excellent, especially early in the morning. There's a batch of fish using weed clumps in mid-depth (6-12 FOW) water that will bite all day, but you have to fish very tight to cover, and very methodically. This has been the best pattern in terms of consistency over the last couple of weeks, and it is working great for people who put in the time.

Smallmouth fishing has been spotty like it has been most of the season. I'm not saying you can't catch fish, but you'll need to be ready to make some changes on the fly to stay on an active bite. If you can find some active fish, you can do well, but making that connection can be a tough nut to crack consistently. Look for them around the edges of the  rock bars or sand/rock transition areas early, but by mid-morning the fish will be deeper than you think they should be. Jigworms, grubs, minnowbaits, tubes (watermelon red especially) and small white crankbaits.

Walleye fishing dropped off a bit as many people started pulling out the musky gear. Some fish are coming out of 18-25 FOW, but finding some fish in the weeds early and late in the day is your best bet. I'd jig tight to weed edges with the biggest leaches you can find, or lindy rig with small suckers. If you're out close to dark, you may be able to trigger some fish casting minnowbaits like rapalas, rouges or thundersticks over weed clumps adjacent to deeper water or at the ends of points. The cooler temps have pulled some fish shallower.

Pike fishing has been steady and i probably your best bet for action fishing right now. Lots of undersized fish are being caught in the shallow and mid-depth areas. I'd consider moving out deeper and using live bait on a slip sinker rig, trying to connect with active fish in 18-22 or 22-25 feet of water. There is action early in the day on buzzbaits fished over shallow flats, and throwing reapers at deeper patches of weeds in the evenings (very common late summer patterns).

Musky: Still Early, but lots of people are out doing it. Most anglers are reporting some lazy follows but most of the fish are mid-30's to low 40 inch fish. Great time to start fishing rising gliders. and burning blades around weed edges. I think we're still a week or two out from the start of the good part of the year, but shops are getting suckers in, so get out if you can.


Cheers,
CT