Fishing Report 5/23

We hope everybody had a safe and enjoyable weekend! We had some great weather, and had a busy weekend here at shop! Fishing has been very good on certain lakes, and poor on others! Overall, however, the fishing has been fair to good! The majority of walleye are still coming in the 6-12 foot range, but the warm weather this week might push fish out a bit. Majority of anglers are having the best luck with a 1/16th or 1/8th ounce jig tipped with a shinner, sucker, fathead or soft plastic and trolled slowly behind the boat .5-1.2 mph. This bite will continue to be productive even with the water temps rising! I would anticipate we will hear reports of more and more anglers having luck this weekend in the 12-20 foot range, and we will start to hear more reports of walleye coming not only on minnows but also leeches, crawlers and hard bodied baits such as jigging raps. The lindy rig bite and slip bobber bite should start to really pick up. Ottertail, Little Pine, and Rush have been the best area lakes, with some fair reports also coming of Little Mcdonald, Big Pine, and Star.

The panfish bite has been extremely good with the late spring, and should remain strong this week! With the late spring we are seeing fish in the new weed growth in 3-8 feet of water. Small jigs, either casted and retrieved or under a bobber, are the ticket this time of year. Small 1/32nd and 1/16th ounce jigs tipped with soft plastic, crappie minnow, leech or worm is producing both bluegill and crappie. Hair jigs have seemed to be outproducing regular led jigs, especially black, pink and white.

Bait was tough to start the open water season because of the late spring and high water levels, but we should be sitting really well for the weekend, and should have a great supply of not only minnows , but also worms, night crawlers and a variety of leech sizes.

It looks like we have a great week of weather approaching, and are excited for the busy weekend! We hope everybody has a safe and enjoyable Memorial weekend. We will be open for normal business hours on Memorial Day Monday.

Happy Fishing Everybody!