Archived Fishing Reports:
September 2007 thru December 2007
Fishing
Report! Jeff Sundin 10-12-07 |
Dare I say it? The T-word. I've been sitting on the edge of my seat the
past few days watching the surface water temperatures slipping toward 55
degrees and dreading the inevitable turnover. One sure sign that the
turnover is approaching, is a period of Walleye activity that's almost too
good to be true. Well we've already had that and folks that braved the
windy, rainy weather earlier this week were rewarded with great Walleye
action in terms of both numbers and size. Walleye activity was good during
the daytime and the fish hit aggressively making them fairly easy to hook
and land.
The whole thing shifted into low gear on Thursday when the surface water
temperatures fell into the low 50 degree range. Fish that previously
pounded the jig, began picking, nibbling and dropping the bait like a
pre-schooler trying his first asparagus. As bad as that sounds, we still
caught some fish, but to be sure, there was a noticeable difference in the
activity and location of the fish. We began "scrounging" around on a
variety of spots and picked up a couple here, a couple there and so on.
It's a bit early to be certain, but judging by the sudden change in
activity and the shift toward deeper water, I'd say it's fairly safe to
assume that we've hit the turnover. The good news is that even now, we are
already in the recovery period. Soon fishing will stabilize and we'll get
rewarded for our trouble with those last few nice evenings, pretty sunsets
and late season big Walleye episodes.
One key for fishing the "post turnover period" is to prepare yourself to
include fishing the prime times in your game plan. Most days there will be
a spurt of action just before sunset that lasts until dark. So from here
on out, I'll be planning to fish right up until dark. Another key will be
to focus on deeper locations that include rocky points, sunken bars and
steeper drop off areas. The weedline can still be important, but finding
green healthy weeds is mandatory. You'll notice that lots of baitfish that
spent the summer over the weed tops on shallow flats, have moved out into
open water away from the edges where dying weeds become temporarily
inhabitable.
We noticed that the colder water temperatures also drove the Crappies a
couple of feet deeper and we found most of these fish in the deepest
"holes" available. Although we faired a bit better with Crappies in terms
of action on Thursday, we noticed a decline in the average size of the
fish. The smaller fish seemed less affected by the colder water
temperatures, but larger Crappie in the 11 to 13 inch range were fairly
scarce. The Crappies are mainly still spread out horizontally, but there
were more of the "pods" of fish that are usually common during the fall.
Whenever we found the larger groups of fish, we had more consistent
action.
With only another week to go (for me), I guess the scope of my reports
will be diminishing but I'll try to get at least one more update posted
before I move on to some Duck hunting. Good Luck, Jeff
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Above average Pike will be showing up
more each day as the baitfish continue to stack up on steeper breaklines,
rocky points and what's left of the green weed patches. Live bait rigs
with 4 to 6 inch Creek Chubs, Suckers or Red Tails are a good combination
to catch both Walleye and Pike on the same spots.
It's getting to be that time of year
when fishing the "sunset bite" pays off. After a week of rainy, cold and
windy weather, it sounds like we've got a week of milder temperatures
coming. We'll be planning to fish the evening bite every day from here
until the end of the season.
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Fishing
Report! Jeff Sundin 10-5-07 |
Rainy, but warm fall weather has made fishing fairly easy this week. We've
had some wind, but as luck would have it, there's been plenty of Walleye
action on the smaller lakes and we've been able to avoid big waves by
staying off the the "big lakes". During the later part of this week our
water temperatures have actually risen a degree or two. Hovering now
around 59 degrees, the fall bite should continue for the next several days
at least.
Walleye action tends to peak at these high 50 degree
temperatures, but the other shoe drops when the surface temps fall below
54 or thereabouts. After that, we experience a temporary slow down, so I'd
suggest giving it one last shot if you can make it out this week.
Walleye location continues to center around the shallower water now
whether it's the 6 to 8 foot weedlines on Lake Winnie or 20 to 22 foot
weedlines of Pokegama, the principal is the same. Baitfish that lived
happily in the shallow weeds all summer long begin pushing out toward the
deeper weed edges. Hungry Walleyes (and other fish) find the points and
pockets in the weed edge and feed heavily before the winter sets in.
Crappies action regained some momentum this week, but we've been seeing
lots of smaller than average fish. There must have been a massive hatch a
few seasons back because several area lakes have large populations of 5 to
8 inch Crappies right now. If we stick to it, we are managing to get
enough keepers (9 to 11 inch) to satisfy folks, so it's worth doing, but
I'd say the best approach if to fish with Waxies or cut worms to bolster
the odds of catching Bluegills which have been mixed in with the deeper
Crappies and have often been better size fish than the Crappies.
Largemouth Bass fishing
continues to be good, I just wish I had the opportunity to do more of it
right now. There are still
enough green weeds to hold the fish and they are on their fall feeding
plan too so we're catching them by accident every time we toss a jig into
the better weed beds. They're location appears to be dependant only on
having good, green cover with deeper water nearby, so the inside corners,
steeper drop-off areas and points are all gathering places. When you find
one, you'll find more right now, so if you catch one, stop the boat and
continue to work the area.
We've had some above average Pike action this week as well, but we've had
to root 'em out of the weedlines to catch them. Casting or trolling has
been okay at times, but smaller fish tend to be the ones hitting the
faster moving baits. For larger fish, try a jig with a larger than normal
minnow. I'd say about 6 inches is perfect and we're rigging a 17 pound
fluorocarbon leader. Tie leader directly to the jig, tie a loop on the end
of the leader and attach it to your line using a snap swivel. This is
really simple, but effective and it protects against 90 percent of your
bite off's.
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We've had some above average Pike
action this week as well, but we've had to root 'em out of the weedlines
to catch them.
It's never too late to learn a new
trick. Here's Don Landers with his first fish. An avid hunter, Don decided
it was time to take a jig and minnow for a test drive. Here's one of the
early successes from his first outing.
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Fishing
Report! Jeff Sundin 9-26-07 |
We've had every kind of weather nature can throw at us this week. It's
been cold, hot, calm, windy, stormy and gorgeous all during the same week.
It's incredible to me that the fish are even trying to bite, but evidently
in the fall, the urge to feed before winter sets in is more important than
weather conditions. The really good news is that surface water temperatures
have stabilized, in some cases even risen from 59 degrees to about 61
degrees depending on where you check them. The most noticeable signs of
the colder water have been the huge schools of bait fish now found out in
the outer edges of deep weedlines and even in the deeper adjacent open
water areas. There have been some days that were brutal to fish, but we've
been able to consistently bag at least some Walleye every day. Limits of
fish? Not necessarily, because I've been fishing mostly on "slot limit"
lakes where we've been releasing roughly 50 percent of our catch. But we
have been able to bring in a dozen or so "keepers" on most trips this
week.
Walleye seemed to have
switched their feeding preference to minnows, but night crawlers and
Leeches (if you have them) are still producing fish. My rule of thumb is
to fish jig and minnow on sunnier, breezy days and use night crawlers on
the calmer, more overcast days.
Walleye location has shifted a bit toward the shallower water now and I've
spent more time in the 6 to 10 foot range than I did last week. Weeds are
not as important as they had been because there are huge schools of
baitfish on the outer edges of bars and points adjacent to deeper water.
If you cover enough water, you will find some fish.
Crappies action regained some momentum this week, but we've been seeing
lots of smaller than average fish. There must have been a massive hatch a
few seasons back because several area lakes have large populations of 5 to
8 inch Crappies right now. If we stick to it, we are managing to get
enough keepers (9 to 11 inch) to satisfy folks, so it's worth doing, but
I'd say the best approach if to fish with Waxies or cut worms to bolster
the odds of catching Bluegills which have been mixed in with the deeper
Crappies and have often been better size fish than the Crappies.
One really fun experience we've had this week was Largemouth Bass fishing.
Typically we catch fish using spinnerbaits this time of year but for now,
the Bass are using fairly heavy cover so when we find them, we have to
"root them out" using either the Texas rigged plastic worms or jumping
over the heavy cover with surface baits like a slop frog. There are still
enough green weeds to hold the fish and they are on their fall feeding
plan too. They're location appears to be dependant only on having good,
green cover with deeper water nearby. It's a great break when you get
tired of fighting the wind and rain.
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The weather has been breezy and rainy,
but the fish are cooperative as fall feeding becomes more important. Jig
and minnow fishing has become more consistent this week, but fish continue
to be caught on night crawlers and even leeches.
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Fishing
Report! Jeff Sundin 9-19-07 |
The cold weather of the past week gave way to warm, humid and unstable
air. So I've switched from mittens and a mad bomber hat back to the summer
lightweight rain suit.
Even though the air temperature has risen, surface water temperatures are
hanging in at 57 to 59 degrees depending on where you check them. The most
noticeable signs of the colder water have been the huge schools of bait
fish now found out in the outer edges of deep weedlines and even in the
deeper adjacent open water areas. While there are some encouraging signs
of a "Fall Walleye Movement" starting up, it's not universal and some
places are definitely better than others.
After I reported last week that the Walleye seemed to have
switched their feeding preference to minnows, we had a reversal this past
Monday where we started out catching fish early on jigs & minnows, only to
discover that by day's end, night crawlers were again the preferred food.
At the time, I attributed that to the typical fall cycle where calmer,
grey days seem to call for abandoning the jig/minnow in favor of the live
bait rigs. My guess is that once the gloomy skies break up and we get a
breeze, jig and minnow fishing will be the rule of thumb again. A note
about the minnows, We've been carrying some shiners and they're working,
but not nearly as well as the larger (4 to 6 inch) creek chubs. Even the
Perch are taking these larger minnows over the smaller shiners. If you
want to give the larger minnows a spin, you can use them on a jig, but be
prepared to feed line allowing the fish some time to get the bait fully
into their mouth before setting the hook.
Walleye location has been varied, some fish are hanging out in deeper
water now. We've seen lots of them in 18 to 26 feet, but the deeper they
go, the less aggressive they've been. I had some success this week
watching these deep fish during the day and then returning to the
shallower adjacent structures toward evening. When the fish moved up
higher on the structures (12 to 14 feet), the bite was on. I guess that
with the cooler water temperatures, we'll see more movement toward the
better evening bites. Usually, that doesn't start this early, but it looks
like it will be driven more by the water temperature than by the time of
year.
Crappies had been wide open for the past few weeks, but the action slowed
a bit this week. It's easy to find the fish, they're out in the open water
now and we can easily get on top of a school of fish, but they've just
gotten a lot more finicky. We haven't tried the "evening bite", but it
wouldn't surprise me to discover that they too are starting to show a
preference for that "evening run" like the Walleye.
Perch fishing has been frustrating this fall with scattered small groups
of fish showing up randomly. The ones we are catching appear to located
mainly in heavier weed cover and are apparently well fed because they are
extremely picky and hard to hook. Hopefully, I'll have some better news on
the Perch as this week allows me more time to look for them.
Northern Pike have been located in deep water. Our best Pike action has
been found in water 30 feet or deeper and our presentation has been large
minnows fished with live bait rigs. You can add a spinner blade to the rig
if you want to, but a simple 4 to 6 foot Snell tied on heavy mono or
fluorocarbon line, a 4/0 hook and a 3/4 ounce egg sinker will do the
trick. We have discovered that no minnow is too large. In fact the better
Pike are completely ignoring smaller minnows. Don't be afraid of 10 to 12
inch Suckers, even bigger if you can find them.
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The fall color has finally found us.
We're looking at 5 to 10 days for the peak of color.
Don't be afraid of larger minnows
for Walleye right now. These 4 to 6 inch creek chubs are working well this
week. They can be fished on a live bait rig or jig head but you'll need to
feed line to allow the fish time to full inhale the bait. Don't be
surprised when you catch perch on these larger minnows as well.
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Fishing
Report! Jeff Sundin 9-12-07 |
Our first major cold snap of the fall has arrived with a vengeance!
Tuesday was windy and cold with daytime temps barely making it over the 50
degree mark. We watched the surface water temperatures drop from 64 to
about 63 degrees by days end and I suspect that it will have dropped some
more by the time we make it to the lake on Wednesday morning. A lot of
what we did this past week isn't going to matter now because this major
cold front will certainly send us in some new directions. This cold snap
is likely to trigger a movement of bait and fish from the shallow
shoreline water out to the first sharp drop off areas. Water is an amazing
insulator so I don't expect many of the weeds to die off this time around
and we should be looking at some new fish arriving on the deeper weed
edges this week. Ideally, surface temperatures will hit the high 50 to low
60 degree range and then stay there for a while.
Walleye fishing for me took a turn this week as we saw the first evidence
of a switch from fish that preferred the live bait rigs, night crawlers
and leeches over to a preference for jig and minnow combinations.
Beginning with the rainy, cold weather we had last Friday, Walleyes
started moving in heavier weed cover and abandoning some of the main lake
flats and mid depth bars that we had been fishing. Whenever they shifted
toward the weed cover, the jig and minnow presentation picked up for us.
I'm expecting to see some new patterns emerging during the next day or two
so I'm going to cut this report short and expand on it over the next
couple of days.
One new development from Tuesday (9-11) that I should note is that the
Bluegills started moving out from weed cover into the open water. Areas
where you've been finding fish may now be empty but if you start looking
in 15 to 20 feet of water out away from the shallow weeds, you'll start
marking some schools of fish. They may even be mixed with Crappie at this
point. Because of the wind, we had to use heavier jigs than we have in the
past, but even with a 1/8 ounce jig and cut piece of night crawler we
managed to catch a couple of dozen fish. I plan on trying again today, so
check back for an update on Thursday.
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Fishing Report! Jeff Sundin 9-3-07 |
Labor Day weekend has come and
gone marking the end of our summer fishing season. It's unusual
to have nice weather for the entire Labor Day holiday, but
that's what we had this year. Sunny skies and warm temperatures
had the fisherman out in force especially on Cutfoot Sioux and
Lake Winnie where I spent the majority of my time this weekend
and most of the past week.
Late summer fishing patterns
persisted and water temperatures were slowly rising all week
long. We started the week with 67 to 68 degree surface
temperatures and ended Sunday with 71 to 72 surface water. Mixed
bag fishing has been awesome with Walleyes, Bluegills and
Crappies all available during the same fishing day. In fact, I
think this has been one of the better late summer periods (on
Lake Winnie and Cutfoot) we've had in several years.
For Walleye, I've been hearing a
lot of folks talking about fishing with jig and minnows and to a
lesser extent crankbaits. But for me, night crawlers have been
the clear winner for producing the best Walleye fishing all week
long. Drifting or back-trolling the weedlines in 8 feet of water
have produced most of the fish, but we have found a few nice
schools located on shoreline related bars and points in 12 to 18
feet as well. Most days we've had our best action during the
mornings and so we fish walleyes until lunch time and then shift
to panfish for the afternoon. On the windy days though, Walleye
action continues all day long.
The windy days have also been
best for folks trolling the crankbaits and the side benefit for
them has been a nice Northern Pike bite mixed in with the
Walleyes. The jury is out about which crankbaits are best this
summer. Salmo's #4 and #5 hornets, #5 Shad Raps, #7 Rattlin'
Raps and the 1 ounce size Rattlin' Spot are all producing their
share of fish on the shallow weedlines. Fish are more closely
related to the bottom this season, so it's important to keep
experimenting with lures, speed and distance behind the boat
until you hit the magic combination. Remember, it may change
every day, so don't get locked into a groove. If what you did
yesterday isn't working, coach yourself into a new pattern and
you will find some active fish eventually.
For Pike, we've had some action
casting Musky size spinnerbaits, jerk baits and trolling larger
Sucker minnows or Creek Chubs. With all of the sunny weather,
fishing for pike has been hit and miss. They've been active
during early morning and on cloudy days. On cloudy days they
remain active during most of the early part of the day, but even
then the action drops off during mid day. If you really want to
zero in on larger pike, get out there early and fish the first
few hours of daylight and then switch to something else during
mid day.
Crappies continue to be active
and we've had excellent results searching for schools of fish in
open water near the shoreline. You won't need to go real deep
yet, but they are starting to shift away slightly from the tight
inside turns. More fish are showing up in open, meandering water
in depths of 16 to 24 feet. The pattern is simple, move along
slowly watching your graph for a school of fish. Stop when you
find them and vertical jig with an 1/8 ounce or 1/16 ounce jig
tipped with a small minnow or piece of cut night crawler. I
think it's important to try that cut night crawler as I have
been catching an above average number of fish on that piece of
worm and it gives the Bluegills something to think about too.
Many times the schools are mixed with Crappies suspended 5 to 8
feet above the bottom and Sunfish hugging closer to the bottom.
Sunfish are still mainly related
to the weedlines, but this week I've noticed more pressure on
them and they are starting to move away from some of the popular
spots. I see more fish showing up in the deeper water (16 to 20
feet) outside of the weedlines and I'm expecting to see that
trend continue.
From here on through to the
freeze up we're looking at emerging fall fishing patterns and a
return to cool water. As we start to see colder temperatures at
night the weedline fishing will continue to improve, so don't
put away your fishing gear just yet, there's a lot more good
fishing still to come. |
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Copyright
© All Rights Reserved Jeff
Sundin 2007 |