Grand Rapids Fishing Report July 17, 2016 - Lake Pokegama, Grand Rapids Walleye Shootout Would you call the Walleye fishing on Pokegama Lake a tough bite? I think you could say so, especially when 52 out of 100 really good Walleye fishing teams wind up with zeros in their weight columns. Winning the Grand Rapids Walleye Shootout wasn’t easy for Tim Bymark and Chris Marinucci, of Grand Rapids, MN. Win it they did though and with a respectable, albeit lower than average weight of 19.79 pounds. That proves the point that no matter how tough fishing is, there’s always somebody who figures out how to catch them. While the Walleye fishermen gritted their teeth, hoping for the next bite, we cruised around the lake, checking out conditions and watching the Humminbird for signs of what was happening under the water. Surface temperatures on the lake ranged between 66 and 69 degrees. That’s probably one of the key reasons that fish in the deep waters of Pokegama haven’t fully reached summertime feeding patterns. As we scanned the lakes deep water structures, the Humminbird revealed only scattered singles and pairs of fish. Most of them were holding in water depths of 30 feet or more and most of them were suspended well above the bottom. Fishing for these high-hovering Walleyes is tricky; fish that are suspended above the bottom makes it hard for “structure fishermen” to figure out where to place their baits in relation to the bar that they’re fishing over. The idea that looked best to me, were the competitors who were fishing with slip floats and live baits. It makes a lot of sense to hunt down and single out randomly located fish and if I’d been out there to fish in the tournament, I would have probably approached it that way myself. Whether or not Bymark and Marinucci used this strategy is unknown to me, but maybe by tomorrow, I can share a few details about their presentation. Until then, I have to hustle, it’s day 1 of the Daiken Fisharoo and I’m gonna have my hands full! As I mentioned late last week, 10 guides and 30 fishermen are going to generate a lot of fishing news this week, so keep the page open and check back often.

Tim Bymark and Chris Marinucci along with other top finishers in the Grand Rapids Walleye Shootout worked hard to win, but win they did. A moment of Glory for Sean Colter who struggled with the Walleye on Pokegama this Saturday. More proof that if you keep after 'em, you're gonna win, at least a little bit. Dave and Jim Carpenter, 19 place were all smiles when they landed this whopper.

Affirmed lunker hunter Bob Carlson, AKA "Mr. C" showing off one of our better efforts. Lindy Rigging a night crawler on a shoreline point at 26 feet produced this dandy.

Grand Rapids Fishing Report June 25, 2016 - Summer Peak Walleye Fishing Knowing the weather forecast of sunshine and calm seas, I'm not sure that I would have planned the past two days of fishing for myself. But my trips aren't always planned around what I think is best, sometimes folks wanna do what they wanna do. Luckily, the fish do occasionally help out, at least a little bit. You already know that searching for Mr. Big is a passion of mine and since I’ve been lucky enough to share that passion with lots of people, some of them have been bitten by the “Big Fish Bug” too. That’s why I spent my last two days probing the waters of Grand Rapids’ 2 big fish lakes, Pokegama and Trout. I want to be clear, neither one of them produced tons of fish, nor were they expected to. But the results of careful searching and methodical presentation did pay off in terms of catching a few of “Mr. Big’s” cousins. Walleyes in both lakes were holding on deep water points, most of the best spots were connected to the shorelines. The Humminbird revealed fish holding in depths of 18 to 30 feet, there were probably fish deeper than that too, but I don’t even want to know if there are. I set the lower depth range at 30 feet, and focus only on fish that are shallower than that.

There are two reasons for ignoring deep water fish. First, catching fish in water deeper than 30 feet is destructive; there is no such thing as catch and release fishing at these depths. Unless you intend to bag a big fish for your freezer, I’d encourage you to follow my lead and leave the deep water fish alone.
The second reason for targeting fish at the shallow end of the deep water spectrum is that these are the fish most likely to be feeding. A good rule of thumb is that the shallower they are, the more likely they are to be feeding. I always start by working the shallowest fish first, moving deeper as needed.
Lindy rigging with live bait produced all of the Walleyes that we caught on both lakes. Large Creek Chubs and Redtails accounted for a few fish, Leeches accounted for a few more, but night crawlers accounted for the lion’s share of our Walleyes. Pitching jig and minnow combos into the weeds fooled some Northern Pike and slip-floating leeches in the cabbage patches tricked some nice Bass.
I believe that it was our effort to stay out of the “goo” that made the night crawlers better than the rest of the baits. By injecting them with a bubble of air using the worm blower, we were able to make these baits run clean longer than we could with the others.
I could be mistaken, but I think that this mossy stuff is more prevalent this year than it has been in recent times and as usual, I always wind up with more questions than answers. So here’s one that have for you today; “can anybody tell me what is causing the extra heavy buildup of slippery, green, moss-like substance that is clinging to every weed and rock? What is it called and where does it come from?”

Grand Rapids Fishing Report June 17, 2016 - Cabbage Patch Crappies Yesterday I wrote; "I'm hoping for a lucky break that will lead me to some Crappies. It's been a couple of weeks since I've entertained any Crappie fishermen, so it could be interesting." Well, it turned out that for me, stopping into the old reliable “Cabbage Patch” delivered the lucky break that we needed. The Crappies did show up and they did cooperate, but as usual, knowing the answer to one question doesn’t solve much; it just leads to another question. If I know that the fish are going to show up in one particular weedbed, then take my crew straight to the spot where I know they will show up, then why aren’t the fish already there, why do we have to sit and wait for them, where are they coming from?

Crappies cooperated for Tim Fischbach (left) and Larry Lashley on Thursday. Today, jig and minnow combos suspended below floats was the best presentation.

Crappies are interesting critters, they move around a lot. They travel in and out of shallow water feeding areas and when it comes to catching them, timing is probably 10 times more important than skill. In fact, when fish are present and when they’re biting, skill is the last thing you need, just tie on a jig and minnow, clip on a bobber and throw out it into the weeds; the fish do the rest.
I may not have the timing down perfectly, but I do think that I’m beginning to understand more about how certain key elements must converge before you have the makings of a good, summertime Crappie spot.
It wasn’t until I joined the DNR Panfish Workgroup last year that I learned that these fish move around a lot more than I ever realized before. It’s their nomadic behavior that sometimes makes summertime Crappie fishing a hit or miss proposition. It also helps to explain why anglers can be catching Crappies hand over fist for 45 minutes, only to watch the feeding frenzy stop dead in its tracks.
For Crappie anglers, the trick is to figure out one place where the fish are gonna show up for sure and then be there at the right time.
In the Grand Rapids area, early summer, post spawn Crappies love Cabbage Weeds. But we know that they also love deep water and absolutely know that they love food!
During the fall, Crappies are easy to find and catch in deep water, they are tightly schooled, stacked up and very cooperative. But I believe that during summer, they don’t feed in deep water, I think they use the deep water as a sanctuary and migrate into the weeds when it’s time to put on the feed bag.
If you think about it, the theory makes lots of sense because during summer, most of the food is located in the weeds. The heavy cover provides sanctuary for everything that swims and they produce the Oxygen that all fish need to survive. But if the Crappies stay in the weeds, they become vulnerable especially in Pike infested water. I think that it’s in the Crappies nature to get into the weeds, feed until they’re full and then get the heck out of there before they become the next meal.
Later, I’ll explain why the feeding pattern changes during the fall, but for now, I’m up against the clock and want to give you this important clue. Every good Crappie spot that I know has 3 key ingredients; A large weed flat, an inside corner and a deep water hole. Wherever the 3 elements converge is usually the travel route that the Crappies use to move between feeding and resting areas.
Tomorrow, I’ll get a map or two that illustrate this type of location, but for now, I have to get to work. Do me a favor and check back tomorrow for the rest of this report.