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ML 5/28


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Had a decent day on the pond yesterday pre-fishing with a buddy who is a PWT pro. Since the tourney is spinning up, I'm not going to be too specific, even though you still have to go catch them - mostly out of respect for my friend this week.

Didn't catch much on rocky areas, sand was good for sub-slot fish and gravel for larger fish. Think hammered gold spinner and polished gold-hooked crawler rigs. Don't be afraid to drag rigs through the bug hatch clouds on the sonar.

Here's a nice south-central gravel pig, 27 1/8" - hammered gold spinner and a big shiner. A 24" and a 25.5" followed this one on the same drift pass. A lot of the smaller fish (slot and non-slot) we boated were skinnier.

DSCF0017small.JPG

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Nice fish! A little chunky, but not overfed by any means. She's got some sores on her too. That seems to be getting more common. The slots I have caught this year have been what I would call skinny, with nothing in their bellies at all. I know the lake goes through cycles and some years there is less food, so the fish bite better. This year seems to be shaping up as another extreme. Is there any food for the slots? Maybe the larger fish are eating 8 inch perch, but the slots can't quite handle that? The sores and skinny fish have me worried that the population is really stressed right now. Hope I'm wrong. Anyone got any DNR data about baitfish populations?

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Yah, she's been around the block a couple times, as my friend commented when he saw that pic. This was the better side, too! Had a lot of spit an vinegar on the release tho - that was somewhat reassuring.

The keepers that I cut had bugs in their gut (no surprise) and a few minnows here and there - only the ones that came from the sand had minnows, the gravel keeper only had bugs in its stomach.

Here's a pic of the 25.5" - slot fish or not, I think they all need to find some more food! This fish would have looked more football shaped back in January.

DSCF0019small.JPG

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Those walleye's do look a little on the thin side. I can't believe there's a food shortage in the lake?? This winter when I was ice-fishing in shallow water I could look down my hole and see swarms of perch about the size of my pinkie-finger. The walleye's we caught were spitting them up each time we caught them. The eelpout were spitting up even more! It was amazing!! Maybe those little pods of perch fry are really isolated??? I don't know???

My one trip over to the lake was a success with nice fish and girth to them. I'll be over there this weekend. Hopefully the wind will be a little more manageable. It's spinner time!

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You must of been fishing with KK. I see you were in a Lake Assault boat.

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You pegged it, Giz - pretty hard to be inconspicuous out in his boat, but it sure makes mince meat out of the rollers.

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