29, 30, 31

[Slugger]

Coming up tuesday, wednesday, thursday with 2 sleepers and 7 guys and was just looking to get some weekend reports. Amazing how you can schedule a trip 3-4 weeks in advance and hit a cold front fight square int the nose the first day you get there. Oh well maybe we'll luck out and catch some for supper. Thanks for any replies!

[Random guy]

Well to be honest the last four or five days have been brutal. I can't figure out what caused this slow down if it was cold/pressure front, the water boatman bugs in the water creating the same effects of a mayfly hatch or if they just don't feel like biting. Sometimes we all read into fish and fishing so drastically we over look the simple stuff, an old pro Musky angler was asked once why musky sun themselves. The question was asked in hopes for some answer about cold blooded digestive systems or photo sensitive skin and the metabolism effects of the fish warming itself. His reply was classic- "They do it because it makes them happy" Maybe we have unhappy fish. Either way we just can't figure out the slowdown although one thing we do know is this can not continue much longer, these critters have to eat sometime.

Now last night (26th) the evening bite showed great improvement over the last few days, several anglers had caught the limit of walleyes with a few crappies mixed in and even some overgrown perch showing up.

Another trick that I have not seen in awhile were white jigs, white is a great summer color, seldom does it excel in the winter but many anglers are having great success with the smaller sized white colored JB Lures Gem-N-Eye. Now I often feel that jig color and shape is the last factor in good presentation but the proof was in the buckets last night.

Either way a guy just never knows what is going to happen, it could turn on today, maybe tonight but it has to turn and I believe it is going to happen very soon by the HUGE increase in a both activity and aggression demonstrated by the fish I viewed with the Marcum camera. Many of the walleye where not nosing in and then slowly turning away as they have been doing the last few days. The walleye came in like a jet fighter often missing the bait and circling back around for another pass. I had one fish miss three times before it finally hit its mark, now that’s a feeding walleye.

Fishing is fishing and that’s that, sometimes you hit them and sometimes you just learn a lot and eat pizza instead of fresh fish. One thing we can do is look back at many years previous and we know as we get later and later into winter the fishing continues to improve. The panfish peak activity occurring in March and walleyes become a nuisance when targeting mid March crappies. Hang in their and give it your best, I guarantee no matter what happens you will catch more fish and have more fun on the lake no matter what the bite is doing instead of sitting in your easy chair watching a re-run.

[wanger29]

water boatman bugs?

[Random guy]

 Quote:

Order Hemiptera - Family Corixidae - The Water Boatmen

Distinguishing characteristics - The water boatmen are easily identified by their short front legs modified into scoop-shaped structures (Fig. . In addition, their hind legs are oarlike with swimming hairs (Fig. C), their antennae are found under the eyes and are shorter than the head (Fig. D), and they have a one segmented, short triangular beak (Fig. E).

Tolerance Value - 5

Feeding Group - Predator

Notes - The water boatmen are a large and diverse group of water bugs. They overwinter as larvae or adults. They are free-swimming bugs that live in running and quiet waters. Depending on the species they can be considered herbivore-detrivores, omnivores, predators, or scavengers. The size of the Water Boatmen at maturity is 3-11 mm.

Cute little bugger.

All I know is the lake is full of them, at night the bottom is thick with them as they must be going through some sort of hatch or cycle and I have watched fish eat them so...does this have the same effect as a mayfly hatch in the summer?