Lake Pokegama Fishing Reports

[cjgardner]

2020 Lake Pokegama Fishing Reports, Grand Rapids - Click Here.

 

I will be staying at a resort on Pokegama in early June. What can I expect as far as fishing? Are there any methods that traditionally work well this time of year? I am not particular to a species, just looking for some action. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.

[Seabass77]

17' of water seems to be the popular depth on this lake for a number of fish, probably because that is the typical weedline. try jigs and shad plastics for pike or lindy rigs and leeches for walleye and bass.

I also do well trolling for eyes at night, sometimes I don't leave the cabin till 10 or 10:30.

[Jason Boser]

1/4 oz gumball with the longer shank shiner minnow and you should be set. stay on the weed line or right in the weeds before the break and you will have action. I fish 13-25ft on average and you will pick up pike, walleya bass and perch

Jason

[BP21]

I am going up to the girlfriends cabin on Pokegama. Have fished it before with decent luck. I would really like to get into some smallies and walleyes. I am finally able to bring a bass boat up there, so will have better tools to catch some fish. I have GPS so I know where the breaks and sand bars are. Any help would be great.

[Seabass77]

I spent the last week on Pokie doing some fishing. Very mixed results. Early last week the crappies and bluegills were in the shallow bays and hitting very well early and late in the day. As the week went on, the fishing moved out of the bays and staged in deeper water.

For bass, we caught just a few but the results of the bass tourney was great. Winning bag was 6 bass @ 26+ pounds. Most bass caught on jerk baits and tubes over the beds.

Walleyes - Very hit and miss, some by the causeway, some by the islands, but few and far between. We did catch enough for a fish fry saturday night for 8 guys.

I look for things to improve as the water warms up. The beginnings of the weedlines are just barely starting.

[dirtyd]

06-05-09 got the boat in the water around 10:30pm and tried trolling for walleyes. Caught mainly a good buzz, but did manage one 16 incher on an 8 inch shallow diving perch rapala. In by 1:45 for Pumper to reply to Jeffy on the GR Fishing Reports thread.

06-06-09 hit the dock about 10:00am and found some small crappies still guarding nests, and one really big one! Fished for a while, but then decided to drift some reefs for walleyes. No walleyes caught, but some real nice perch on a steep bank caught on jig and chub. Decided to hit the shorelines for more crappies and managed a decent meal. Caught and kept 8 crappies sight fishing the shallows with small beatle-spins. Was a ton of fun! Also, just found out after zooming in on the pics, there is a loon out there with fishing line wrapped around its bill. Will most likely die. Please make sure to throw away your discarded line, and not toss it in the water. Granted...the loon could have gone after someone's bait, but just want to bring it to people's attention.

06-07-09 managed to catch 1 more crappie and 1 more huge sunny off the dock on small jigs with twister tails. Sunny measured in at 9.5 inches. Very Nice! Pics will be up on our website soon, as I have no clue how to post them on here...

Happy fishing!

[Champs]

I am fishing Pokegama tonight for my first time ever. I got a couple of tips above as far as presentation for tonight. I guess I am just wondering how the bite has been for walleyes and if their are any other locations I should pay attention to. Thanks!

[Bassin'Wally Guy]

Ditto what Boser said...course I'm just a lolely bass guy he knows, so what do I know...

Later..

Chris

[PokieGuy1331]

I have fished Pokie for 5 years and this is the most frustrating year ever. This past weekend I went to the tournament weigh in and the most any boat had was 4 fish and 6-8 boats didn't have a fish. I fished Saturday and Sunday and I never had an eye bite. This morning the west lake was full of hatched mayflies and the graph screen had clouds of flies. This is the first time I have seen that many flies on the lake. How is everybody else doing? I need some help....

[gkl]

I'm afraid the only help I can offer is sympathy. I've been fishing the lake sice '02 and I have to say this is the worst year I've seen. I saw the RIVERS of dead flies on the west lake yesterday. Never seen anything like it. My hope is that they are gorged on flies and that the fishing will improve once thats over.

[311Hemi]

We hit one 22" eye fishing Saturday night from around 8:00PM to 11:00pm. Pulling cranks in 13' FOW over the flats on the NW sides of the islands that are located in the main part of the lake. Don't remember the name of the islands....but they were S-SW of the golf course.

Noticed the mayfly's as well, that probably is not going to help much!

[Seabass77]

I agree its been slow. Although I did pick up this one on Saturday morning so I can't complain too much.

We also picked up one 23" on Saturday night.

Things have been very difficult to pattern, it's one here and one there. Very few fish for how many hours I have been putting in. The quality keeps me coming back though. The walleyes on this lake are pigs.

I am wondering if the lake needs some changes to the management philosophy.

[Colter]

I agree that the bite has been tough. The fish seemed to be spread out which is making the task to finding them more difficult. As for the mayflies, this is not the first time that I have seen them out there but it is one of the largest hatches that I have seen. This bug hatch combined with the calm conditions we have had and the extreme change in water temperatures are all playing a part in why the lake may seem lifeless at times. This week we finally ran into good numbers of smaller fish.

I would expect that we will see a better bite in the next week or so. I think the fish caught will increase for this weekends AYA tourney, but I think you will see less of the big fish brought to the scale.

Good luck out there~

[slovene]

Sean-haven't seen you lately, but Jake and I wanted to congratulate you and Dave on your finish in the PWC last weekend, looks like you brought some real pigs to the table. Good luck with the AYA this weekend as well!

[gkl]

yes, congrats Sean and thanks for the update!

For the next ten days starting tonight I am going to be doing a lot of night trolling on Pokie. I will have an empty seat most nights. If anyone is interested we can share some spots and hope that they finally start biting You can reach me at 612-309-3976

[gkl]

Very sorry to all those touched by the drownings.

Friday night was finally a fantastic night out for the walleyes. They were up shallow and very aggressive. But of course that pattern changed with the weather. Maybe it will pick up again as the weather stabilizes.

[gregg52]

gkl

when you say up shallow

you mean at night after dark

or evening....and are you pullin cranks ????

i'm pretty new to pokie

i just started seeing a gal that lives just bout on the lake

can have the boat in serval landings in like 10 mins

i'm a winnie guy myelf but like she says y drive so far if we dont hafta

little help much appreicated

[Colter]

Hey thanks! I have been on Pokegama nearly the entire month of June.

I start my night fishing out there in the next day or so and am excited about it. With the warmer water temperatures, I expect that we will see a great year for night trolling and as many big fish that are coming out, it could be a night trolling year like 1996, lots and lots of big fish!!!

Are you planning on doing the MTT tourneys in July and August?

Take care~

[Colter]

GKL,

Thanks. I'm sure I'll see you on the water over the next 10 days. Are you mainly fishing after dark?

See you out there~

[Champs]

When you guys talk about night trolling on Pokeg is that pretty much any area of the lake or are there certain areas of the lake that are better than others? I have only fished the lake once this summer and ever and I may be interested in some late night trolling when my buddy comes up from the TC in 2 weeks.

[slovene]

Sean-yes, we are paid and entered for both July dates and the August 2-day. How'd you do in the AYA? We are heading up to the String on Friday. If I don't see you around, good luck trolling, sounds fun, and we'll see you and Dave in a few weeks at Denny's. S.K.

[gkl]

Friday night i was trolling big huskies in 3-12 fow at 2mph. Me and two friends got 20 in the boat between 14-23 inches. Most were in the 17-19 inch range which is unusual in my experience but nice to see. And they were all grossly obese as usual. No wonder they are hard to catch on this lake. The bite was steady from when we started at 1030p until late (really late . We had another 20-30 strikes without hookups so we rarely went 10 minutes without something happening. I tried 3 of my favorite spots on the main lake that are exposed to the south wind and all held fish. The lake can be challenging but when the time is right it's hard to beat.

[gkl]

Sean, I'll do some fishing during the day but I usually find my time is better spent at night. What's your expectations of the night bite with this major cold front and days of norht winds?

[Colter]

GKL,

Yesterday was the first day this year that I found large schools of fish in a numbers of areas. So with the schooling in place and with as active as the fish were yesterday, I would think the bite will be good. With as many big fish as we have seen this early season, I would think that a guy should see a number of those big ones after dark.

We did find good numbers of smaller 14-16 inch fish yesterday and again we did find a number of 23-25 inch fish again.

Amazingly the water temps have dropped over ten degrees with the recent cool down and North winds. Can't wait to get after those Pokegama Night fish!

[kingkobbla]

I'm going out friday night and I was wondering what part of the lake have you guys been doing well on?? The wendigo arm, out by Nesbit and drumbeater, sherrys arm, the islands by tioga???? Is everyone still using the blue and silver rapalas out there? thanks for the help, I'll give my report on Saturday...I'M PUMPED!!

[gkl]

Me and seabass77 gave it a try last night with no luck. We pulled cranks in 4-12 fow on 5 spots on the west part of the lake. There were a good number of boats out but they dissapeared fast so I'm guessing that nobody was doing well. The water temps should be going back up now so hopefully they will start coming back into the shallows. Any other reports?

[kingkobbla]

hopefully the bite is better then that tomorrow night. Even with the bad report, I'M STILL PUMPED!! I figure my buddy and I will try the wendigo arm, the bridge and out by nesbit. Thanks alot gkl and good luck!

[kingkobbla]

Caught 2 smallmouth and a few pesky rock bass last night and that was it. It was a great night to be out on the lake tho....

[VIZSLA_NUT]

i've been out the last few mornings and have picked up 3-4 each time out but now with the busy weekend the fish will be tight lipped for most of the week

[bmc]

Sean,

What are your best colors on those Salmo hornets when you're night fishing? I've been fishing Deer and had good luck on the green tiger f4 the other night. My daughter was using the shooting star f4 and didn't do as well.

Thanks,

Brian