Opener report

[Stick in Mud]

For a lake with no fish in it, fishing is still pretty good.    It took us about an hour of trolling to get our fish on Saturday morning at midnight.  Fishing was pretty slow for us during the day on Saturday, but the wind on Saturday night really picked things up.  

Our total on Saturday night was about 20 fish over 14'', with quite a few very small ones mixed in.  The launch got over 50, and my friends each got about 30 in the boat, though quite a few of them were small. Nothing fancy, either: slip bobbers and leeches in about 10 feet, but I honestly don't think it mattered much, as I talked to people who whacked 'em in 20 ft and as shallow as 6 ft.    

It sure is nice to be back on the Pond.

[mrklean]

How was traffic up there my father in law was over on Gull and said it was dead half the boats as last year

[JP Z]

I know Sunday it was dead, but that was also with the hurricane winds

[Stick in Mud]

Traffic was very, very, very low. I think I counted 16 or 17 boats out there on Saturday evening and only a handful at midnight Fri night/Saturday morning.   Sunday I didn't see a boat on the lake, but the big east wind had a lot to do with that, I think.  

I sure hope the word gets out about the bite up there. Yes, the one-fish limit will keep a lot of people away, but there are also a lot of guys who'll be happy to catch 20+ walleyes in an evening.   I can't remember the last time I kept a walleye over 20''--at least before last weekend.  There's a lot of meat on a 20.5'' fish.  Probably as much as two 16'' fish from Upper Red.  

[jigginjim]

May need to try spinners for the eyes holding in15-20ft. 

[BlackArrow1]

For the amount of anglers I saw while fishing Friday and there being a tourney Saturday there ain't any reports? Here's my report to add. Talked to the resort before I headed out. They said the fish were holding shallow yet on shore points/rocks. Did some fishing in these regions and struggled. Even graphed out deeper off them and didn't see fish holding there. Headed out to rock reefs off shore. Had to drive and graph awhile before I found good marks. Fish were holding in gravel 22-25 ft. Had shiners/leeches on lindy. Leeches were the ticket. I did pull spinners and they didn't want em. Got a handful of decent ones from 16" to 20" out in the gravel during the day. Moved into the rocks shallow 9 ft on a reef at dusk. Slip bobber. Funny thing is all the boats fishing the reef left before dark to post on shore breaks. Around 7:30 the eyes started to hit. Bigger fish. Got 8 eyes in an hour or so, all 22-28 inches. The fish were there. Lost 5 in that time as well. Spent hours earlier during the day fishing regions where they were said to be..... I had to drive and graph a lot to find fish holding deeper/ catch a few/ and take a guess on where they'd be at dark. That's my report on the work I did. It was good. Overall I caught lots of different year classes. 

[Stick in Mud]

Great report, and good to hear you got them!

I'd be spending this week up at the Pond, but unfortunately I've got to fish Leech all week. Rough life.  

[BlackArrow1]

Hey Stick. Next time you or anyone is out and tries the mud flats, could you post a water temp reading from out there please? Thanks. 

[aanderud]

Thanks for the reports, BlackArrow and Stick.  

I'll be up in 2 weeks with my 7 year old.  Haven't been up in June in probably 7 or 8 years, basically since I started catfishing.... Late May and early June is the best time for flatheads, and the rivers are so close, it's hard to dedicate time to walleyes.  However, junior wants to go walleye fishing.  Can't say I blame him for wanting to target something with more action (i.e. more than 2 bites in 4 hours for 4 guys).  

So, we're coming up the 5th for a 1 day adventure, and hoping to find them either on the sand or out in the mud on the north end.  I prefer pulling spinners on mud since it's much easier to cover tons of ground and find some active fish, but if they're not biting out there yet we'll likely be able to find em in the 15-20 foot sand like jigginjim mentioned.

Hoping to hear some updated reports between now and then.  Thanks!

[Stick in Mud]

No problem on the water temps, BlackArrow.  

I've been fishing Leech all week, but I'm going to Mille Lacs tomorrow (Saturday) through Wednesday and then back up again the around the time you and Adam will be there.  I'll definitely post a report, and if you want some specifics, just PM me and I'll pass them along. Hopefully I will have some good news to share.   

[BlackArrow1]

Fished it all day Sunday. Spent the majority of the daytime hopping around to different mud flats. Surface temps were around 60 degrees. There are fish on the mud flats. A bug hatch happened and there were massive slicks of bugs out there. The fish weren't super active Sunday on the mud. I did get a few on lindy/leeches. Bigger ones. Lots of what I think were tulibee feeding on the surface bugs. Forgot my slow death hooks for crawlers, I would have liked to use em. Nothing on gold spinner/leech. The fish were at times off the flats a little ways deeper.  My advice is to just drive and graph mud regions until you graph pockets of fish, then fish em. Keep moving and graphing/fishing until ya get on active fish. Fished the Guch, 9 mile, boot, blue jug, sliver, and Fishers flats. Once again I posted on the rocks before dark. 10ft of water with bobber n leech. Did the best there from 8-9:30pm. Smallies to start. Then the nicer eyes moved in. The later it got I was only getting small eyes. If there is a predominant wind all day put your efforts on those wind blown sides of the flats and rocks. That's what I found for my day. 

[BlackArrow1]

Stick if ya wanna trade specifics on PM that's fine.