Ferocious Crawdads!

[MarkB]

My wife and I have been out of state on business this past week and decided to check things out this afternoon. Water temps were 75.7 degrees in Daisy Bay when we left our dock at 3:00. Big Bay had 73.7 degrees. A slight breeze out of the SW kept things cool and made for perfect drifting water. We fished two different reefs today that are both surrounded by deep water to 45'. Both reefs top out at 17' and both are rocky snaggy walleye hangouts. I used a 1/2 crawler and my wife used a leech. It didn't take long to figure out that crawdads have become a nuisance since our last outing. You can feel the buggers holding on to your bait. I brought the lines in and switched beads and added my biggest float to the terminal rig in back of the bead. We both switched to silver when I caught my first fish. We marked lots of fish in the surrounding deep water but the biters were up on top in 20'. The hits were anything but tentative and when we came home at 6:00, they were still biting good.

Lots of slot fish today and that makes me very happy I'm driving down to pick up my Dad and Mom for their first trip of the year. My Dad enjoys catching walleyes and the bigger the better! At 91 yrs old, he's lucky in lots of ways, but, believe me, he's unreal when it comes to catching really big walleyes. If today is any indication, fishing should be good this coming week.

We caught only one walleye today on a leech, everything was worm crazy and with a flat on hand, that's fine with me. I noticed several bait balls today mostly suspended in the water column. Those perch minnows grow fairly fast and the eaters will start loading up on them. July is my favorite month of the year for BIG walleyes and I am anxious to get after them. I wouldn't give up on leeches just yet because those really big ones absolutely love them

As you can see, I'm still hogging the hero shots. Actually, I included the last picture to show our rigging that worked for today.

Good Fishing,

MarkB

[redlabguy]

Good fishing, Mark! Nice bunch of fish! Glad you posted. I'm enjoying it vicariously, being stuck doing some business down south myself. Looks like I'll miss the July bite dang it. I'm really glad the trolling is working. I was getting bored with bobbers- great at times but not as much fun.

Enjoy your time with your dad. Mine has seen his last walleye and I know your times will be special for both of you.

Keep posting! And keep catching!

Dick

[MarkB]

My Dad is here this week and I've been having problems getting him into a good bite Finding fish has been absolutely no problem but getting the biters separated out remains the dilemma. The walleyes are loading up on perch minnows now and whatever depth you find the bait balls, the walleyes aren't far away. The eaters I've been cleaning are stuffed with tiny little perch minnows and I envision them charging into a bait ball with their mouths wide open A sloooooow presentation is the only way we are able to get a hit. Misses are common and, for us, the bite is mostly tentative. Today, between my wife and my Dad, they lost a half dozen hooked  fish halfway to the boat! The bright side is that nice sized eaters are available and biting and we are still catching a normal catch percentage of slot fish. My wife lost a really big fish today right beside the boat(as did my Dad). Pictured is my Dad's best landed fish of the day......

Good Fishing,

MarkB