Mid-August walleye fishing report

[Cliff Wagenbach]

The walleye bite has been very good most of August for me.

Most of my walleyes have been caught on sand/rock reefs located in the main lake basins.

The standard depths has been 16 feet to 23 feet with almost nothing coming from water deeper then 26 feet. A few walleyes have been caught in 8 foot to 14 foot  sandy areas also.

The average size of the walleyes has increased a little. Most of our keeper sized fish are now running 14" to 16".

Not as many bigger slot fish showing up in our daily catch now though. Maybe one or two a day that are in the 18" to 22" range.

Lindy rigs baited with 1/2 crawler is still my go to presentation, although the past week I have been using Uncle Josh Pork Crawlers on my rigs with great success!

I tried this bait on a whim just to see if it would work and have found it to be just as effective as the real crawler! A real advantage is that the Rusties cannot eat it off of the hook and I can easily catch 6 to 8 walleyes on one piece before I have to either re-bait or re-hook it! It also tends to float a little which makes it even more effective!

Good fishing!

Cliff

 

[fishingdad]

Good Stuff Cliff!!  Do you find the walleyes picking at it before they commit or are they having No doubt about taking it?  I know people can hammer the fish on plastics but I personally  feel like the fish ( walleyes, sunnies, crappies) seem to feel a little more tentative on the hit with plastic. I wouldn't doubt if its more of a confidence thing with me than it is the bait.  Nice job Keep putting them in the boat

[Cliff Wagenbach]

Fishingdad,

The walleyes take the pork crawlers exactly like they take the real thing! I think that they may even hold on a little longer to the pork crawlers!

Here are a couple of slot fish caught today on pork!

Cliff

[Lunderfull]

Hey Cliff nice pic's and good info. I did not know they even made a pork crawler, might have to look for some will be up this weekend to give it a try.

[Cliff Wagenbach]

The Great Lakes color has worked the best for me in the pork crawlers.

Cliff

[Captain Acorn]

Great report as usual Cliff. I was up there with the family this last weekend so fishing time was minimal but had great success trolling number 5 shad raps shinny colors 15 to18 fow 

[Cliff Wagenbach]

Good advice Captain Acorn!

The trolling bite has been good for those that like to pull cranks!

About 1/2 of our walleyes today were caught using minnows on our lindy rigs!

Cliff

[Cliff Wagenbach]

The warm stable weather has gotten the walleyes going again!

Boated many walleyes today with my clients on the sand reefs in 16' to 29' depths.

We quit at 3:00pm and they were still biting well!

Lindys with 1/2 crawler is still the best presentation, but we also got a few on lindys with a minnow.

No slot fish today but lots of fat eaters ranging from 14" to 16".

We boated a total of 47 walleyes and a couple of nice perch as bonus fish!

The predicted warm weather all week should make for some great fishing!

Cliff

 

[Captain Acorn]

Hopefully it stays that way for the weekend. I noticed earlier in the week you wrote about using pork worms rather than crawlers. Do you use those when you go to 1/2 of a crawler or just use real worms

[muskie-mike]

Slow bite (for me) on leadcore. Got a few in Big Bay area,but cant find any biters in Frazer area,seems like plenty of fish on the locator. Got 6 walleyes out of a reed bed....

[Cliff Wagenbach]

Hopefully it stays that way for the weekend. I noticed earlier in the week you wrote about using pork worms rather than crawlers. Do you use those when you go to 1/2 of a crawler or just use real worms

I only use about 3" to 3-1/2" of the pork crawlers on my rigs.

They worked very well again today! We caught about equal numbers of fish on minnows, real crawlers and pork crawlers.

Cliff

[Cliff Wagenbach]

Edited September 1, 2015 by Cliff Wagenbach

[guideman]

We have been doing well trolling with #9 shad raps in the main basin areas where we see bait suspending. I have also had some very good action on slip bobbers in the evening on points and rock walls, in 5 to 10ft during the last couple of hours of daylight.

"Ace"

www.aceguideservice.com

"It's just fishing man"

[RoosterMan]

We returned home yesterday from our annual week at the lake for Labor Day. As I reflected on it I thought of how lucky we are to have such a great fishery at our fingertips.  Once again the week was filled with great friends, family and fishing.  I wanted to share a couple of pics from the week and say how pumped I am that fall fishing is upon us.  We found all our fish relating steep shoreline breaks and island structures. Graph em, mark em, fish em! 

Already looking forward to my return to the cabin in a couple weeks.  Good luck out there and stay safe. 

[Northlander]

I have to admitt that the pork crawlers kicked my real crawlers butts when I was up fishing with cliff. He had me 10 to 1 at one point. I have since got some pork crawlers in different colors. These should work awesome on spinners as well.

Edited September 8, 2015 by Northlander