First timers

[Scenic]

A group of us are coming to Kab for the first time the third week of June.  We are staying at Sunset Resort off the Ash River.   Not looking for spot on spot but just a place to start and any other helpful hints anyone would like to share.  We are mainly looking for Walleye and Crappies.   

[Satchmo]

Get up early and stay up late. Nap in the middle of the day. When I say early, I don't mean 8:00am after breakfast. I mean the crack of dawn. Many times these early bites can be fast and furious, but are over before most people hit the lake You should have good morning and evening bites in the 15-20 foot range around the main lake islands and various reefs. Midday will call for jigging the 30-40 foot bases of drop offs near their am/pm haunts. Slip bobbering the edge of cabbage weeds can also get you some evening walleyes. Crappies are a tough nut to crack in summer. They are much more consistent in the fall. Northerns are everywhere!!!

Edited June 5, 2016 by Satchmo

[Scenic]

Thank you for the tips.   This should work out well as those are my favorite times of the day to fish.  This body of water just intrigues me and one I have wanted to fish for a long time.

[Satchmo]

Heading out tomorrow morning for a couple days on the water. I'll drop a report here on how things are going up there when I get back on Tue or Wed. Water temps should be climbing and the fish should start to pop somewhere.

[Scenic]

Thank you.  That would be great!!!

[QueticoTim]

Just got back from Kab and the bite was tougher than usual for our group. Fish seemed to be everywhere but no where in numbers. Did best in 4-10 feet of water after 7 pm. The 2015 walleye survey looks good so not sure where the fish are. Most of our keepers were saugers. We managed to each take a limit home and have a fish fry, but we usually catch a lot of the "too big" walleyes and we had very few of those this year. Some locals said they had a very warm early spring with a colder than normal later spring has the walleyes scattered. During the day it was pick one or 2 up in a spot then nothing. Where we messed up was not moving enough during the day looking for active fish. Don't get married to a spot be willing to move.

We tried everything as far as bait: shiners, leeches, and crawlers. Everything worked maybe a slight preference to shiners. You might try trolling cranks if it is slow, just to cover ground and find the active fish. We didn't do that as my Dad doesn't like to troll, but I could see that working too. 

We fished the west end. 

 

I should add we had very sporadic weather. The wind switched daily, it was a high in the 50's one day then 70's the next. If ya get soem stable weather that should help.

 

T

Edited June 11, 2016 by QueticoTim

[Scenic]

We are keeping a pretty open mind as far as how we are planning to fish.  Taking along all the rods to jig, rig and troll.  Always fun to explore new waters and learn new locations.  

[Satchmo]

Well....the fishing on Kab is still sporadic, but getting a little better. Sauger of good size were active fairly shallow early and late in the day, and are making up a large portion of the fish brought in. A few bigger walleyes shallow with an occasional keeper. Like Tim said, you have to keep moving. Found big pods of fish in the 35-40 foot range with no takers. Wish i had brought the leadcore gear to try and force feed 'em a crankbait or two. Usually don't use that stuff until the bug hatches get going.  Made a run to Namakan one morning. Found a lot of small fish, but managed to scratch up several keepers too. Still need stable, warm weather to set up pretty soon, or we may go from this crappy pattern right in to the mayfly hatch. Next week looks to be a better pattern, but we'll have to see. The third week of June may be the ticket if things cooperate weather wise.

[Scenic]

Thank you for the update.  I think I will throw a bit more gear in the boat and see if we can find the trick on these deep fish.  We are heading up on Fri so going to just seek and find.   I am hoping this weather stabilizes but that is one of them things we just have no control of.  

When you say shallow are you finding them in mud, rocks or sand? 

[QueticoTim]

Can't speak for satchmo but shallow for us was weeds, sand/mud, but we didn't try any shallow rocks.

[Satchmo]

Found our shallow fish on sand/rock, but several guys were catching a few fish corking on shallow weed edges or running cranks there. Large bottom bouncers and spinners may get you some reactions strikes on those deep schools. I tried the slow lindy/leech thing with very limited success. Leeches seemed best for the eyes, while the sauger wanted minnows.

[Uncle Boney]

We finished our 5th day with limited luck. Used to fish rocky points shallow in the evening, but zip this year. Caught some in 15' mud flats in the middle of a bunch of boats one evening, but tried in the daytime and nothing  

Hard to go down 40'. 

Maybe we will try some weed edges tomorrow or more muddy flats. Seems like no one is home over rocky traditional  structure which confuses me.