Fishing report July 20, 2023

Musky:
Musky action is good and consistent, with anglers seeing some big fish and catching numerous smaller ones. Focus on weed beds, shallow structure in weedy areas, rock, and concentrations of baitfish and panfish in 8-22 feet. Smaller bucktails, crankbaits, gliders, and topwaters are very productive. Try trolling when water temperatures warm.

Walleye:
Walleye fishing is fair to good, with best success in early morning and late evening into dark. Electronics can identify suspending baitfish, deep weed edges, rocks, and hard to soft bottom transitions that hold fish. Go deeper during the day and shallower in low light hours. Leeches and crawlers on jigs, Lindy Rigs, harnesses, spinner rigs, and bottom bouncers work well, whether drifting or trolling on long lines, and crankbaits and stickbaits will catch fish, too.

Northern Pike:
Northern pike fishing is good to very good, but primarily for smaller fish at this time. Shallow weeds and areas of baitfish and panfish concentrations in 4-12 feet adjacent to deeper water hold fish. Live bait, bucktails, spinners, spinnerbaits, spoons, swimbaits, stickbaits, and crankbaits will all catch pike. Go bigger and deeper for trophy fish.

Largemouth Bass:
Largemouth bass action is good to very good around weeds, weed edges, weedlines, wood, lily pads, slop, and sandy shorelines. Productive baits include live bait, spinners, spinnerbaits, various plastic configurations, drop-shot rigs, swimbaits, and topwaters/weedless frogs.

Smallmouth Bass:
Smallmouth bass fishing is fair to very good. Find fish on deep structure such as weeds, rock, wood, stumps, and hard to soft bottom transitions. Some fish are in thick, shallow weeds. The most productive offerings include live bait, Ned and drop-shot rigs, tubes, deep crankbaits, and topwaters.

Crappie:
Crappies are challenging anglers in many respects. Look for fish on cribs and deep structure, in basins, and on bogs in the evening. Baits of choice include crappie minnows, plastics, Garland Mayflies, and Gulp! baits on jigs or plain hooks under slip bobbers, and Beetle Spins. Placing baits on the crappies’ noses will increase your catch rate!

Bluegill and Perch:
Bluegill and perch fishing is good and stable, with shallow water dock anglers catching mostly smaller fish. For bigger bluegills, work baits near the bottom of mid-depth to deeper structure. Best baits include waxies, leeches, leaf worms, crawler chunks, and various panfish plastics on jigs or plain hooks under slip bobbers.