Summer is here, so are the numbers of patterns that come with it.

It is fun to talk to the numbers of folks that come into the sport shop and here their fishing experiences here in Eagle River. I have to say the bite has been consistantly good for all species, with crappies being the variable. The cold spring made the crappie spawn very irratic and not a good spawn we will pay for that in later years missing a good year class. For now the crappie fishing has picked up.
The blue gills are biting well on crawlers and leafworms and mini mites with bobbers, those of you that can fish a 1/32 and 1/64th oz. jig will do well. If you know the proper way to hook a nightcrawler on a small jig, you will catch alot of fish right now.
The northerns are out of control, they can be caught very readily, on spinners, minnow baits, live minnows with jigs and minnows on bobbers. They are at the deep edges of the weeds.
Perch are biting on the normal presentaion that you use for bluegills, there have been some nice ones caught lately on the Eagle Chain, I saw some 10 inches last week off of Eagle Lake.
Muskies are good one day and spotty the next. The suspended bite is present, but you spend alot wasted time finding fish that are around the schools of bait in the deep basin. I would recommend trying that for awhile, but if that doesn't work in a few hours, go back to the basics,
Look at your lake map, find the weedbeds that "touch" the deepest water adjacent to them ,,,, bang,,, pay dirt. I have been using that technique lately to put action in the boat. We got a 46 inch yesterday doing just that,,,,, fished 4 hours. The boat was in 17 feet, the fish was in 5 feet in the weeds.
Also I have to say ...."the big bait craze' is still going but I have been catching most of my fish on bait 6 inches long.

Good luck and I will see you in Eagle River!