Fishing Report 5/7/12

Fishing over the weekend was excellent! Water temps on the Three Lakes Chain ranged from 54-58 degrees and winds were out of the E-NE at 10 mph on Saturday and 15 mph on Sunday. Conditions on Saturday were comfortable, with a nice chop on the water and decent cloud cover, which made for consistent action throughout the entire day. Sunday was windy and much cooler and despite it raining practically all day, it did not put a hold on fish activity!

Walleye, northern pike, perch and even muskie were hitting ferociously in shallow weed cover with the best depth being 3-6 feet. Flats and bars with scattered weed growth and also spots with plenty of downed timber held the most fish. Twice we caught pike that had bitten someone off, with the fish grabbing another one of our presentations right away so we could get our jigs back!

Most of the fish were caught by casting weed flats and by jigging the weed edge. A 1/16th oz jig tipped with a large fathead minnow got the job done - bright chartreuse colors out-fished other colors by a mile! In the windiest spots a very aggressive rip/sink retrieve got the most attention while in calm spots a slower bounce off the bottom seemed to produce better action.

Look for the action to improve in the coming weeks as lake development progresses!

Good luck and fish hard!

Chas Martin
http://www.muskymastery.com