Smallie Nut

[fishrman]

Got back last Saturday. Between the storms and having depth finder/gps problems, I only fished about 20 hours total. I poked around in the Isle area the first day, the north side of the lake the second day and closer to the SW corner of the lake the 3rd. I just could not get a pattern put together for them. Do you find during sunny skys they don't move up shallow till late in the day or early in the AM? I ran onto a couple that were fishing with slip bobbers trying to catch Walleyes in 25 feet of water and they were all disgusted because all they could catch were smallies! I was drooling all over watching them. They were using a leech and fishing a foot off the bottom.
I want to come back as I think my 6 pounder might be swimming around in there somewhere!
4 lb. 10 oz. is as big as I could catch. The bite was few and far between for me and I caught them from 4 feet to 14.5 feet. I never did fish any weeds and wondered if they may have been relating them. Ran out of time.

[Jim DaRosa]

Keep fishing 4 fun....
There is definitely a learning curve when fishing ML for the first few times.....and yes the walleye guys/gals catch their share on leaches and slip bobbers. I however am a artificial bait guy. I find the best time to fish for my stlye of fishing is bright sunlight blue sky days. This concentratates the bigger fish on the structure and ths sunlight allows you to sight fish the structure. Polarized sunglasses probally allows me and my clients to catch 80% plus of our fish by sight fishing, but they have to be the best polarization available....I firmly believe in Ocean Waves sunglasses, I've had other brand from very expensive to cheap one and some are good, BUT not even close to OceanWaves.

There are some smallies in the weeds and spinnerbaits, buz baits etc will catch em. One of the things to be sussessfull on ML is able to read lake conditions and whats going on with the food source. When the food source is plentyfull ie lake bug hatch, young or the year fry from the spawn etc, the bite definetly slows down and your approach to bait selection etc changes than when the forage gets scarce and the fish become more active a will chase your baits. Right now the fish are schooled on the rock reefs and like cattle will "graze" the reefs in search of food....you might find them on one spot of the reef today and tomorrow they may be hundreds of yards down the reef, and may be active and be catchable....so you have to be patient. They wont leave the reefs as long as there is cover, and a plentiful food source.

Remember...you wont catch em if you dont chase em!

[fishrman]

Thanks for the nice reply Jim!
I probably should try some Ocean Waves. I, too, believe in a good glass. I use Costas 99.9% of the time. With a little ripple on the water or some staining that has occurred because of the winds, it still makes it difficult to see down into. Are you fishing the calmest areas of the lake you can find?
Sure would like to get back up there sometime soon and tap your knowledge. Are you completely booked for this fall? Any suggestions on killer times to come up? I would think the smallie fishing should be improving day by day.