June 20th report

[Rob Manthei]

First day of summer is here! It sure felt like Summer the past two days with highs in the mid to upper 80's. Water temps have jumped to mid 70's on some lakes, expect that to go down a little with this weeks cool down.....actually not a bad thing.


Panfish:

Crappies and bluegills are all done spawning and relating to weed edges, deeper cribs, and also showing up along some rock piles believe it or not. I am not really targeting these guys, but simple approaches with small 1/32 to 1/16 oz jigs and plastic tails like Kalin's Crappie Scrubs or Mini Mites will do the trick. Absolutely no reason to use live bait. In water depths up to 10', set the jig under a stick bobber 3-4', if you are fishing deeper water, use a slip bobber and adjust accordingly.


Bass:

All bass are done spawning also and moving towards their summer haunts. Deeper gravel bars and points, along with deep wood for SMB's. Largemouth are showing up in the deeper coontail mixed with walleyes and also using shoreline reeds.


Walleyes:

Some lakes are still having mayfly hatches. Try to avoid at all cause. Stay ahead of the hatch or behind it. The bite has been really good as of late. Groups at our resort are catching limits of legal fish morning and night. Nightcrawlers are hands down the bait of choice for us right now. 1/16 oz Bait Rigs Slow Pokes and nose hooking a crawler is the ticket. Remember, less is better. Use 6 lb mono, 8 lb Nanofil with a fluoro leader and direct tie to your jig. Using 12 lb mono and a surf rod tied to a snap then a jig doesn't get the job done in our lakes up here. Pay attention to detail and you'll catch fish. Deep weed edges(mainly coontail) have been the spot of choice. I am also finding walleyes in mud, sandgrass, and in the evening I am finding them on mid lake rock humps. Spent a little time trolling open water during the hatch and caught some really nice fish(all release). If you see floating carcasses(mayfly) on the water, give it some time, if the bite doesn't happen move to another lake. Don't wait out the fish or wait for them to come to you, they are biting, just get on a lake that isn't affected by the hatches.


Muskies:

Muskie bite has been streaky as of late. For example, last Tuesday produced 5 bites, Thursday 1, Friday 2, Saturday 1. All in all a good week with 9 biters, but as the week progressed towards the full moon, but action got less and less. Moon is good right now, night fishing should produce, however this recent storm(Sunday night) might put a damper on it. However, some days the magic of moon rise hasn't produced like we all hoped. Muskies are suspended on lakes that are experiencing a bug hatch right now, but there are always some fish relating to weed edges or flats. Lure choices are Bull Dawgs, Medussas, Joes, and Red October Tubes for probing the deeper water bites. Weed feed have come on double 8's, Suicks, Barfighters, shallow rigged Tubes, and during low light, topwater has been good. I have been moving fish from weed edges, flats, and points on almost every lake that I have fished. If after 3-4 hours of casting shallow and no action, look a little deeper, most likely the fish are using the open water and you'll need to look there.


Good Luck!

www.robmanthei.com
www.stgermainlodge.com

[westonjeff]

Great report, Rob -- thanks!