Fishing Report 7/24

Musky fishing in the Three Lakes and Eagle River area has remained good despite the recent cold front that came through last week. Water temps on the chains are now running between 72 to 74 degrees and recent conditions have been partly cloudy with slight rain showers and thunderstorms passing through periodically. Fishing shallow weed flats in 8 to 12 feet adjacent to deep water has been producing good action. Suicks, shallowraiders, rapalas, and other lures that you can twitch and pause during the retrieve have worked the best. Also smaller sized bucktails like the buchertail 700 series have been producing good numbers of fish when run-and-gun style fishing is most effective. With bucktails, it is a good idea to put some kind of plastic tail on the end to give the lure a little more flair and action and it can often times trigger a following muskie into a striker. Always remember two things when muskie fishing: 1). Find the baitfish and 2). Understand the muskies mood. If you can do these two things you can be sure that you will be sliding more hawgs into the net.

Bass fishing has also been good with the largemouth action more consistent than the smallmouth. For the largemouth bass, I have been fishing deep weed edges around 12-14 feet with 1/16 – 1/8 oz jigs rigged with plastic baits like imitation crawfish and minnows in the 3 to 4 inch size. Wacky rigging a rubber worm with the same jig has also produced good fish too. For going ultra shallow, try a weedless scum frog popped over lilly pads or any type of emergent cover. For this presentation it is best to use heavier line and a baitcasting setup as many times fish will dive right away and get tangled in the many logs and snags that come with the territory. For smallmouth bass, I have focused my efforts on the deeper edges of rock and gravels bars, fishing depths of 14 to 25 feet of water. With the cloudy conditions you could expect some of these fish to move shallow but it seems the good fish are deeper and many fish are suspending. Use the same types of jigging presentations you would use for LM bass.

Panfish have been active and easy to catch using a small jig such as the Mini Mite micro jigs. Although live bait is not necessary for these fish, it can help. Tip your jigs with small chunks of leaf worms or beavertails to attract even more fish.

Northern pike are in their usual summer feeding frenzy with action on almost anything you can throw at them. Mepps Anglia bucktails or #5 bucktails and Northland’s reed runner spinners have produced good action with color combinations of yellow/chrome and chartreuse/chrome working the best. Most northern pike are patrolling weed edges in 8 to 12 feet of water and always remember to use a light wire leader to prevent bite offs.

Good luck and have fun fishing!

Chas Martin
www.muskymastery.com