This weeks DNR fishing report

Here is the Park Falls DNR office report.

DNR Northern Region
Park Falls DNR Service Center area
Upper Chippewa Basin fisheries report (Price, Rusk, Sawyer Taylor and inland Ashland and Iron counties)
- Area river and stream levels continue to be a little high, but most are still fully accessible for canoeists or bank
anglers. Water temperatures also continue to be rather warm and have consistently been in the low 80-degree
range (though they may start dropping with the recent cooler weather). The bug crop is also very high yet, with
lots of mosquitoes, gnats and 'ankle biters' around to irritate outdoor enthusiasts. Despite the big change from hot
and muggy weather to breezy and cool conditions this past week, fishing success has continued to be pretty good
across most waters in the Northwoods. Smallmouth bass seemed to be the highlight of the past week with area
rivers and flowages providing some very good action. Anglers have reported some real nice catches of 16 to 18
inch fish, with a couple of 4+ pound smallies caught and released in the past few days. Most of the fish were
found near wood and structure along hard bottom areas that were also close to deeper water. Spinner baits, topwater
baits, and larger finesse plastics were the most successful baits. Musky action also continued to be good.
Fish have been getting increasingly active the last few weeks and most anglers report plenty of activity. Bucktails,
bulldawgs and top-water baits continue to be the lures of choice and most of the fish have been found along the
weed edges and in the less-dense weed beds. No lunkers have been reported, with most of the fish in the 32 to
38-inch size. Largemouth bass fishing has been erratic - some days produce some great action and other days
yield very few bites. The largemouth do seem to be favoring the woody cover and the deeper weed and bog
edges. Top-water action has been very slow, while soft plastics and jig/craw combinations have provided most of
the success. Walleye fishing continues to be very slow with very few reports of any success. The few catches that
have been reported have come from deep-water structure such as cribs and rock humps, with leaches and
crawlers being the favored baits. Panfish action has been fair, some decent bluegill and crappie have been picked
up suspended over mid-depth structure. Rock bass however, seem to be especially active and have provided
many anglers with at least some sort of action!

Good luck fishing everyone.

Walleyemaxx