July 5-10 Report

[Dave Hardy]

I was up on the Chip from July 5th - 10th, fishing exclusively muskie, mainly early AM and nighttime. The upshot of the fishing report is that it was brutal! We caught one small fish (32-33") and had a few other follows from two smaller fish and two low-40s. This was all the action we had in over 33 hours on the water--upwards of 100 man hours given that my brothers, dad and bro-in-law joined in a few times.

I have to say this was as tough as I have seen in my 20+ years on The Chip. I know the water very well and have consistently boated some nice fish each year...until now. I fished the classic and not-so-classic weed spots, sand, rock, wood, bogs, open water, slop, back bays, etc. I was doing everything I thought to do at what I felt were the peak times. In thinking about it, the one variable that was not in our favor was moon rise--which was occurring in the wee hours of the AM during this time frame. However, one night/morning I stayed out until moon rise (~ 2AM) and all I got was grief from my wife and family.

The one small fish we did boat came around 10PM from a little-fished weed hump on a Pacemaker. The cast prior to this fish I caught a nice small mouth throwing the Pacemaker. After this flurry of activity, all I did was cast, think, cast, re-think, cast and so on.

Well, I really hoped to report success and help anyone who is heading to The Chip in the next few weeks. My advice to you is to do whatever pre-trip muskie ritual you do and then hire Ty.

Good Luck, Dave Hardy

[Ty Sennett]

Thanks for posting the report Dave. Sorry to hear it didn't go well. Just got back from Canada last night. As a side note I feel as though I didn't miss much here because you guys fish a lot of the same stuff I do. We did get a 46 incher on the Chip this morning so there is life out there after all. Thanks again,

[Brad L.]

Aaron and I fished from sunup till sundown on Saturday and I had one low 30" follow on the first spot and then boated a 36" about 11am and that was it. We went back out on Sunday till 11am and didn't see anything. We didn't even see or catch a northern all weekend.

[Steel Leader]

Glad it wasn't just me. I fished July 6-9 (very hard) and had one low 30" fish blow up on a down-sized topper. I caught one larger Northern. Beyond that, I caught a nice sun tan. It was nice to see a full pond and regardless of the bite, it's always nice to be on the Chip. See you in early August Ty!

Dan Ciechanowski

[Dave Hardy]

Did Ty know something when he planned his trip to fish other waters? And, are you surprised that the morning he gets back out on The Chip, he boats a 46"? Hmmm, it makes you wonder whether Ty is super-human.

Ty, thanks for your condolences. It sounds like a few of us were all in the same boat (figuratively) during last week's tough stretch. Congrats on the 46" yesterday.

For those of us up there last week, we also faced pretty tough weather conditions--for fishing. The skies were blue and the air was hot and we had that pattern for virtually everyday last week. My experience tells me that a little disruption in the weather means a few more fish get moving.

[Ty Sennett]

Now you're really going to be mad at me. We caught a 46 1/2 incher this morning. I guess sometimes it pays to leave for a while and start over fresh. Both fish were on spots that I have not seen a fish on yet this year. That's what makes the Chip hard to fish consistently.

As for the calm hot conditions, usually midday is best but it's tough to keep your head in it under those conditions. From the sounds of it the fishing was just not good all around.

[ILGreenhead]

As for the calm hot conditions, usually midday is best but it's tough to keep your head in it under those conditions.

I am shocked by this statement!!!!!..........??????

[Dave Hardy]

Ty, you are right, I am now beyond mad, I am p****d off. Just kidding.

This trip I finally got my wife and three daughters to join me. So, early and late were about the only times for me to wet a line. I did fish a bit mid-day, but it was usually from shore at one of the flooded beaches. We had kids and dogs frothing up the water, so I knew the odds were against anything too exciting happening.

To what do you attribute the mid-day fish activity? In thinking about my experience, I guess we have encountered some pretty big fish (usually only one) on days when the weather is hot and steamy. Funny thing is that one fish is usually all we saw over the course of the day. I wish I knew why this was the case.

Another observation on these days, if the fish were moving, is that all fish were generally from the same size-class--usually smaller. I recall a day when we saw around 10 fish, and all were in the mid-30 inch range. Another time we saw around 8 fish, and all were in the upper-30 inch range. Why in the heck would only 35 inchers be moving?

Anyway, congrats on a few great fish. Hope to see you on the water later this summer.

Dave Hardy

[Ty Sennett]

Not sure why the midday bite is so good on hot days. Maybe because everyone is off the lake with the exception of some pontoons pulled up by shore. Most people can't stand to be out there on those days and I don't blame them. It doesn't work every time but more than not it does. It's the same on Lake of the Woods. Maybe it's the stained water. Lake of the Woods has the same color water that we do here. Maybe it's that the weeds give off more oxygen during the midday sun. The other thing could be that if you are out there you will run into an afternoon feeding window. One thing tournament fishing has showed me is that at one point in the day there will be a major feeding window and it has nothing to do with any moon phase or weather pattern. On the Cave Run PMTT this year there was a feeding window that was just insane with absolutely no weather change. It was just a time of day thing. These are the things that makes fishing for these things frustrating. The more time you spend on the water the better basically. Yesterday we fished four hours in the morning and had two fish going in a five minute period and then nothing the rest of the morning. When we went back out in the evening we had the same thing.

In other words, I have no clue why they act the way they do!