Fishing has been decent to great this past week depending what I have targeted. Musky bite for myself was less than stellar but for clients I have hit home runs. Walleye bite has been good/average and stable over the past week. I have been on the water every day since last posting either chasing walleyes or musky. Couple outings last week changed up from musky to walleye at the last minute but all is good since fish were caught. Since I last posted water temps have not changed much with a lot of cloudy/rainy weather but have bumped up a couple degrees. I would say average water temps on lakes in Vilas county are around 68-69 degrees. Looks like a few upcoming storms off and on but really stable weather going into the extended forecast so patterns should develop and hold.
Walleye: Walleye bite has been good but not slammer. I have fished walleye 6 of the past 8 days so I have been doing a good amount of it. We have been getting half limits of eyes mixed in with shorts, slot fish, and even a couple over slots (24"+ released even without holding for a pic). Since water temps creeping up to the 70 degree mark I am still finding fish shallow but summer haunts are starting to take hold. Weed fishing has still been one of my better producers but fish are starting to move out deeper off the weeds. Today found a pocket of fish in the 12-14' range on a hard bottom break but still caught fish up top in 9' of water on weed edge. The weed bite I haven't been able to put up the numbers like I did a week or two ago but still good sized fish are coming out of the weeds in low light. Darker water lakes with shallower weeds same thing goes there. For the most part during daylight hours the fish are out of the weeds but early mornings and late evenings fish are still moving up to weed edge to feed. On lakes like that I fished one and during the day I was able to find biters on cribs. Jig minnow or crawlers have been working along with slip bobbers. Still getting most of my walleyes on minnows but crawlers and leeches are producing better on other lakes. Sometimes pays to have all three in the boat right now. Still catching a fair amount of pike and even a couple musky on jigs while walleye fishing.
Musky: I can say the musky bite has been really good for people in my boat. Had a really good night last night with clients which they boated 4 and had chances at 3 more which one was bad luck and others user error. Along with another 4 fish trip the other day which they also lost 2 and had a shot at another at the boat. Bucktails, topwater, and smaller twich/jerk baits have been producing. Blade action has been on small blades to size 8's depending on the water fished. Some lakes want the small presentation and others slightly bigger but still haven't fished anything big yet. Smaller 6-7'' twitch baits have been getting action. Prop style top water baits have been working very well on numerous lakes right now as well. Here are just a couple of the musky pics from the past week which I have been doing more eye fishing than anything
Walleye: Walleye bite has been good but not slammer. I have fished walleye 6 of the past 8 days so I have been doing a good amount of it. We have been getting half limits of eyes mixed in with shorts, slot fish, and even a couple over slots (24"+ released even without holding for a pic). Since water temps creeping up to the 70 degree mark I am still finding fish shallow but summer haunts are starting to take hold. Weed fishing has still been one of my better producers but fish are starting to move out deeper off the weeds. Today found a pocket of fish in the 12-14' range on a hard bottom break but still caught fish up top in 9' of water on weed edge. The weed bite I haven't been able to put up the numbers like I did a week or two ago but still good sized fish are coming out of the weeds in low light. Darker water lakes with shallower weeds same thing goes there. For the most part during daylight hours the fish are out of the weeds but early mornings and late evenings fish are still moving up to weed edge to feed. On lakes like that I fished one and during the day I was able to find biters on cribs. Jig minnow or crawlers have been working along with slip bobbers. Still getting most of my walleyes on minnows but crawlers and leeches are producing better on other lakes. Sometimes pays to have all three in the boat right now. Still catching a fair amount of pike and even a couple musky on jigs while walleye fishing.
Musky: I can say the musky bite has been really good for people in my boat. Had a really good night last night with clients which they boated 4 and had chances at 3 more which one was bad luck and others user error. Along with another 4 fish trip the other day which they also lost 2 and had a shot at another at the boat. Bucktails, topwater, and smaller twich/jerk baits have been producing. Blade action has been on small blades to size 8's depending on the water fished. Some lakes want the small presentation and others slightly bigger but still haven't fished anything big yet. Smaller 6-7'' twitch baits have been getting action. Prop style top water baits have been working very well on numerous lakes right now as well. Here are just a couple of the musky pics from the past week which I have been doing more eye fishing than anything