Gimp,

I usually go that time of year (or a week or two earlier but not too much more than that). The fishing can be good if you know where to look. Walleye, Pike, and Smallies will be deeper. That said they do still come up in depth as the day ends, long steep drop offs are great for the fish to transition depths quickly. I've had good luck on deep divers (think down to 25') and big husky jerks. Jigs work well too.

Been a while since anyone’s updated this so I’ll pose a question or two. We are going to the BW the second week of September. A huge swing for us; we typically hit the end of May / beginning of June. Health reasons mandated the change. So now we are faced with an entirely different set of conditions which we are not familiar with. Any help would be appreciated. Walleye; smallies; pike; no real interest in  lakers.
About all I know is that water will be warmer and forage species will all be larger. Follows that we would need to use larger artificials (any favorites out there for this time of year?) or larger live bait. (allowed where we are going)
Beyond that; we doing all we can to be best prepared for the change of conditions. I’ve made my inept attempt at using the search feature but either came back with no hits or way too broad of a spectrum to be of any practical use.

polarbear wrote on Jun 7^th, 2011 at 7:41pm:


Looking forward to a report on your trip. Sounds like a similar route I have planned for beginning of September. Safe travels.

J

Goin in on the 16th, headed out of stanton bay, hopin to make it into hoare lake and come back up via fern, beg, and bud. hopefully that wind lets up a little gettin across pickeral!

Thanks for the info, I hope the weather calms down a bit before we get there!!  I've been waching the weather closely and t looks like temps have been pretty constant in the mid to upper 70's however wind has been a different story, its been all over the map.

I just hope for good travel day weather so we can get to our destination.  We are opting for smaller lakes this year so we can hopefully avoid the wind.  We just need to get across McAree on our travel day and we'll be fine. 

Anyone else goin in late next week with Anderson's?  Would love to meet up with some of the other QJer's while were up that way. 

tonyt74 wrote on Jun 3^rd, 2011 at 1:52pm:



As of Saturday (6/4), surface temp. was 60-62 on the West end of Basswood. The topwater bite was great on 5/29, but a cold front and heavy winds early in the week slowed things up a bit. We actually caught some big smallies in 20+ feet (after the front) fishin' for walleye.
I'm sure the weather will be much more stable by the time you get there. Last week was "challenging" to say the least.

Good luck!

Well I gave the little prop bait a go in the ditch in front of my house (yes! I have waterfront property  ).

I seen a nice fat gar and plopped it right on top of him. Much to my surprise, instead of swimming right on by like they usually do, it ate!

I shall re-name the Kelly J prop bait........"Gars delight"

speaking of popping them off the surface.........I got sucked in   to getting one of these at Bass Pro the other day. While I usually prefer a Pop-R style topwater for Q smallies I took one look at this little sweetheart and was grabbing it off the rack before I had time to think about it.

I especially like the BB's that weigh slender belly into the water. That should give it a bit more churn in a shorter distance than say a torpedo. Plus it seems to be a bit more of a finesse bait you could use on calm water (I like a little chop when using the Pop-R type lures).

Of course the first 20" pike that takes it away from me will cause some gastronomical cramping 

(You need to Login or Register to view media files and links)

mastertangler wrote on Jun 3^rd, 2011 at 4:48pm:

Totally!  Popping 'em off the surface!

Tony right now the water temp is at 58.5 and on June 17 it will be 69.7
The day before you go in there will be a massive cold front however which will knock the fish back out of the shallows as the temp will plummet to 65.4 degrees. But be of good cheer........within a few days the sun comes out and the fish return hungrier than ever.

I know.......everyones a wise guy . I'm jealous is all.......is there anything more fun than getting on the smallys when they're up shallow?

I'll be on Isle Royale June 18 (Lord willing that is). No smallys there . Hoping to pop some leg long snaggletooths though and perhaps a few surprises.

Good luck Tony........let us know how you did