Mid-September Guided Action on the Lake

The weather is starting to cool down, and this should get the fish moving to shallower water. The water temp on Saturday was still 70-72 degrees. And the fish we caught were still in deeper water. A mixed bag of northern pike and largemouth bass were hitting crankbaits in 14-20' of water on the weed edge. We did try casting spinnerbaits in shallow dirty water, but no luck yet. 

But soon the bass and pike will be in the shallow weeds hitting spinnerbaits and chatterbaits pulled over the weed tops. This is fun to do; they hit the lures hard and will follow right up to the boat sometimes before committing. So watch your lure all the way to the boat. The pike and muskies like to hit it as the lure begins to rise up to the top of the water. 

The walleyes should start moving shallow too and hitting crankbaits near sand and rocky areas of the lake. 

The walleye population has been going up with the help of the Westonka walleye stocking program. If you haven't heard about it, Johnny Range has been having a fundraiser each spring to raise money to stock 10-13" walleye. So the survival rate is much better than the fingerlings and fry the DNR stocks. He has received as much as $40,000 to stock these fish each fall. If you catch these stocked fish, please release them. In just a couple of years, they will be nice 16-17" fish.