I was down at the southeast corner launch last Saturday afternoon/right at dark:seeing few boats out hunting carp-was hoping they did good...?

First trip up to the Petenwell in a couple of years now. Furthest I have been from the boat launch at the damn, is not far from the bridge. I would be casting and jogging. I don’t have planer boards or anything. I would appreciate any and all advice, to improve my odds on putting the walleye in my LiveWell. Heck, if even like to catch some crappie, perch gills too. Thank you in advance. Tight lines everyone

Trolled the last 3 days with lots of walleyes caught with yesterday and today the best. Started each day by hitting a 5-7’ hump off of deep water at the head of the lake and then moved to the large flat at the north end. Had Triples a couple times and today two boards next to each other both went back hard. Grabbed the first rod a brought in a nice walleye and just let it in my 10’ ego guide net just in the water so I could get the other one in. Netted that one with the first walleye still in the net. Twin 24” kind of a s show but exciting. Not sure how I held on to the net. The morning fish were again 5’ down going 2 mph. On the flat it was lights out for like two passes and then they were gone. In the afternoon I hit the secondary channels by my house but the fish were on top of the humps just off of them in 3-4’ of water and my lures were 4’ down. 1:00 in the afternoon in 3’ of water. Pink and gold in the morning and only gold in the afternoon. I also caught some on a new lure by walleye nations called boogie shad. Pretty aggressive for the water temps but more of the 18-19” came on them. Had to go thru a lot of shorts but the keepers were with them.

Today was a big fish kinda day! Dave had fished with me a few times in the past and is already booked for a handful more trips yet this year. We normally do well on the numbers during our trips but this time, him and his lifelong friend, Pete, wanted to try to get a few big fish! Of course we caught smaller walleyes and just about everything else swimming in Petenwell but these two gravel lizards took the spot light today! 29.5 was the biggest and was released after a couple photos. The other was in the slot was was also released. This 29.5" beast was Pete's personal best and also his biggest fish ever! We jigged in the morning but all of the fish I found in four different spots didn't want to play so we decided to cover some water and troll some crank baits. #5 flicker shads and one particular #5 shad rap that we actually snagged and tied back on took the majority of the fish. 1.4 - 1.7 mph was the speed in 6 to 9 fow.

Just had a cancelation for tomorrow. The weather looks very favorable to be out on the water! Message or call if you're interested!

I was out all day today in the brutal wind! We were very limited to fishing the west side of the lake due to 3 plus foot waves and rollers. We jigged a couple spots and pulled a bunch of short walleyes close to 10th street. The rest of the day we trolled #5 flicker shads and shad raps and caught a mixed bag of walleyes, white bass cats, and goats on the north end of the lake. I would have loved to jig more but it was nearly impossible with 4 people.

Pretty cool report Thomas,! Thanks ! I would like to get out with ya. Maybe one day soon I’ll get ahold of ya . I’m sure  I would learn something!

Sorry for no reports over the last couple weeks. On top of guide trips and working Federation Angler tournament events I've been pre-fishing for the AIM Pro Walleye series that happened today on Petenwell and trying to keep things a little quiet leading up to today. 

My pre-fish time was great! It took a couple days for me to wrap my head around keying in on only big fish instead of hunting down legals and numbers for guided trips. I worked just about every type of area there was to fish on the flowage. I ruled out deep water (over 22 feet) and most areas on the southern half of the lake for big fish pretty early in my practice. Up until a few days ago the water temps were sitting in the lower 50s and a large majority of the bigger fish along with legal walleyes were in less than 15 fow. With the biggest fish in very shallow water (under 6 feet) over the last couple weeks. As my practice time progressed it was evident the fish were really moving. I started targeting backwater areas and shorelines along the mouth of the river. As the water slowly warmed the fish that had moved into the lake had started to feed. Late last week I was getting a large majority of my fish casting big plastics in shallow water or out on the north end of the lake along steep break lines dropping into 13-18 feet. I never trolled during my practice time and was able to put some really nice fish pushing 28 inches every day in the boat with only a spinning rod. This past week I had to go over and help run the Sturgeon Bay Spring Bass Open which cut my practice time short leading up to the tournament today. My partner Nicholas Zanon took my boat out over the last few days and tried to put a new program together with the super fast warming water. Water temps over the past week rose close to 15 degrees in some places and my jigging bite was slowing down. Nick figured out a trolling bite in a few areas very close to where I was jigging and had some real nice fish to get us in the right areas for today. 

The weather today was absolutely great for fishing but the water temps over night dropped a couple degrees and didn't recover quickly enough for our bite to really turn on. We caught a ton of fish today ranging from short cigars to 20 inches. If today was a guided trip we'd have had legal walleyes for everyone! 

It was great getting out with a close friend and catching some fish and competing together in a large event for the first time in about three years. We finished 33rd out of 74 boats. Congrats to the winners Dylan and Anthony on catching 29lbs of Petenwell gold! 

Below are a few of the bigger fish I caught during practice. There's a bunch more pictures on my business Facebook page. 

Report from yesterday...Full day trip with some of the most fun and funniest people I may have ever fished with! We had fun and had slow times but when we caught we caught. I did not keep track of shorts but plenty...5 legals, 3 cats and 3 whites is what they took home. We had probably another 4 to 7 that were so close to 15 but threw back! Fun and sun was the day! www.guy4eyes.com I have open dates for some weekdays and weekends coming up. Get a hold of me and let's get fishing!

First report of the year. I fished the last 4 days, Troll bite got a little better each day. I averaged 13 walleyes but only 3 eaters a day. Pretty disappointed with the size for this time of year but will only get better. Fished the top end of lake in 3-7’ of water with lure 5’ down. Speed was 2 mph pink was the hot color with gold doing well, Wally divers the best. Fished the same spot every morning for a couple hours and then checked out areas that are normally good this time of year, only good for smoking a cigar, not even a hit. Off the water by 11:00 each day. A lot off the tournament guys were trolling today in the areas I struggled at a few days ago, maybe they knew something different. 

I had a wonderful day with the brother duo today. We started out up in the river and caught some white bass. Around noon I asked the guys if they cared how we fished, since they said no we headed to the lake! Remind you it is the first time out on the lake for me this year! Well first spot was no good- sheeps of the deeps,but second spot was way better! We caught some shorts, lost a legal at the back of the boat. Two more slots and another legal to finish off a good day!  I’ve stayed away from the lake this year as Thomas is fishing the AIM tournament and I did not want to go in some usual lake spots that he might be fishing. Today I checked a new spot and there’s a few there!   Good luck to all fishing AIM tomorrow!! Denali RodsCrappie Dr tip downs & custom fishing tackleAFTCO FreshwaterLindy Legendary Fishing TackleTriton Walleye Boat OwnersBlackhawk Marine www.j-matafishing.com