Thought I'd give Walleye fishing a try this morning after seeing some on the camera. Should have kept looking with side scan! Tried vertical jigging while slowly moving across the rock bottom, then tried a Berkley Snap Jig with a nightcrawler (bought some from D&S for trout fishing) while following a couple contours at the depth I'd seen them. Marked quite a few fish, though probably a mix of Walleye, Suckers and Sheepshead. Still fun to do something different once in a while. Surface temp was 74.7°F. Water clarity was actually worse than Monona's was yesterday at depth. Didn't stay out too long, wanted to get on the road before all the pleasure boaters came out. Hit it just right! Parking lot was full when I left, very nice morning to be out with the calm conditions!
Lake Mendota, Dane County
Excellent point about the drop-shot rig. It's a great presentation if you are looking to do only C&R and avoid the possibility of accidentally killing fish. You feel the bite instantly and virtually never gut hook a fish. I go to Colorado almost every year, and fish a small lake near Vail with stocker Rainbows and Brookies. For years I tried to figure out how to catch them without them swallowing hooks. Tough with Trout. Even when running metal baits they'd sometimes inhale them. But this past year my nephew and I tried the drop-shot with fish eggs and powerbait. Caught dozens of Trout, more than ever before, never gut-hooked one. All were released in good order. Drop-shot is a great way to catch, and release, a wide variety of fish.
Sunny
71° - 75° F
71° - 75° F
Put an absolute beat down on smallies and walleye today Including 5 walleye between 18-21”. All fish were released and are still swimming. Drop shot is such a great way to not deep hook fish. Several times two rods were going at once. Tough to manage when you’re the only guy in the boat, guess it’s a good problem to have! Lost count when I got 20 or so. Wind was a nightmare, so spots were limited, but I got mine on a steep break in 15-17’ just on the edge of weeds. Minnow, crawler, leech all worked, but leech was the clear favorite today. Went and tried for perch since rumor has it they’ve moved into weeds, but no luck there other than one big 11”er. All my usual perch haunts were really tough to fish with the wind though. Will try that later this week. Good luck out there and tight lines!
Today didn't turn out how I expected. Went out hoping to find some nice gills to CPR on the ultralight but for a 2nd night in a row I was skunked. However turned into one hell of an evening when I ran into a group of smallmouth. For about an hour it was nonstop action with 14 - 16'' fish. I had a blast catching them, must have landed around a dozen. Wasn't what I had set out to do but I fish for whatever's biting and sure couldn't complain about that. Left after about an hour, they were still biting but I'd had fun and figured I'd let them be.
RK - love your reports and video ! Thanks for sharing.
Perch are in the weeds on Dota, but so is the slimey crap that gets all over your line.
Nothing big, mostly 8.5-9.5, and smaller.
Yellow twister tails and spikes outperformed all else.
Shut off at 7:30 pm.
Couldn't get out on Mendota today until early afternoon, was a bit warm out there (ok while you were cruising, not so much when sitting still!). Surface temp at 77.9°F. Checked some rock areas in 30 FOW, saw a bunch of suckers but nothing else. Were some smaller Bluegills and Rock Bass on the one crib I checked. Clarity not too good, but will get much worse soon. Didn't stay out too long, next trip out will be much earlier in the morning!
