The end of Summer is fast approaching and since the kids are off to school, you'll notice the lake will have less traffic, which is good news for fishermen! It's been an unusual summer, and since we never really had any long stretches of extreme hot weather, the lake bite has been better than most years during August.
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We've continued to have some nice bass reported and brought in to share before releasing. Fishing the weeds on Center, Pillsbury and North Reefs have been productive. Sucker minnows have been good for those using live bait. If artificial lures are your thing, spinnerbaits, Texas-rigged worms and Jigs are working. We still recommend trying shallow water with topwater baits as well for a fun bass bite. Also, after a rainfall, its always good bass fishing near the Carp Trap (Peterson's Creek) on the NW side of the lake.
The muskie bite has started to turn on. While it has been an up and down season for them, we've had some of the nicer reports of this summer during August. The big fish of the season on our shop's photo counter came in on 8/16 from Kelsey Johnson. She got into a 52 incher on her first attempt at fishing for these monsters. We've also seen and heard of several in the mid-to-upper 40 inch range as well. Fishing around the island and reefs like North and Anderson's are good bets. Bucktails and big spinnerbaits have been some of the baits of choice for these successful catches.
Walleye activity has been hit or miss for a lot of the summer. While we've certainly seen an increase in successful catches, they are still generally under the legal slot size of 16 inches. Lately, we've been hearing of anglers getting action on Red's Reef in 14 to 17 feet of water off the rocks. Kegs, North and Anderson's reefs, right off the weedlines have also produced some "marble-eyes".
After Labor Day, we will be starting new shortened hours. Starting on Tuesday, September 2nd, our hours are Monday-Friday 10 am - Sunset, and Saturday/Sunday from 8 am - Sunset. We will be renting boats and pontoons into early September, but please call (952) 442-2096 to reserve as we have limited staff this time of year.
We want to thank our staff for another great summer this year! Most of them are back to college or heading back to high school soon, and we're lucky to have such quality employees. Earlier in the the month, we had an Employee fishing contest, and this year's winners were Carl Wenning and Nick Hughes, who teamed up to catch the most weight in bass for the night. Here's a nice pic of the crew... from left to right (Avery Aalfs, Carl Wenning, Isaac Kluver, Eric Wolf, Jimmy Mase, Ben Mase, Curt Hodgin and Nick Hughes).
