Fishing Report July 2016

July 25-31, 2016

The warm weather has continued, the walleye bite has remained consistently solid, and the big smallmouth bass have become quite active.  We have been catching numerous big smallys in the 17-19 inch range, along with a few in the 20-21 inch class.  Nothing puts up a fight like a 5 or 6 lb smallmouth.  The bass are showing up on the deep rock piles in 12-15 feet of water and so are the big bull bluegills.  We are finding our walleyes off the deeper edges of these same rock piles.  Most of the walleyes have been the 14-19 inch lengths, however we lost a walleye approaching 8 lbs at boatside over the weekend.

July 16-20, 2016

The weather is hot and so is the walleye fishing.  We had a short slow spell over the 4th of July holiday with the heavy boat traffic, flat water, and bright sun, but solid walleye bite has returned just as quick.  Main basin sunken islands and reef breaks have been where we have been finding fish, mostly in the 16-18 foot depths.  Virtually all the walleyes we are catching are 15 inches or larger, all nice eating size fish with a few bigger ones each day.  We had a 40+ inch muskie come up and grab a 16 inch walleye as we were trying to net it, but then she dropped it and swam off.  Water temperatures have now reached the 74-75 degree mark, and that is about as warm as Woman Lake will get all summer.

July 1-8, 2016

The hot walleye bite on Woman Lake has slowed somewhat since the end of June, but the fishing is still pretty darn good.  The surface water temperatures have risen past the 73-degree mark and we are clearly now in summer fishing patterns.  We have been catching nice eating size walleyes (14-17 inches) with one or two bigger fish (over 20 inches) most days, but we are fishing longer each day to find them.  Recently they have been found on main lake sunken islands, bars, and rock piles in the 15-17 foot depths in the mornings and evenings, and a little deeper (19-21 feet) during mid-day.  Leeches on live bait rigs have worked best and we are now beginning to run crankbaits as well.  Northern Pike remain active most everywhere and the smallmouth bass are beginning to show up on the deeper rocks.