HOT weather continues making for some excellent action during the morning as well as evening/nightime hours in our area. Smallmouth Bass have been very active, especially since this last rainfall and are consuming surface baits such as PT Poppers as well as in-line spinners like the Mepps Aglia and Aglia Long; orange or gold blades have been working well. With the increased current, look to the shallower rocky areas to hold the most active fish.
Though we are in the dog days, walleyes are available to the angler willing to incorporate a little patience. Trolling crankbaits has taken some nice fish for us as of late as has slowly working livebait rigs along deeper structure, be it in the river of one of the local flowages.
Musky activity is very good right now, with fish aggressively pursuing a number of presentations. Bucktails such as the Mepps Musky Marabou "burned" to the boat are good during the mid-day hours; also try aggressively working larger rubber style lures such as the 11" or 13" Suzy Sucker or Dunwright Tackle's Lifelike Lures northern pike model; again, I recommend fishing a heavy rod such as the St. Croix XXXH for these heavy lures. Early morning and evening has seen a tremendous surface lure bit with Topraiders, Top Dancers, and Super Topraiders scoring on a lot of fish in the past few days.
Tight lines,
Joel DeBoer
