As we near the end of June and head towards July and the upcoming holiday walleye fishing is hanging on. Water temps are steady around 70 degrees give or take, and that is pretty much the norm for this time of year. Fish are still somewhat scattered around, but will be heading to the mid-lake reefs almost exclusively very soon to take advantage of the crawfish buffet that awaits them there.
Leeches and night crawlers are still working well too, tie on a lindy rig and drift it across rock structure or slow troll (about 1 mph) a spinner rig, green/yellow colored spinner blades seem to be best at the moment, but that will likely change with the weather.
Pictured below from L to R: The Younge crew Kim, father Gary, brother Michael, and sister-in-law Rhonda all from the Thorton Iowa area – with limits of walleye, big small mouth bass and even bigger smiles. The Younges used to have a place here at Big Rock, we were very happy to seem them back!
The trolling/artificial bite is really starting to get going also, in a lake packed to the gills with crawfish anything in the orange/red color is always a good bet along with black/silver and perch, keep your speed around 2-2.5 mph and change colors often, put in the miles and you’ll be rewarded as many of our guests recently were. Your going to want to stay in the 10-16 foot range of water depth.
If live bait is what you prefer head over to the south-eastern side of the main body of water, there is ample structure from pipe island, huddles reef, variety reef, campbells bar and into bungy bay. I wouldn’t spend too much time with live bait if you’re not marking fish on your locator, sometimes it’s almost easier especially this time of year when fish are all over the place to tie on a shadrap/flicker shad or any other assortment of diving crank bait, bump up the speed and cover lots and lots of water all while dropping waypoints where you catch fish returning to those areas pass after pass.
Pictured below from L to R: Cody Hanson from Oak Grove, MN, our children’s fishing contest contestants, and another shot of Rhonda Younge this time with a beauty of a walleye.
For the troller in you, head out to submarine island and annex reef, you’ll hear this spot from me every week and with good reason it’s one of the best areas on the lake to long line troll, you’re able to go long distances along the reef in one direction limiting the amount of turning and subsequent snags and tangles, plus its a haven for pike and walleye feeding on crawfish. Other areas worth note are mokey reef, big rock reef and up into portage bay – 5 mile point, 2 points, even trolling the south shoreline from uram bay to rogers point can and many times is a good bet.
On Wednesday night/Thursday morning as many of you saw from my Facebook post, we were blessed with a massive hatch of mayflies one of, if not the worst that I have ever seen on this lake and I have been working on Leech for over 20 years. They are very attracted to light and as many of you know we have multiple yard lights that are spread around our harbor drawing their attention, and to top it off there were 20+ mph winds blowing in from the East. I ended up taking our leaf vacuum out and sucking many of them up off the grass which looked like a blanket of crawling wriggling worms. They are definitely not any fun while they are around, but luckily they only last around 3 days, then they leave behind their not so wonderful smell.
The Walker area has many events and activities scheduled for the upcoming 4th of July week click HERE to read all about them.
And to give credit where credit is due. I wasn’t able to get many pictures from last week, instead I scoured Rhonda Younges Facebook page and was able to put together this report with the images I found. Thanks!
Featured image up top is of the view from cabin #10
Thanks for reading
Come see us at Big Rock Resort
(800)827-7106
Ray
