Last week was a bit of a challenge for us, we were hit with another wave of heat and humidity that sent guests (and myself) heading for the air-conditioned comfort of our lodge and cabins. Many guests also braved the 85-86 degree water of our pool. With air temps shooting for the stars and topping out in the upper 80’s and low 90’s with dew points right behind it really makes me wonder how people deal with this stuff, we see a couple handfuls worth of this type of weather per year, and I’m lucky to survive that much, while gassing boats down at the harbor I’m pretty sure I left a couple of pounds worth of sweat sitting on the dock.
Many fish species prefer the comfort of cooler climates as we humans do and in turn make things a bit more difficult for us to put them on our dinner table. Walleye especially head for deeper cool water when the lake heat up, right now surface temps have climbed into the low 70’s and in some area’s as high as 75-76 degrees, it’s amazing the turn around we’ve had since a couple of weeks ago when temps were weeks behind the norm.
Pictured below from L to R: Finley Oelmann, Parker and Hadley Nelson from the Vermillion SD area – and Will Medvec from St. Cloud, MN
Muskie activity is probably the one bright spot right now, as water temps heat up these top of the food chain predators decide it’s time to eat, with their metabolism at its peak and fresh batches of bait fish in shallow water now is the time to get that “big one” look for Muskie in shallow weedy bays like Uram and Miller or Sucker and Portage and give the rocks out near Pelican and Submarine a try, too. Fast moving baits are often the ticket, black is always a good choice of color.
If you’d rather try your hand at Walleye or Northern Pike I would recommend tying on a Lindy rig with a spinner and troll or drift night crawlers or leeches on the rocks near Submarine or Big Rock Reef, areas on the south shore still have some fish on them but it’s getting to be slim pickings. Long line trolling with Shad Raps or Flicker Shads are a tried and true method of getting some summer fish into the boat – stay in 8-14 feet of water and cover lots of ground and don’t get discouraged, this time of year is more suited for sitting at the pool than catching limits of Walleye.
The Walker area something for everyone from bike trails and fine dining to winning the big one at the casino or attending the 26th annual Moondance Jam classic rock festival. For a plethora of information on what the Walker area has to offer, cruise on over to the newly redesigned Leech Lake Chamber of Commerce’s website – click HERE to view it in all it’s glory.
Thanks for reading
Come see us at Big Rock Resort
800-827-7106
Ray@bigrockresort.com
Ray
