With each passing day getting shorter and nights getting a tad longer the water temps have began to cool down, right now we’re just above 70 degrees and falling, soon we’ll be back in the sweet spot of the low to mid 60s. There was a fair bump in walleye activity the last week, too, walleye are now showing up on the mid lake reefs, the more rocks the better, I would say they are about a month behind schedule, but we take what we can get.
My advice for chasing walleye is pretty simple right now, head out to submarine island and annex reef, they really seem to be the only places that are producing good numbers of keeper walleye, fish in 10-14 feet of water, tie on a shad rap or flicker shad and drag that puppy all over, change colors often (purple has been a good color lately)Â you’re going to need to cover lots of ground.
Pictured below from L to R: Kyle Carlson from Clive, IA with a nice northern pike – Joseph Wright from Kansas City, MO – Patrick Hurt from Ackley, IA with a perch that bit off a little more than it could chew – and a shot of the whole crew – John McCalley, Doug Struyk, Kyle Carlson, Pat Hurt, John Hedgecoth and Joe Wright.
Musky remain active, if you’ve ever wanted to catch one now is likely the best time to try, a few of our guests had the pleasure of watching a boat of musky anglers catch a 49 incher right in front of our resort, luckily it was caught, I bet it was heading into our harbor to eat all of our little fish! I even had a front row seat for some muskie action this past week, while out trolling for walleye during the full moon with Kyle Carlson (pictured above) I hear him say ” I got one” and me, expecting it to be a walleye look back and his pole is literally in the shape of a circle its bent so far. immediately I know he has something big, so I grabbed the net and waited while he cranked, not long after I hear a splash near the front of the boat and I knew it was a musky, and a big one. After the trying to pull Kyle over the side a couple of times the big girl calmed down and we were able to get it unhooked and released, we weren’t able to get any pictures since I didn’t have my musky gear in my boat at the time and it was 10:30pm netting a musky and picking it up for pictures is a dangerous endeavor during the day, we decided not to potentially hurt ourselves or the fish. The fish was easily over 50 inches, a fish of a lifetime that’s for sure.
Pictured below are a few images of the Conway family from Lonsdale, MN with an assortment of walleye and pike.
The Conways really did a smart thing when they arrived at the resort this year they hired a guide on Sunday, went out and learned a few techniques and a few spots and in turn spent the rest of the week claiming their bounty from the lake, with many guides charging in the range of $350-$400 per day it may seem expensive, but if you were here and saw the fish and smiles that they had, it was worth every penny.
I really appreciate all the positive feedback you all have given me over my blog/report, I really enjoy writing it and I hope you like reading it. Thank you so much!
Cabins are filling up fast for the upcoming holiday weekend, but we still have a few available, give us a call and we’ll set you up, I’ll even clean your fish!
Featured image up top courtesy of Kyle Carlson.
Thanks for reading
Come see us at Big Rock Resort
(800)827-7106
Ray@bigrockresort.com
Ray
p.s. for you Huskers and Texans that are soon finding you’re way here – my knifes are sharp and the mother ship is ready. You have some catching up to do, Doug already has a freezer full.
See you soon!
Keep the cool weather coming water temps falling and fish biting!! Get that knife sharpened. Enjoy your fish reports even if a few stink!! See you in 8 days. Take care!!
We always do our best to make sure you have enough fish. Keep those temp dropping a little more and the fish will cooperate. Keep up the great posts enjoy reading them. See you soon!