It’s been a little while and I hope you’ve missed me, my reports/blogs have not been delayed due to a lack of fish or from bad fishing overall, things have actually been quite good as of late and seem to be improving daily. I have a simple excuse, and as anyone who’s been to a typical seasonal resort, I’ve been busy and have had a tough time sitting down and putting fingers to the keys, I’m going to make sure to keep everyone in the loop throughout the fall bite and will soon complete a harbor update/improvement blog to catch everyone up with all the new additions to the resort.
Now, let’s talk fish!
Water temps have hit their peaks and are currently sitting comfortably in the low 70’s again. Some areas it’s been reported to have hit as high as 80 degrees on the surface, for a while there we were inching towards the dreaded die-off temp, when tulibee and whitefish decide it’s nap time and all wash to shore and stink things up, we narrowly avoided that this year.
With warmer water temps it tends to make things more difficult, forcing anglers to get up early or fish late into the evening, i would recommend spending the mid-day at the pool or go cast for Muskie or Bass, they have both been extremely active this summer, one of the better seasons in recent memory.
Pictured below from L to R: Ken Girard and Scott Giles from Wakonda and Brandon, SD – Easton Giles from Brandon, SD – Kassandra Girard and her husband Mike from Wakonda, SD
The late summer/fall Perch bite is just starting to get going, area’s in the north end of Sucker Bay around second and third Duck Point are starting to give up some decent numbers of keeper sized fish along with area in the Walker Narrows. As water temps begin to cool look for Perch in shallow weedy bay, pack plenty of fathead minnows and get ready to sort through various year classes in search of dinner.
Walleye are still a big of a challenge right now and will soon come around as water temps fall, currently Walleye are still showing up in sandy bottom areas in Walker Bay near Sand and Cedar Points and rocky areas on the mid-lake reefs, tie on shad raps and pull them around, it’s going to take some time, but you’ll be rewarded. Soon we’ll be back to light jigs and minnows fishing wind-blow rock structure.
Pictured below from L to R: Zach Havlik and his son Tucker from Cedar Rapids, IA and Gunnar Hanson from Oak Grove, MN These Musky were about 5 stones throws away from the resort, it’s a 4 letter bay that starts with U and ends with M. figure it out!
Musky have been on a literal tear lately, ever since about the second week of July, they are being caught everywhere, weeds, rocks, shallow, deep, near and far. Small fast-moving baits have been the ticket and dark colors seem to be working best – head out to Pelican Island, Submarine Island or Miller and Uram Bays and hold on. There was a report of a 56 inch fish being caught earlier this month, almost keeper size if you ask me!
Labor Day is going to be rearing its head soon and we have a few cabins available still, come enjoy good fishing, cool nights and colorful trees. We will be putting on our annual fish fry/pot luck and get-together on Sunday the 2nd at 5pm, if you want to get in on the action give us a call, we would love to see you!
Featured image up top is of Micah Girard from Wakonda, SD with a trophy Perch!
Thanks for reading
Come see us at Big Rock Resort
(800)827-7106
Ray
