July 19, 2019

July 20th, 2019 by Silver Water Wheel Lodge

Despite some storms and volatile weather this week, we are just now starting to see the signs of walleyes beginning to concentrate at depths.  By the end of this week, most of the action was from 18 – 22 ft.  That helped the walleye volume, but I cannot say the same for size.  The big fish were difficult to find this week.  It is often tough to find big ones on those days when you get showers, then sunshine, followed by more showers and a Thunderstorm.  This felt like even more of a struggle.  We are still catching large numbers of over slot fish, but the big ones just didn’t seem to be in the mix.

For the week we caught and released 24 walleyes over 27 in., including 6 – 28s, and 1 – 29.  Volume was good with guide sheets averaging 30 walleyes over 18 in. per boat per day.  Production was pretty evenly split 4 ways;  6.5 in. Gulp Nemesis or 4 in. with ½ oz. or ¾ oz jigs or live minnows on ¼’s with long lines, or 1/8ths and dead sticking.  We just ran multiple combination of experiments in different locations every day and tried to duplicate the pattern.  Every combo worked at one time or location or another.

Main lake sand is just beginning to hold walleyes again.  Main lake rock was off and on.

A few groups chased big pike this week and they did well.  For the week, we had 11 over 37 in., including 4 – 38s, 3 – 40s, 1 – 42, 1 – 43.25, and 1 – 43.5.  Most were caught out of weed beds with Big spoons and In-line spinners.

The Take Away:  Sometimes we don’t have the answers.  I cannot tell you why the big walleyes were hard to find this week, but they were.  Volatile weather is a factor, but when I read fishing reports from the Great Lakes to the Midwest, there is a common theme.   This Spring was tough fishing and early summer has not been a fast improvement.