I don’t know if I can tell you how lucky I have been this year to fish with such amazing kids! So… this week’s shout out goes out to all of them (Jason, Cole, Colton, Parker, Shawn, and Tommy). Every single kid that has stepped into my boat this year has been nothing short of incredible, and it is great to see kids who have a love for the outdoors and appreciate what it has to offer. For a few of these kids, it was their first trip to Canada and it was a great privilege for me to be a part of it.
Fishing over the last week or two has stayed consistently productive. The surface temp on Lake of the Woods is hovering around 75-77 degrees F (which is crazy for this time of year). The walleyes are set up in their summer spots (on main lake weedbeds and humps) and we have been doing the best on a jig and minnow (jig color hasn’t mattered at all). Today we were catching walleyes out of 22” of water. We also caught crappie and jumbo perch mixed in with the walleyes. The northern fishing has been great. I think I have seen more big northern (30”-42”) caught this year than I have ever seen in all of my years of guiding. Most of the bigger ones have come from Whitefish Bay but we have smashed some dandies in the fly-in lakes too. We have busted the northern on basically everything. From jigs and minnows to X-Raps and spinner baits the northern don’t seem to care. Last week I probably had the best day for Musky I have ever had in my life. We went to Carver Lake and in the duration of 8 hours we caught 7 musky and lost 3 (it was wicked). All of the musky came from smaller baits I normally use for bass fishing but it didn’t matter.
The bass are just coming to the end of their post-spawn stage, a point in the year when they are really finicky, docile, and hard to catch. I think that they get like this because their spawn puts a lot of stress on them. Not to mention the May flies are pretty thick so they’re almost stuffed full of those pesky things. Both of these conditions combined, can almost drive a fisherman to the brink of insanity but fish eat everyday and there is always a way to catch them. The biggest rule I have come up with in these conditions is “Slow Down” (it’s something I have to tell myself repeatedly throughout the day). I know it’s nice to smash fish on reaction bite baits, but I think you can catch a lot more fish and bigger by slowing things up when it get tough. If you think about it, the fish are acting just like people. For example, if you ate a hundred snack size candy bars do you think you would jump off the couch, fly out the door and run down the ice cream truck when it drove by your house? I doubt it but you might walk out to grab one if the ice cream truck was sitting just outside your door. I think bass are the same way. I really don’t think they feel like chasing down a spinner bait that is ripping over their heads at 100mph when they are full and tired. One thing that I always do rather well on when things get tough is Mariboo jigs (I can’t tell you enough about these little fuzzy things). To a bass they are just like a bite size candy bar. I work them really slow, hopping them along the bottom or swimming back to the boat. Another thing I have blasted big bass on during the post spawn and May fly hatch is wacky worms. Last week I probably had my best day fishing with wacky worms. Again I think the whole key is a slow presentation and the wacky worm is something that is slow moving, and easy for fish to catch up to. I usually twitch them 2-3 times in a row then let the worm flutter for 10 second then repeat the process until your bait makes it back to the boat (always work these baits the full way back to the boat. It might be painful but it will produce fish). The same thing goes for soft jerk baits like Zoom Flukes, Berkly Jerkshads, and the infamous Banjo Minnow (really, despite the horrible infomercial these are actually really good bates). If you are a power fisherman who can’t bring yourself to slow your stuff down and would rather burn baits all day long then something that you can try during tough times is the Alabama rig. These things look amazing in the water and if you don’t know what they are you need to check them out on youtube. Last week was the first time I had ever thrown one and I did really well even though the conditions were less than favorable. In fact, the first time I hooked up I had two fish on at one time (for real!!! I have witnesses to prove it). I loaded up my “A Rig” with four ¼oz Mimic Minnow Jigs with four 3” Impulse Paddle Minnows (both made by Northland Tackle). I caught fish on it pretty consistently at various speeds and had a lot more fallow it to the boat. Sometimes I would even have up to 10 fish fallowing it at one time (for something I thought looked really silly they really do produce fish). However, to throw the Alabama Rig you need a heavy rod and heavy line. You need the heavy rod because it’s like throwing a musky lure (it will wear you out if you throw it all day). I used a heavy action bait casting rod with 30lb braid and it seemed to work just fine.
That’s about all I have for this week but you can always email me if you have any questions or comments. Thanks again for reading and I’ll catch up with you all again in a week or so.
Dallas Mosbeck
dkmosbeck@yahoo.com
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