The week ahead

Well,

We've certainly had our share of weather the last week haven't we?

Other than Genessee Lake Road, which is now closed again, including closing the launches to Middle and Lower Genessee, I haven't yet heard of any new on the water restrictions, but its likely there will be a few in-place shortly. If you are heading out, make sure to check the postings at the launches. We've had several inches of rain, and with the water as high as its been this year already, its very likely that some lakes will be temporarily reduced to slow no wake. I'll make posts as soon as we get information to keep you up to date.

There's not much new information this morning. The weather has kept alot of anglers off the water the last week.

A couple pieces of info I will pass along. First, some lakes are having a lake/mayfly hatch right now. We appear to be on the tail end of it, but if you're heading out to chase walleyes, you might want to think about targeting other species for about a week. You'll still be able to catch a few walleyes, especially using leeches, but its likely to slow down for a few days.

Second, the northern pike fishing is absolutely on fire right now. Pike thrive in unstable conditions, and its been plenty unstable. Fish are being caught at multiple depths. Shallow fish are being taken around scattered weeds on spinners, buzzbaits and lipless crankbaits, while some larger fish are being taken along deeper weedlines in 10-15 feet of water using suckers on slip-sinker rigs.

Finally, the panfish will likely move up in large groups to start spawning this week. The crappie are on the tail end of the spawning process, but the bluegills will move up into sandy and gravel areas over the next 10-15 days. Smaller fish can be caught in the shallows, but the quality fish spawn alot deeper than most people fish for them.

The biggest bluegills in a lake spawn along sandy underwater areas in 12-18feet of water. using light lindy or slip sinker rigs tipped with live bait, or vertically fishing with split shot rigs will produce. Redworms, plastics tipped with waxworms or panfish plumpers are usually solid bets, but Musky Mike was always a proponent of using leeches to target these deeper fish, and he made a convert out of me.

Good Luck,
Chris