August 26th, 2025
***Fishing Report***
Walleye - Walleye fishing bounced back quickly last week for walleye anglers. Anglers reported finding walleyes sliding down a little deeper in 14-20ft of water now. Trolling with crankbaits and lindy rigs, tipped with a crawler, has remained the best way to locate active walleyes. Trolling perch or blue colored crankbaits over large sand or mud flats in 15-20 ft of water, preferably on windy areas, remains very consistent. Anglers pulling spinner rigs have been working around sunken islands again in that 14-20 foot of water range. Transition areas, in the wind, have been the best areas to focus around humps. Weedlines too, have been effective areas to find walleyes. Orange, gold and silver have been popular colors for spinner rigs. With water temps dropping a small handful of anglers have been fishing jigs tipped with minnows in these same areas. Success with minnows has been mixed so far, but as we move into September they should start to really pick up.
Smallmouth - Smallmouth have definitely noticed the drop in water temps and are starting to feed heavily to get ready for winter. Shallow rock piles in 8-15ft of water have been red hot for finding numbers as well as some real giants. Topwater have been very effective on the shallowest rock piles, but for deeper ones anglers have been slow rolling spinnerbaits, chatterbaits and drop shotting their favorite minnow or crawfish imitation. This bite has only started, so expect it to get better and better as we go through September.
Pike - Handful of pictures of some really nice pike came into the store this last week. As water temps drop down to the magic temperature of 65 degrees, trophy pike will start returning to the shallow weedbeds, river mouths and shallow bays. These big pike are looking for big meals, so large minnow baits, large swim baits, large spoons and big minnows, fished under a bobber are all very effective.
Panfish - Crappies and sunfish seemed to have dropped out of the super shallows in search of more stable water temps. Crappies are mainly being found just off weedlines. During the evening hours they slide up to the surface and move into weedbeds to feed. Jig/twister, beetle spins and crappie minnow fished under a bobber can result in some nice catches. Sunfish are being found in 6-10ft weedbeds and weedlines. Red worms fished under a bobber in these weedbeds have been deadly!
Stream Trout - Stream Trout have been enjoying the drop in lake temperatures and proof is in the reports. Trolling small minnow baits, over deep water, has been very effective for rainbows. Trolling small trolling spoons too has been very effective for anglers. Best trolling depth has been 10-15ft of water over 30-70ft of water. Anglers fishing from shore have been having great luck floating a night crawler about 2-3ft off the bottom. Nightcrawler fished under a bobber about 5-10ft down, during the evening hours, has also been very effective for shore anglers.
Lake Trout - Reports for lake trout remain scarce this last week. High winds didn’t help either, but as water temps start dropping lake trout will start roaming less and start relating to structures like sunken islands and large gravel flats near deep water. As this happens vertical jigging large tubes and bucktails will quickly become the way to go.
