July 15th, 2025

***Fishing Report***

Walleye - Walleye reports this last week have some anglers finding walleyes sliding back up in water as shallow as 5-6 feet. Here jigs tipped with half a crawler, leech or paddle tails and pitched to the shorelines has been very effective for anglers. Clearly not all walleyes are doing the same thing, especially this time of the year, so reports continue coming in of anglers finding walleyes with spinner rigs tipped with crawlers or leeches and worked off the edge of sunken islands, transition areas, points and weedlines in that 10-15ft of water range. There have been a few reports of trolling crankbaits working but that remains on the slow side yet. Perch, firetiger and gold color baits have been the way to go. 

Smallmouth - Smallies continue to be the safe bet for many anglers as they continue to be aggressive after all these fronts keep moving through the area. As usual for this time of the year, top water fishing continues to be very good before 9am, for smallies. Anglers should be looking to current areas, large boulder flats and down trees for the most consistent action. Once the sun gets up anglers should be adjusting their tactics to wacky worms, chatterbaits, square bills, and spinnerbaits to keep catching smallies. Reports of smallie catches out around sunken islands continue to grow. Oftentimes these are some of the biggest smallies in a system. 

Panfish - Both crappies and sunnies are being found right in thick weedbeds right now. Jig and twisters have been a safe bet here for both fish, but any kind of live bait definitely is working here too. If weeds are nonexistent on your lake look at downed trees. Not all downed trees are created equal so some will hold fish while others hold nothing at all. White, pinks and blues have been the best colors for panfish. 

Stream Trout - Rainbows trout were easy pickings for anglers trolling small trolling spoons and/or small crankbaits over deep water. Good rule of thumb is that the brighter the better. Trout can be anywhere in 5-40ft of water so pay close attention to your depth finder. Anglers fishing from shore reported a little slower fishing than usual. Here nightcrawlers, fished 5-10ft under a bobber, red/gold kastmaster spoon or 2” white twisters were getting the job done. 

Lake Trout - Lake trout reports were few and far between this last week, but this isn’t to say anglers aren’t catching nice lake trout. Large trolling spoons fished behind downriggers in 30-50ft of water were very effective. Anglers fishing from canoes mainly have been aggressively vertically jigging with heavy 5-6” tubes, while drifting over deep water. 

Pike - Small pike continue to be a common catch for many anglers right now. Buzzbaits or large topwater baits fished early in the morning have been very exciting for early morning anglers. Like with the smallmouth, by 9am this bite cools off and if you want to keep catching pike, you go subsurface with large spoons, spinnerbaits and large minnow baits. Weedlines, mouths of shallow bays and areas where water comes into the lake, have been the best areas to fish.

Beautiful smallie caught right off the dock.