July 29th, 2025
***Fishing Report***
Walleye - Heavy rains, high pressure and bluebird skies left many anglers struggling just to get a bite. Still many anglers adapted and kept catching fish. Anglers have been reporting that walleyes seemed to be transitioning more and more to large mud and sand flats. When this starts, trolling crankbaits with leadcore, in 15-25ft of water, is the best way to keep bringing fishing into the boat. Small perch colored crankbaits have been really hot. Deep water trolling bite also has started on many area lakes. Here anglers are trolling for suspended walleyes over 35-80ft of water. These walleyes are chasing ciscos during the last hour of daylight and are often caught 15-20ft down. Here white, silver/blue and blood nose have been effective colors. Trolling not your thing, pulling spinner rigs in gold, perch and orange, tipped with a crawler or leech, in 10-15ft of water, around sunken islands, weedlines and points, continues to catch walleyes. There were several reports this last week from anglers catching walleyes right off their campsites after dinner. Jig and half a crawler, jig/twister and paddle tails all were very effective here.
Smallmouth - Smallies continue to be easy pickings for many anglers whether you're targeting them or not. Early morning topwater bite remains strong for anglers. As the water temps start rising smallies start dropping down looking for cooler water. Shallow points, sunken islands or flats with deep water close by, have been the best areas for catching smallies. Squarebills, wacky worms, chatterbaits and spinnerbaits have all been very effective once the sun gets up.
Panfish - How shallow is too shallow for crappies? Based off recent reports from crappie anglers, 1ft of water is the answer. Many anglers have reported they are catching really nice crappies in 1-3ft of water, in thick weeds or lily pads. Jig/twister has been getting the job done here for anglers. Anglers have also been reporting that sunfish are also being located in shallow water, but not as shallow as the crappies. Sunnies are being caught in 3-6ft of water, right in thick weedbeds too. Wax worms, angleworms and green crawlers, fished under a bobber have been very effective on sunnies.
Stream Trout - Stream trout anglers continue to report some great fishing for rainbows. Small copper backed trolling spoons were very effective on local stream trout lakes this last week. Anglers have been using either leadcore or lead weights to get these lightweight spoons down 10-20ft of water. Anglers fishing from shore have been having good luck simply floating a night crawler off the bottom 2-3ft.
Pike - Hot weather cooled off any reports of pike over 30 inches. While small pike are easy to find in any shallow weedbeds, river mouths or mouth of shallow bays with small spoons, spinnerbaits and buzzbaits, larger pike are being found in these same areas, but with access to deep water. Larger spoons, large minnow baits and large spinners have been more effective for these pike.
Lake trout - High winds and high temperatures limited reports from lake trout anglers this last week. Warming water temps have the thermocline setting up nicely at 30-40ft. Active lake trout are being caught close to this line with large trolling spoons.
Beautiful pair of BWCA giant smallmouth