Fishing Report - May 12th
Pretty good fishing success was reported over the weekend across many of the area lakes. Walleye weren't biting like crazy, but larger ...more fish seemed to be snapping a little better. We heard of many fish caught over 25" over the weekend. Crappie action was pretty decent over the weekend too, but for the most part they've been staging off the edges of the shallow bays. There were also some big pike caught over the weekend as well.
Despite the lack of shiners and minimal rainbow supply, the minnow bite went on! Fatheads were the name of the game this weekend, and guys pulling crawlers and leeches had success as well though. Get in shallow on these cooler cloudy days; 5'-12' has been most common, but deeper fish are being picked up too. Depends more on the lake to nail down the depth. Leech is always a shallower lake bite, and lakes like Woman and Baby are usually deeper bites.
Crappie are definitely still off the edges on most lakes getting ready to move into the shallows, but some of the smaller, warm lakes have been producing fish in the shallow structure. Fishermen chasing the crappie found some big fish in those deeper waters though! Slip bobbers and minnows are perfect on those deeper fish because they are a little more concentrated, but once they start hitting shallower water switch up to plastics or minnow tipped jigs to cover ground as they will be more spread out.
Some of the guys trolling for walleye with bigger crankbaits have been tying into some big pike on Woman, Pine Mountain, and Leech. Dragging sucker minnows has worked well also, and you have a shot at a hog walleye with those bigger sucker minnows. Once we get some warmer water, bombing baits on structure will start working a little bit better.
Adam and Aaron from Swanson's made it out Sunday night of opening weekend for a bit and were able to tie into a nice fish. (1/16 oz black jig and a nice Swanson's Bait & Tackle fathead - 17' of water) Not a bad way to start off the year! Check out the short video clip below.
http://youtu.be/4_135AfI7LI