Location: Oswego, IL | Well, very tough up there this year. Never had to fish this hard yet up there and really was a $$$ kicking, a lot of work for the results. 7am - 7pm+ every day. Fished 6 days. Stayed in Sioux Narrows, fished everything down to Bell, over to to Bath, out to Twin, fished everywhere, and even took a nice long ride to Big Narrows one day. Very strange as it didnt seem like there was any fish that were patterned yet, including Walleye, and Smallies. With the water 3+ft high the girls weren't on the rocks yet. The very few seen were extremely slow and didnt seem ready to go. There was only one Giant girl I did have fire out, she was right on the break from 6-8ft weed bay to deep rock bottom 20+(Big Narrows) didnt stay hot after the first turn so more than likely that was my fault...
However I did bag 2 on a 1 day fly-in to shingwa but they were extremely slow and caught them hanging a weighted walleye color burt in their face for a few minutes, no joke.. It almost seemed they were smelling the bait. They came following up, sat there by the boat wouldn't follow on the 8 just sat underneath it, so i let it sink slightly twitching it for a few minutes and finally took a swipe and hooked up.
Nothing moved on buck tails for us, even on the fly-in, strange thing is the Pike were not around like normal either. Had one 38+ which was a great bonus considering the week, she was up in Big Narrows, caught this on a sebile spin bait, in gold color, one about 32 accidental catch while jigging for walleye one night. All the others were pretty small and hit on the Berkley power bait swim bait (white).
Walleye at least where we fished weren't exactly bundled up together, the last day of the trip of course we did find them, a few 24" again made the day - actually caught the big ones on night crawlers and jig. The smaller ones on minnow.
Smallies were deep, 12-17ft. Got 1 worth it 5-6lb but that was the only chunk.
Oh and none of the water was as clear as I remembered. very dark tea color or darker, obviously because of the rain and the dams opening up in Kenora
We did also have that storm on the 12th that blew through they need steady weather up there and also lower water levels.
Who ever said they were there anytime recent that the water went down, I disagree..
I met a guide one day had he also mentioned its tough this year and even they are having a bit of trouble putting numbers on clients..actually made me feel a little better about the over all trip.
Well thats my report, hopefully it helps someone. Good luck! |
