Professor Jim

Has there been much white bass action during the evening? I'm taking a couple kids fishing Sunday and would like some information. Thanks for any help you can give.

Did my now "usual" routine of pulling my son around on his knee board while watching for whites last Friday evening. Not a darn thing was sighted except some shad surfacing. No whites around them. I did fish along one bluff for about 15 minutes and caught an 17" LM which was promptly tossed back. My son and his friend had fun, even if the fish didn't cooperate.

Bob - Thank you so much for helping me out with advice on how to locate and catch the whites. I'm new to this type of fishing and really had no clue. Thanks to your advice, we found them and kept 15 between us in about 45 minutes of fishing. Our technique for locating them us pulling my son and his friend around in an inner tube in the general area that you told me and stopping when we found the bass on the surface. We'd stop, I'd pull the kids and tubes in and hand them their rods. Awesome time and we are plotting our next trip, hopefully Tuesday if he doesn't have scouts that night.

Where do they surface. I assume that happens around the lake, but what should we look for?

You still get some pressure in the U.S. However, Minnesota and Wisconsin protect walleye with slot limits and by allowing you to keep fewer of them. For example on the Chippewa Flowage (Hayward, WI) you're only allowed 3 keepers, while in Ely, MN I'll allowed three keepers, but none between 17 - 25" and only one over 25". In many places people are encouraged to eat smallmouth rather than walleye. In Quetico Provincial Park you're allowed two keepers, but you're in a canoe anyway. That's were you can have real fun with bass and walleye on not blow the budget or travel too far.

Walleye go pretty deep (25 - 40' depending on the lake) this time of year, even in Northern Minnesota and Wisconsin. They can be really hit and miss. The only advice I can give is to look for irregularities on the bottom in deeper water such as humps, foundations, roads, ends of points, etc... Up north, they feed on these during the summer and are caught using jigs and leeches or worms on crawler harnesses. Only rarely will you find them in less than 20' of water and that's later at night when they come up to feed on points and around deeper weedbeds. Because they're so hit and miss, I tend to crappie fish over brush piles or bass fish in late evenings until the water cools in fall. In fact, I'm hitting the lake Thursday with my boys who have convinced me to take them camping in this heat so they can fish and knee board. I'll just melt, but it will be worth it. My biggest concern is finding the brush piles with my very outdated gps that I've never quite mastered.

How does your availability look for evenings the next couple of weeks?

What lures do you use on the whites?

I haven't been on the lake since early June. I've been up north for a few weeks and it's just too darn hot down here these days. However, catching crappie shouldn't be too difficult once you locate a brush pile or two. Park over one and vertically jig with a small jig (I'm partial to pink) tipped with a crappie minnow. Use at least a 6' rod (light action graphite) as it's too deep for shorter ultra lights to get decent hook sets. Use 2 lb. diameter Fireline and you will feel every bump from the fish and the brush pile. Since even 2 lb. Fireline is strong enough to pull a battleship, you'll be able to pull your jig free of snags by straightening the hook. Keep your pliers handy to put them back in shape. Drop your jig straight down to the pile. Once you're there, if you get that far, start bringing it up sssslllloooowwwwlllly. Crappie tend to be closer to the bottom with bluegill further up. Set the hook if you feel the slightest twitch (Fireline's good for that) or if your line goes slack too fast on the drop. Crappie tend to slurp it in and sit there. You actually have a second or two to set the hook. If you don't catch a fish within about 10-15 minutes on a brush pile, move to the next. Keep going until you find them. A slight chop on the water helps as it gives movement to your jig. Too much chop is a pain in the rear as staying over the pile can be problematic. Please don't drop your anchor in the pile as it starts to tear them up. I've found that morning before 10 and evening after 7 are best, but most of my experience is with brush piles in Wisconsin. However, conditions are similar and crappie are crappie. Hope this helps. Of course there are other methods like slip bobbers and crappie lights. I don't use those, but they do work very well for others. Good luck.

Thanks for the report. After almost a week of not fishing, I'm ready to go. Have you used night crawler harnesses on Stockton? I'm concerned they might get hung up too much to be useful.

My son and I just got back from a week in the Quetico Wilderness area, just north of Ely, MN. Fishing was good for smallmouth (I got one just under 5 lbs) and excellent for Pike (my son caught a 32"). Walleye fishing stunk as there was the mother of all mayfly hatches going on. And, they banned leeches from Quetico (see my PGA post). All in all an excellent trip with my 14 year old. Maybe I can get back to catching walleye on Stockton next week after I catch up on tons of work.

very cool. Thanks for the information.

The cat I caught Wednesday still had eggs and they weren't very loose.

You can't get leeches past about mid to late July, so using them isn't an option. I'm just learning southern walleye fishing and can't help much with the fall. So far, Stockton is acting like a Canadian Shield lake as far as walleye fishing goes. However, water temps are warming rapidly and are already above maximum temps I find in Ely, MN during summer. So, I'm not sure how the rest of the year will play out for me. It's going to be lots of trial and error. I'll even post the errors as sometimes they are just as informative.

You can get them at Trantham's in Springfield or Lakey's on 215. They are more expensive down here than up north.