Report July 12Th-20Th Trip

[Bobby P.]

Ok. For what it's worth here it is. I fish the lake 5 days in May, 10 days in July(when my family lets me) and 5 days in September. Boy do I need to get retired down there and figure out, or try to figure out, the bite. Anyway, this is not an impressive report but here we go. I tried my old crawler points(Clevenger, Moonshine, etc) at 35 FOW, no luck. I did find a few crawler fish over by the state park camp ground. They were just around the corner on the last point on the left right out a little north from the "for sale by broker" yellow sign by the new condos out 25-30 FOW. There are a ton of fish on the island west of Clevenger on all 3 points on that island. I hate to admit but we did really well trolling. We caught 17 whites on Tuesday mostly out on the flat in front of Emerald Point. I was using a fire tiger flicker shad(the deeper one that runs I think 11-15 feet). My buddy who lives down there and his 85 year old mom troll all the time with the Norman deep little N in the bumble bee color and do real well. They went out today and trolled from the pink condo on Emerald to the drop off to the south and got a smallie, a 21 1/2 LM and 3 whites in about 1 1/2 hours. If you dare to lower yourself to trolling the best spot for whites is out on the flat in front on Emerald Point. Keep the boat in about 30 FOW and they are out there suspended about 17 feet. Cut all of the red meat out and boil them for 3 minutes in Old Bay seasoning and the put a little butter on them and your favorite spice after you boil them. It is awesome on the fresh whites!!! Another good spot is the State Park campground cove and the point that runs out into the main lake. There are 2 other good points in that cove over on the left side by the new condos and the "no wake" buoy. The island out in front of Beardsley has a lot of fish on the saddle and around the point toward point 2 too. By far the best bite was trolling but I really didn't fish more that 3 hours a day with the family wanting to go skiing and jumping off that stupid cliff/rock. I only fished Moonshine to Clevenger. However, this morning, of course before I had to leave, I did find some good tube fish on the first point on the right side heading into Beardsley. I had the boat in 30 FOW and I was throwing into the bank. I did pretty well on the GP and WAT/RED chompers tube with a 3/8 oz head. I really like that BANG stuff and I squirted them pretty well with it. Trust me--I would take a GP or WAT/RED chompers tube and try that point. I am way more honest with my spots than most guys but what the heck. I won't be back until 9/14. Go get 'em. The trollers on the dock love the bumble bee and purple essence Normans. I think green bass are heading deeper and it may take a DD22 on 8 pound test to get them. The whites appear to be still suspended at about 17 FOW. Nice to see the whites coming back so good. I think the 2008 flood had and effect on that. I sure hope the 2011 flood helps too. Got a huge 22' black on the fire tiger flicker shad on Tuesday on the east end of the Clevenger Island. All but the whites are still swimming. No walleye. I was bummed. But the boys at the dock are getting the occasional 22'-28' inch walleye trolling. I am shocked but the trolling boys on the dock say you have to be going 3 mph to get bit. I never heard of walleyes hitting a 3 mph moving bait. But they have and they have fish t or prove it. I must be simply a reaction bite. See you 9/14. Back to work. I read the reports and daydream all the time from the office. I figured I better share a little. Good luck and tight lines. BYW--the 12 year old cranked in all our whites and he is addicted.

[magicwormman]

GREAT DETAILED REPORT!!! It's people like you that makes this an awesome site. Your detailed report, including locations will help lots of people catch fish, during a tough time of the year. It sounds like you had a pretty good trip. We'll see you in the fall. Hopefully, like many of us, you will retire here someday. It was my dream since 1972 and here I is. There is a GOD and he loves us!!!!

[powerdive]

Excellent report, Bobby P.

Funny...on Lake Erie the saying is, "Speed kills!" in walleye trolling. Last weekend I caught several eyes pulling cranks on leadcore. I'm in the habit of trolling at 2 mph, more or less, because at that speed I always know where my lure is running. (Leadcore is very speed dependent--it rises when you go faster, sinks when you go slower.) Once that day, when I found myself in shallower water, I sped up to 3.5 mph to bring the cranks up and over the bottom. Coming off that hump, a walleye slammed the crank, before I slowed down.

I tried speeding up and moving shallower a time or two the next day, when fishing was tougher, but nothing happened. Still, it's worth experimenting with, rather than sitting in a rut. Thanks for passing it along.