July 1-4 report

[nomolites]

Second time on this lake, second time getting humbled but I AM learning.  Fish here live deep.  I targeted walleye mainly with a bit of striper thrown in and made the decision to not use live shad this trip and try with artificials; my wife was my fishing partner and she is not a morning nor rain person so that narrowed the amount of time we had on the water- late mornings and a couple of evenings.   Tried the main lake and Big Creek area and boat traffic for this lake was heavy with folks buzzing by at close range but definitely fishable.  WT 84-89 depending on time of day and the only thermocline visible was at 60' on the main lake and a solid return at 35' in the deep holes in the creek.  I am not used to thermals setting up and moving the way they do on this lake and I have a lot to learn.  

The fish we caught were up on 30-40' deep flats;  caught walleye trolling flicker shads on lead at 35' or Slow Death and striper horizontal jigging spoons in the 40' range.  There were a couple times I was sitting on top of schools of what appeared to be hybrids and just could not really get bit vertical jigging although I had a couple on that pulled off right away - frustrating!!  Caught enough fish to make it interesting and provide a few meals but certainly did not slay them.  The walleye we caught were 19-21 inches and the striper relatively small although I had a beauty on a spoon that broke me off on his third run from the boat - I was leaning on him a bit too hard and must have had a nick in the 8# flouro.

Beautiful lake, we will be back.  Here is the boss with one...

 

 

Mike

[Riverwhy]

Excellent report and I appreciate your post.  I hope to hit the lake in the middle of July and would be happy if I can equal your success.

[Spoon Feeder]

I hope you're using Bink Spoons 

[nomolites]

Actually it was a manyshad that I donated to that big striper but I use CCs, Jigging Raps, and others depending on the situation and what seems to fit.

Mike

[Born to Fish]

Nice trip and good report!  Thanks for posting!  Once you get hooked on striper fishing, there's no going back!!