Here’s the roundup of this past week’s fishing action.

Walleye: June is the time for hot walleye action. This year we have had a lot of calm, sunny days—which isn’t great if you want to catch walleye all day. But what the sun does is move the walleye’s feeding to a short window after sundown. For a few weeks in June, the bays are full of minnows spawning in the shallows. Because of the relatively clear water on Kipawa, the light-sensitive walleye don’t venture into the shallows during the day; they wait until the sun is low before the schools of walleye move in to feed. Trust me, you want to be there when this happens. Some nights, the guys fishing jigs or suspending leeches with a slip-bobber rig hammered the fish. Other nights, it was the trollers who did best. Shallow running stick baits worked well when trolling in 12 to 6 feet of water. Les’ 29″ monster walleye hit a blue/silver Thin Fin at 10:30 pm. The best strategy is to come prepared to jig and troll.
Smallmouth Bass: The season opened on bass on Friday and the boys had a ball. I watched as two guys, one on each end of the cooler, carried their catch of 3 and 4 pound bass to the fish cleaning hut. These scrappers are huge here and make for good eating. The cold water means no worms in the meat and a taste that is as delicate as walleye. Rather than wondering where the walleye are on a sunny afternoon, go chase some smallies!
Lake Trout: With water temps creeping up to the high 60’s now, the lakers have moved a little deeper. Some nice fish were caught on spoons trolled down 30 ft. We see where our favourite the 65-foot hole is again stacked with lakers and a few where jigged up with a 3/4 oz leadhead and white powerbait tube, measured, and released safely. While there have been a number a large trout caught this year, I think they all were released, regardless of size.
Northern Pike: So far, our guests have not been targeting pike specifically. Most the catches have come incidentally while fishing walleye in the bays. Nothing over 40″ yet this year, but a number in the high 30″ have been caught and released. We have been noticing a lot of smaller pike this year, which has to be a good sign for the future. If you keep a pike, grind it into “Potato Panko Pike Patties” and Julie will love you forever. Keep a small one, but let’s release those big breeding pike.
While a fantastic week wraps up, a new bunch of guests in camp anxious to get fishing. I imagine that the next few weeks are going to continue to offer outstanding June fishing.