We fished the Hook, Thursday evening, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. This steady weather has, certainly, helped to create a steady bite. We fished, mostly, up into the arm. We did go out to Shell Island, a few times, and the fishing is good out there, but the bumper boats gets overwhelming quick. So, we decided to fish a bunch of stuff, away from the crowds.
Typically, what I would do, is scan through an area with the side imaging, and if it showed fish, I'd fish it. There is no reason to fish deep, as there are plenty of fish in 16 fow, and less, so that is where I focused. If we found fish really shallow, say 10 fow, or less, we would cast at them. This was quite successful. We were pitching jig/minnow, mostly. Casting out, then dragging the jig back, slowly, was our best tactic. Being aggressive, with our jigs, was not terribly fruitful, for us. I haven't really even tried plastics, yet, but that will be used in the coming week.
When we found fish in that 10-16 fow range, we mostly trolled. I am not a big fan of trolling, this time of year, as it can typically be very good pitching jigs, and I'd rather do that, but we did do a bit of trolling all the same. The reason we went that route, at times, is that the fish in this depth range were more scattered. When fish are not in much of a concentration, I will, often times, want to cover ground.
When trolling we would, usually, pull 1-2 minnow/lindy setups, while also dragging a couple of jig/minnow. By Sunday we were having success pulling crawler setups as well.
The fish in the pic is a 27" walleye, that was caught on a jig/minnow setup.
Folks should continue to have success in the, relatively, shallow waters for the next couple of weeks, so get out there and take advantage!!
