As we are closing in on July, I am wondering where the month of June went. Next week is the 4th of July and we are full swing into summer! With that said the month ended out on a good solid note. Fishing was very good for all species with musky and walleye topping that list. Water temperatures have come down a bit with the latest cold front, and they are now in the upper 60’s to around 70 degrees.
 

One nice thing about a cold front in the summer is that it generally has a positive effect on the fishing rather than negative consequence as many of you would believe. Typically after a long period of hot steamy weather in the summer, fish become very dormant and lethargic. A cold front in the summer months will snap them out of that trance and get those fish up and moving around looking for food. This is much like you and me when it’s hot and muggy outside, we don’t really want to do anything but once the weather changes and cools off we are up and running.
 

Musky fishing this past week was very good. We had great action on topwater baits like the Fat Bastard from Lake X Lures and along with good action from bucktails like the Slippery Sam’s from Super Slayer Tackle and Double 10’s from my good friend Rick Jaroch at Baitmaker Tackle. Most of the fish have been rather shallow and associated with weeds. Interestingly enough most of the muskies that we have been finding have been in the thickest, nastiest part of the weed bed. You almost need a cultivator to get them out. But with the right tackle and a little luck we have been able to pull a few from the slop! To drag big muskies out of heavy slop you need the right tackle. What I use is an 8’ H (H is for Heavy) rod made by Elk River Rods. It has a lot of backbone and strength combined with a longer butt-end which is essential for pulling big fish out of heavy cover and weeds. My Elk River rod is paired-up with a Revo Toro Winch that is spooled up with 80 pound test Cortland braid which make it virtually an unbeatable combination.
 

The walleye bite continues to be very good with consistent action continuing throughout the daytime hours. As most of you know walleyes are typically low-light feeders but when you are dealing with dark tinted water like we have here on the Wisconsin River system you can catch walleyes all day long. Even more interesting is that you don’t have to go to deep water to find these walleyes either. Some of the fish that we are catching are in as little as 2 to 4 feet of water. Our tactics are simple as all you need are 1/16th or 1/8th ounce jigs tipped with a fathead minnow or a crawler. If the bite is really good or we get into a mega-school of walleyes I will even throw on a crankbait and that’s when the real walleye catching clinic starts!
 

With a lot of our focus on walleyes and musky the past week we really haven’t targeted many other species. That doesn’t mean that we haven’t had some incidental catches along the way. We have been picking up some very nice crappies and catfish while targeting walleyes, and we caught some really nice pike while musky fishing.
 

If you enjoy reading my reports and want to see more like them, please visit Lindner’s AnglingBuzz. At Lindner’s AnglingBuzz you can find great articles and videos from around the Midwest along with great tips and tactics from some of the real legends of fishing – The Lindner’s. You might even see me there once in a while too.
 

Have a great 4th of July week,
 

Phil Schweik
Hooksetters Guide Service
Phone: 715-693-5843