Rockman's Report

[rockman]

5/11/08

 

The 2008 opener is in the books. It will go down as one of the latest ice out seasons in recent memory. With the late ice out, the water temp was 44 degrees and with the small window of 12 hours of fishing time before the wind and rain moved in, it made for a slow bite. The females are done spawning but there are still males hanging around in the shallows.

Most of the fish that were caught were bigger females. The depths that seemed to be holding fish out front of the resort were 11 to 13 ft of water and out to 16 ft. Vineland Bay depths for walleyes seemed to be a little deeper, in 16 to 18 ft of water. Minnows seemed to be the bait of choice. Leeches were having a hard time dealing with the cold water temps. The longer the snell that you were using and the slower that you could go, seemed to be the method for catching any walleyes this weekend.

With the warmer temps coming this week, the bite should be much better this coming weekend. It should not take long for the water temps to come up to the 48 to 52 degrees. Those are the temps I like to see, to have a decent bite start in. There were some guys that had 4 to 6 keeper fish in the boat and some guys did ok on the bigger females, but it was not the bite we would like to start the year off with. The reports from around the lake seemed to be the same, pretty slow, as the water temps were all about 42 to 44 degrees.

I did not get a chance to fish off of the dock this weekend with the wind a waves, but I will be out tonight and for the next few nights giving it a go. I would think they will be there, as they always are at this time of the year. For the next 2 weeks it should be good dock fishing around the lake. After that, it will be time to hunt them down in the boat. That is about it for now. I will keep you all informed on the progress of the bite this week and for weeks to come.

Of course as always, the weather today is much nicer than yesterday. The sun is out and the wind has come down to 5 mph. That is always the way it is, when one has too work tomorrow.

Be safe and get some things done around the house and yard this week, so you can go fishing this weekend!

We will see ya

When we see ya

The Rockman

[Spinach]

Thanks Rockman, I'll be up soon.

[GirlGuide]

Great report Rockman, thanks for posting it! 

gg