Chequamegon Bay, Hayward, and St. Louis River Wisconsin Fishing Report 6-13-13

The past three days has been spectacular!  My long time friends Dan Martin and Cory McClure arrived on Tuesday for some incredible weather and fishing to go with it.  After much delay, I was finally able to get on Chequamegon Bay.  It didn’t take us long to put the pattern together.  Although we didn’t actually see spawning fish, I would suspect there are fish on nests.  We set up drifts through 2′ to 4′ of water and landed many nice fish up to 21″.  Most of the fish we caught were males, but we also caught a few females that had yet to spawn.  Plastics such as jerk shads and flukes were the go to bait, and the action was steady throughout the afternoon.  Dan even landed a dandy bonus pike to add to our totals.  Water temps were 64 to 66 degrees, and it felt great to be back on the bay!

On Wednesday, we traveled to Hayward for a morning of walleye fishing followed by afternoon smallmouths.  Everything came together perfectly as we landed many nice walleyes ranging from 14″ to 20″.  All fish were caught on slip bobbers and leeches in 12′ to 15′ of water.  It’s key to locate new weedbeds with your electronics, and set up on the thickest clumps you can find.  We spent the afternoon chasing smallmouths landing many nice fish in the 16″ to 18″ range.  All fish we landed were males, and we observed many nests with males guarding them.  I believe most females have probably spawned on the inland lakes, and they are most likely recovering near nesting areas in anywhere from 6′ to 15′ of water.  Smallies can be caught on just about anything right now.  Productive baits include tubes, flukes, stickbaits, and topwaters.  Our water temps for the day ranged from 64 to 67 degrees, and again we had gorgeous weather.

We wrapped up our trip with a day on the St. Louis River.  I hadn’t fished the river since the flood of last June, and I was a bit apprehensive when we began.  Well, I’m happy to report that all is well with the walleyes.  We landed a lot of nice fish ranging from 13″ to 25″.  It was nice to see so many year classes represented, and all of the fish we caught were fat and healthy.  Crawler harnesses caught all of our fish in 4′ to 7′ of water.  Water clarity was pretty good considering all of the rain we had a few weeks ago, and temps ranged from 63 to 67 degrees.  Our weather was absolutely awesome with highs in the mid 70’s, sunshine, and light winds.  We caught fish throughout the harbor, and I would suspect the bite will be on for awhile yet as there still seems to be plenty of fish near Spirit Lake.  Thanks to Dan and Cory for another great trip and more great memories!