We had a rather tame opener in mid May with cooler water temps and that persisted for much of May.  Now that we are approaching mid June, things have changed quite a bit with water temps now hovering in the low to mid 70’s on most area lakes.  

 For walleye, that means the jig and shiner bite is a thing of the past for most.  The fish have transitioned to a jig and crawler and bobber and leech bite.  I’ve been catching fish in 9-20’, really honing in on the weed edges and just off in that 12-16’.  As the weeds continue to grow and move out deeper, many of the fish will follow.  I’ve been finding fish on shoreline structure, but many of the fish have moved out to offshore structure and humps as well.  As always, focusing on points and inside turns are good areas to key in on.  Don’t be afraid to go shallow up in the weeds and on the inside weed edge.  There will be at least some fish there all year too.  Oftentimes you’ll hear they’ll go in shallower to feed at night and during more of those primetime windows at dusk and dawn.  Although true, don’t be afraid to try shallow (under 8’) mid-day, especially with favorable conditions, such as having some wind, clouds, or both.     As far as working a jig and crawler, I like to pitch it out 40-70’ from the boat and work it horizontal, lightly twitching and popping it on the way in.  It seems like most of the time, they want it at their level or slightly above where they have to come up to get it.  Depending on conditions and depth, I’ll run a 1/16th all the way up to 3/8 oz jigs, but typically an 1/8 oz is my default.  As far as what type of jigs, really, you can use any of the traditional walleye jigs meant for minnows such as Northland Tungsten jigs, but you’ll find bait keepers vary depending on the jig and some keep the crawler pinned better than others.  Take the crawler keeper on a smeltinator jig for example, it has more round coils like a screw and you don’t have to constantly push your crawler back up.  The key is you don’t want your crawler all bunched up, you want it threaded on and straight coming off the back.  I’ll pinch off the tail, so I’m only using half to 3/4 of the crawler.  Bobbers and leeches or even pitching a jig and a leech have been productive too.  Similar to the jig/crawler approach, I like to keep it at the fish’s level or a few feet above.  With the clear water, many times it’s ideal to keep it a few feet above them.  I continue to try jigs and various plastics, but live bait right now seems vastly superior.  The exception to that has been jerk baits.  It all depends on the conditions and where fish are setting up, but especially on shallow flats with either minimal weed growth or pockets in between the weeds, jerk baits are your friend.  This is especially true on tough bites right in the middle of the day, sometimes a jerk bait is one of the only ways to get the finicky ones to go.  

For Bass, I don’t use a lot of traditional style bass baits, but sure seem to catch a lot with pretty much all the walleye techniques mentioned above.  Weeds are key for me.  They can be real thick buried in the weeds, hovering over the  top of the weeds, or just outside the weed edge, but very close to it.  I mentioned struggling with plastics for walleyes, but oftentimes bass will absolutely crush the same plastics I’m using for walleye, such as your fluke style baits and paddle tails.  I catch a ton on jigs and crawlers and they absolutely love leeches!  Some of my biggest bass I’ve caught up shallow on jerk baits too.  

Pike.  I haven’t necessarily been targeting them, but have caught a bunch on all the stuff mentioned above for walleye and bass.  As far as structure, they love weeds.  They like to stealthily slither through them and when they decide to attack, they go all out.  You’ll find them out near the bottom off deep weed edges too.  When you watch them on live scope, it seems like they rarely sit still.  Unlike walleye, which seem to hang in pairs or pods, they tend to be lone wolves and cruise around solo.  Many times they like a little speed, so casting or trolling spinnerbaits, chatter baits, or jerk baits at 2-3mph can be deadly.  They are typically aggressive and that makes them such a fun fish to catch!  On occasion, you may even stumble on a good sized walleye.  

Panfish.  Find weeds and you’ll find panfish.  I like bobbers with small tube jigs and northland tungsten crappie king fly tipped with small panfish leeches.  A small piece of worm works too, but it seems like a small to medium leeches weed out some of the smaller ones.  If you are sick of constantly baiting hooks, tipping the above mentioned jigs or any small jigs with smaller plastics can work too.  

Marcus Lynch

Lucky Lynch’s Guide Service