By Cody Hill

Chill Report

Find the weeds and you will find the fish.

Right now, we are seeing a mixture of fish at different stages of the spawning cycle. It seems if you can find the weeds you will find the fish.  What will bite?  Well, that is a different story because this past weekend no one knew what species you were going to reel in.

Standing cabbage was our go to for the weekend.  Saturday the crappies were out in the 10-14 feet of water in the morning in the cabbage sliding into shallower 6-8 feet of water as the morning went. Pitching jigs with a minnow were the preferred method but we did get some using slip bobbers for them as well. The key with the slip bobber was if you didn’t get a bite in 30 seconds move it 2-5 feet and let it sit for a few seconds and keep the process going till you were back to the boat.  

Walleyes were found on the edges of breaks and in saddles roaming the weed lines. A simple jig and minnow were the go to for them but make sure you bring extra jigs with you because the small pike were very active.  We had some of our best bites in that 12-16 feet of water depending on structure.

With the relatively calm conditions we were experiencing we were seeing that the fish were severely boat shy even if we were drifting and if we got within 15 feet of them, they would drop to bottom or go around us.  Long casts away from the boat were key to producing fish.

Sunday, we fished a different lake that had almost zero structure for depth contours, so we started trolling for walleyes on the weed-line pulling light jigs and within minutes we had a 26.5-inch walleye in the boat and a few minutes later we had a 28.25 in the boat for pictures.  A small 1/16 oz ball jig tipped with a fat head brought in five different species and it made it fun because you didn’t know what was going to be your next bite.  

We had the privilege of releasing six walleyes ranging from 24.25 up to 28.5 inches plus numerous crappies and bass. 

Day before we saw boat shy fish so to combat that on Sunday, we were using the extremely light jigs and long lining it through the weeds.  By being so light of a presentation our jigs rarely ever got caught on the cabbage and some of our bigger fish came just as we pulled through piles of weeds. This presentation is often over thought of but is a preferred way of fishing because you have a better chance of multi species, and some very large fish are sitting in the weeds feeding right now. An advantage of this presentation is that most fish will ambush your jig and dive back to the bottom to hide in the shade. The small lure and aggressive behave make it obvious the bites and keep anglers on the edge of the seat as they jig.

I practice selective harvest with my clients and this weekend it was very awesome to see that the clients were just as proactive with selective harvest as I am.  This ensures that the future generations will be able to get out on the water and enjoy what we are!

Contact Cody today to book a trip that will make memories that will last a lifetime. 

For more information, visit www.chillguideservice.com or call (218) 443-3813.