Hotspotoutdoors

Has anyone been out on the lake lately?


Marbleye

Not since Memorial day. Work weekend this past and upcoming weekends and them I'm back up for 3 days. Fishing should be decent by then. I did put a few in the boat over Memorial but nothing hot and heavy. I'll probably be using leeches and crawlers the next time I'm up. Caught fish on Memorial on all three. minnows, leeches and crawlers so who knows.

Heading up Friday, any reports?

Water temps, locations

thanks

Last weekend was a bust for the father in-law with the weather and all. I'm up tomorrow night. I'll start my efforts still with the shoreline structure and probably with a leech or crawler as that is what is usually working for me this time of year. I'm going to try to avoid minnows if I can just because I don't want to buy them. With the stable weather predicted there just has to be something around somewhere. I have a feeling it may be one of those nothing, nothing, BAM. Jackpot type of weekends (or at least that's what I'm hoping for). I'd start right next to the weeds and fish out to 25' or so.

How about a crappie bite report from Ida, anyone?

I know some people were still scraping up the last remainders of them out of the bullrushes. Now they should be found on the weed edges adjacent to these areas. Sorry that I can't get you narrowed in any more as I said, haven't been up in awhile.

Heading up to lake Ida for a week. Couple of questions, where is the best place to buy bait (price - selection) ? Also any general areas to check out for walleye and bass.
Any help appreciated and thanks

Skyhawk

I'd probably hit Christopherson's right in Alex. They will pretty much have anything you'd need.

I'd second Christopherson's. In a pinch, the Conoco in Garfield has limited bait.

This is going to be limited as I'm getting ready to head out the door myself for Ida.

Walleyes. Start next to the weeds in 20-25', lindy rig and a leech or crawler (little bit of air in the crawler). Assuming that you're staying up at Betsy on the N end. You can try the break out in from of the "island" with the big place on it. Otherwise hop around to various shorline structure first (points) and then maybe try out some mid lake stuff but it may be a little early for that to get cranking yet.

Bass? Not being a bass finatic, but always get some action with a spinnerbait anywhere there is good weeds, docks, etc. by the shore. Can work out deeper in the weeds with a worm/plastic rig.

The Lund's hooked up and I'm outta here!!
WW

Heading to Ida for the first time. Any general thoughts? It's just my wife and two kids looking for some fun fishing. Mostly catch and release.

I just came back from fishing lake Ida for walleyes for 4 days. Not alot of success. I've been fishing this lake for 35 yrs. The last 2 years have been terrible. The largemouth bass have taken over the lake. Fishing 35-40ft of water and catch bass. Just wondering if anybody else has seen this. Miltona which is pretty close to the same type of lake has been giving up walleye's the last couple of years. Very frustrating.

WaveWacker it was nice to meet you Saturday morning..

Go shallower! I had a friend that was out there last week had a limit of walleyes in 2 hours fishing in real shallow water. We said you would catch 3 bass a northern and then bam a walleye would pop out, then catch another northern and two walleyes would come out. That would be my advice. I might be wrong I havent been out there much this year. Good luck.

Nice meeting you and your dad (I'm presuming) as well Marbleye.

I didn't have a bad weekend for the amount of time I spent on the water (ended with 3 more after only having 1 when we talked). Different spot (midlake) and a little deeper (~27') I marked fish and actually was able to go back over them and get them to bite. Leech and moving VERY slow. Actually would park the boat on top of them and then a very light bite.

Mid July I begin to target the deeper mid lake humps but honestly will probably only get up there 1 more time in July. Deep hump pattern usually gets worked in Aug. as well and into Labor day (we'll see if it pans out this year??).

I've always wanted to take the time and try to perfect the swim shad (talked about by Doug Stange very often) through the weeds presentation that up until now I've honestly only dabbled in with varying success). I know there are walleyes in there to be caught.

hhguide...if you know, just curious as to how "shallow" you're talking about and what presentation was being used.

WW

Assuming you've already been there and back but for pure catching, about anywhere in the 12' to 18' range with a slip bobber and minnow, leech or crawler part should get you a lot of multi-species action.

Well I was thinking...What happened to the smallmouth? I was up there last week three times prefishing for a tournament and every spot I stopped on was stacked with walleye and no smallmouth. Funny how that happens. Maybe we need to be less specie specific and just say you were trying to catch whatever you pull up.

I hear ya about the walleyes and the bass taking over. Was out Thursday before the 4th and we did pretty good. Got 6 walleye's, most around 15" but 1 at 23". The bad thing is we went out Friday night and got 1 northern and a few bass but not 1 walleye. Went out a few more times during the weekend for walleye's and did not do good. Also went for some bass on saturday and it was just terrible. The busiest i have seen Ida ever, was not any wind on the 4th but could not find a calm spot from all the boats out enjoying the water.

Been seeing most of the walleye in the 24-29ft range. Been talking to some friends and they are getting 20-40 walleye's a night on Miltona, using slip bobber in 14' of water with leaches and nightcrawlers. Lots of small ones but a few 24"+ here and there.

Was going to try it tonight but long day. Will try to get out over the next week a bunch of times and see how they are biting, since right before the 4th they started to turn on because just getting over the fish flys. So they should be biting pretty good right now.

The walleye's i did get tho were really hungry and bit really hard. Had no food in them.