The drought continues throughout the Northland, leaving some water levels at near historic lows. However, fishing continues to be good. Not mush has changed in the last week as far as the bite, but I think we can all agree that that the cooler weather was a welcomes addition. We did have a couple of days when the air quality was poor due to the fires burning in Canada, but now we are back into the moderate level. The smoke has been especially bad the farther north you travel. So if you are heading toward the Canadian border the worse it will get. Hopefully we will get some much-needed rain soon.

Surface water temperatures are ranging anywhere from low 70s to upper 80s. In some select swampy locations and in other areas we are seeing a few wild raspberries popping up.

The most easily findable fish in the area waters have certainly been sunfish. Almost any shaded beach areas will have a good population of active panfish. This is a great time of the year to introduce a youngster with less fishing experience to the world of sunfish. It is also a good opportunity to teach a youngster the importance of conservation, catch and release. A simple, small-hair jig twitched under a float or free-casted will turn said panfish. Most any food source will catch them, but for the fun of it grab the old fly rod and catching these panfish can produce a lot entertainment. Crappie are deeper in the water column, sometime suspended and sometimes towards the bottom. A small hook and bobber with a crappie minnow or small plastics will produce some fish. The best bite seem to come in the late afternoon. Electronics will help locate these fish.

Walleyes are still coming off shore areas where you can find either steep drop-offs, mid-lake humps or deeper substrate transitions. Hard to beat weed edges and/or rock to sand/mud spots areas. Anglers are reporting a late evening into dark bite. A variety of baits are catching these, jig and minnow, jig and leech and ½ a crawler on spinning rigs.

Northern pike and largemouth bass are still hanging around the shallow weed lines so spinnerbaits, swim jigs will attract these fish. Bass are seeking shady areas around docks and weeds. Throwing a top water frog or other weedless lures over the tops of the weeds will work.

For reasons unknown, musky action continues to be slow. There were a couple caught this past week, but both were small ones. A week or so ago a friend of mine who is an avid musky angler spent hours on the water looking for musky, but came up empty. Returning to his dock he decided to try one more time. So from his dock he made a couple of casts and landed a 47” musky. A week later he did it again, but time it was 44” tiger. Maybe that’s the secret, fish off your dock or around docks. It will get better as fall approaches.

What a summer it has been so far.  Usually, this time of year we are worried about rain interrupting our plans. Buying Stromectol Online: Everything You Need to Know  That’s just not the case this year.  Instead, we are worrying if we will ever get some rain.  It is no secret that water levels are down and we are in somewhat of an extreme drought, not to mention the spiking water temperatures. 

Crazy as it sounds, the fishing has been pretty consistent throughout this whole deal.  As usual, not every day is the same, but anglers  certainly are catching fish on almost every outing and recently some bigger fish has been caught.  

On most area lakes walleyes are getting a little trickier to come by, but if you concentrate efforts around low-light periods you will find some success.  Drifting over deep basins and dragging live bait (night crawler half or leech) continues to put some fish in the boat. 

 Bass fishing continues to be limited to shady cover and deeper structure.  Dock fishing has become a thing as we are now into the hottest days of the year.  Top water baits thrown into the cover has produced some fish. 

If you are looking for northern pike and musky, concentrate on mid-depth waters adjacent to vegetation.  Casting big spinner baits or swim baits is definitely a good way to attract some fish.  Musky action continues be considered slow, but few have been caught.  

Crappie and the larger panfish are also relating to deeper vegetative cover lately.  Anglers are picking them up 12 to 18 feet of water.  Slip bobber rigs or just vertical jigging will catch some fish.  Crappie minnows or pieces of night crawler is the bait of choice.  Smaller plastics are working as well.