Delavan Lake Fishing Report 10-22-12
Finally the lake has stabilized with the cooler weather. Fishing has been improving daily. If you can catch a good day with no wind, you should have great success. Due to the time of year, you need to take a lot of different baits and tactics for optimal success.
Northern Pike are everywhere in the 10-14 ft depth range. They are aggressively hitting rattle baits on a slow retrieve. The best location is Browns Channel or in front of Lake Lawn Lodge. Most of the fish are small however, you can get some really big numbers. Once you find the fish, you want to anchor, you can catch them slip bobbering medium suckers or large golden shiners.
The walleye fishing has been great at dusk and dawn. The fish are in about 16-18 ft of water off of main lake points. Look for the fish by the Yacht Club, Willow Point or by Browns Channel. With the cooler water temperatures, the fish are almost exclusively hitting on extra large fat head minnows or a deep diving crank bait. The best color for the crank baits are pearl or chrome/blue or chrome/black. For the best success you want to fish 1 hour before sunrise and/or right at dusk.
Largemouth bass have moved into the shallow weed flats in 10-12 ft of water. They can be caught on crank baits. The best color is perch or chrome/blue. You want to find the greenest weeds in the lake which are by the Yacht Club or in front of Lake Lawn Lodge. Last week, I did catch a few largemouth bass in 3-4 ft of water while casting a split shot rigged nightcrawler by the Oriental boat house.
With the cooler water temperatures, the smallmouth bass have become active. The best depth for them is 16-20 ft of water. The best location is by 3 flags or Belvidere Park. The smallmouth are positioned like the walleyes so the best approach is lindy rigs with a 24 inch leader and an extra large fat head minnow. On Delavan, smallmouth bass don’t school up like Geneva so you need to keep moving for optimum success. A good trip is between 5-6 fish. Fall is the best time to catch large fish so plan your day accordingly and fish when it’s nice.
Good luck and I hope to see you on the water. For guide parties, please call Dave Duwe at 608-883-2050.