Delavan Lake Fishing Report 5/6/12 through 5/13/12
Fishing season is officially open! Now if we could tell the fish that we’d be all set. Fishing is fairly decent but it would have been nice to see a bit more action this past weekend.
We have these east wind that we can’t seem to shake. Once we get a more steady wind direction, fishing should improve.
Largemouth bass are in the shallows in 3-4 ft of water. The best location has been in Viewcrest Bay or by Lake Lawn Lodge. The best presentation is casting green pumpkin All Terrain Stiks. My preferred method of hooking them in Texas rigged. With the warm March, the weed growth is a lot thicker than recent years. Although I wasn’t fishing for bass on Sunday, I did see several nice fish caught. With warmer weather, fishing should improve.
Bluegill fishing is also in the shallows in 3-4 ft of water. The best approach is small ice jigs tipped with leaf worms or wax worms. The channels seem to be producing most of the action. One of the big problems is the overall size, it’s hard to find an 8 inch bluegill this year. With the cool water, the spawn is probably 2-3 weeks away.
Northern Pike can be caught on slip bobbers tipped with suckers or large golden shiners. Work a depth of 6-7 ft of water. Most success is coming in Highlands Bay or over by the Oriental boat house. What I have been doing is anchoring the boat and casting the baits down wind from the boat. Position the bait about 1 ft above the weeds.
Crappie fishing this week was very slow. I fished almost 2 hours for them on Sunday in many different spots with not so much as a bite. I don’t know if it was the east wind or the front that was moving through, but they didn’t seem interested in what I was presenting. We tried minnows and small plastics with only bluegills coming on the line.
Walleyes are biting during low light conditions. They are biting on crankbaits, chrome/blue Husky Jerks or chrome/blue Smithwick Rogues. You want to fish in 6-8 ft of water. The best location is by the Oriental boathouse and by the Village Supper club.
Good luck and I hope to see you on the water. For guide parties, please call Dave Duwe at 608-883-2050
Daily Reports
5/6/12 - Delavan Lake, water temp 53 degrees, cloudy with E winds at 15 mph. Air temp 60 degrees, chased off near the end of the trip due to T-Storms. Caught 2 northern pike and a handful of bluegills. Was on a quest for crappies, we moved around 8 or 9 times without success. We were fishing anywhere from 6 to 15 ft of water. The northern pike were caught anchor fishing and they weren't overly cooperative either, we did have one other fish on that got off.
5/5/12 - Lake Geneva, water temp 51 degrees, cloudy with E winds at 15 mph. Air temp 55 degrees. Caught 10 Largemouth, 5 were legal, the biggest was 4 lbs and a bunch of bluegills, a couple rock bass and a couple perch. Most of the success came in Abbey Harbor. The perch and rock bass were caught off of Black Point. The best bait was split shot rigged nightcrawlers. The perch bit on fat head minnows.