WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
July 26, 2007

Hot! Hot! Hot! is the story of the week, and with the heat comes the Salmo Hornet. The water temperatures are now hitting the upper 70's and low 80's on most area lakes including Winnie and Pokegama. With the warm temps we have seen Pokegama thermocline about a week and a half ago and the oxygen levels on those lakes that don't thermocline begin to decrease.

With the oxygen levels starting to drop on Winnie, we have started to see those dead fish numbers increasing which is a sign to head for the shoreline and get those Salmo hornets out. We did find a much more consistent Salmo Hornet bite this week on Winnie. The main bite is coming from 10-15 feet of water and we have been using both the #4 and #5 hornets. When trolling the #5 we have found 65 to 90 feet of line to be the most productive and with the #4 hornet we have been running 45-70 feet of line. The speeds have ranged from 1.8 to 2.8 MPH, with the most action coming near that 2.0 MPH mark. As the fish pull from the deeper water, I would expect us to see a very good shoreline bite for the next few weeks or so.

This last week we did find some fish on the deep humps of Winnie and they were keeping us very busy with the good old lindy rig and plain hook tipped with a leech. We were mainly running a three foot snell keying in on those larger bars and humps located throughout the main body of Winnie.

As for Pokegama, our daylight bite has shutdown drastically for us over the last week and a half and the night bite most nights has shown to be the best producer. We have found a number of fish holding after dark on the weed edges in that 6-9 feet of water, along with those deep sand flats from 7-11 feet of water. We have had success with not only the stick style baits but the Salmo #4 Hornet has outfished a number of baits again this week. We have found that the Blue Dace and Pearl Orange to be the preferred bait, but the #6 Salmo Bullhead in the clown have took top honors as of late.

The Husky jerks and Salmo stings have been good options some nights when the smaller Hornets have shown less action. Speed has played a big role in the action we get each outings, with speeds ranging from 1.8 to 3.0 MPH. The fish are active and getting that bait sped up, more nights than not, has increased the fish to trigger and eat the presentation. If you're not seeing those rods bending, try bumping your speed up, it could make all the difference in the world.

So if the day heat is not working for you, try getting out after dark, the bite is certainly gaining momentum and I would expect us to see a continued night bite from here until ice up.

Good luck out there,

Sean Colter
member of NMGL
seancolter@seancolter.com