June 23, 2019 – Fishing Report – Pilgrim Village Fishing

I remember joking with a customer earlier in the spring that everything is so far behind this year that we’ll be catching Bluegills on the beds during the 4th of July. Here we are entering the last week of June and anglers are still catching Bluegills on beds some still full of eggs yet. It can’t last much longer before they’re done and move to deeper water where they will get a little harder to get. Still the best way to put them in your bucket is just a basic worm under a bobber. However Fly’s, Spiders and small Poppers also have been working well to seperate the bigger fish.

Gary Asher holding a nice Bluegill he caught from Lake Cadillac. 9 1/4″, 0.77lb

These ladies came in to have this Bluegill measured while I was writing this fish report. It’s a nice example of a Lake Cadillac gill at 8 5/8″, but this fish is probably 2″ thick and absolutely fat full of eggs. We might just see spawning fish in July yet…

The Bass seem to finally be done spawning. All the bigger female fish we have been seeing have been on the skinny side, like for an almost 20″ fish weighing only 3.5 pounds. A few of the Bass guys we’ve been talking to said most of their fish came on Spinnerbaits or Chatterbaits and had a hard time getting hits on soft plastics like wacky worms.

Carson Carlington pulled this behemoth of a bass out of Lake Mitchell, 19″, 3.50lb.

Another big Lake Mitchell Largemouth, this one caught by Spencer Wold. 19 3/4″, 3.65lb.

We’re seeing more and more nice Perch come out of our lakes. Most being caught by accident by Walleye anglers trolling harnesses or Crappie fishermen using minnows. 11 and 12 inch fish are becoming more of a regular thing, but they never seem to be schooled too densely and most don’t catch more than a half dozen that size per trip.

Darcy Kapuscinski with one of those big Perch I mentioned. This one came from Lake Mitchell and was 11 1/2″, 0.81lb.

Crappie have been a tougher bite the last week since the warmer weather arrived. Anglers are marking them suspended in deeper water but are having a hard time getting any of them to take the bait. They’ve been hanging out in 14-20 foot of water about half way to bottom if you want to try your luck with them.

With the warmer weather and water temperatures finally resembling Summer the Walleye have been retreating to deeper water as well. Some anglers have still been picking them up with crankbaits but most of them are being picked up with Crawler harnesses now. Look for them in 7-14 foot of water in the along weedy areas and drop offs.

Some real nice fish have come in during the last week for our 2019 8th Annual Free Summer Fishing Contest. Remember this contest goes until September 10, 2019 so you still have plenty of time to catch that big one.