Sturgeon Lake - Aug 23, Smallies + bonus walleye

[Skippy]

Managed to get out on the kayak again today.
I was going to hit up another lake - right up until this morning when I looked at my weather app and it was indicating very low winds and an overcast day which I thought would be perfect for another kayak outing on Sturgeon. When the winds are up I try to hit some other locations in my kayak.

Weather app got the winds right, but for the most part it was bright blue skies other than some early morning fog. For most of the morning the water was dead calm.

Early morning bite was very good. I was on the water and fishing by 6:30am and until 9am everything was going great. Several smallies including another good one plus a bonus walleye. The chatterbait was my most productive bait during this time.

The low winds and lack of waves made it perfect for fishing first thing - when I found em I could stay in one spot - no anchor required.

Unfortunately, as the sun moved up the lack of wind and bright blue skies slowed things down a LOT. I don’t think I had a bite from 9am until close to 11:30am and I moved around and tried a lot of different baits during that time. The lack of wind plus higher sun made things very hot. One of the benefits of being in the kayak - splash some water on my clothes and good to keep going.

After 11:30am the water got a bit more chops to it and there was a bit of wind (very light) but that coupled with my downsizing my baits resulted in a few more fish, but not close to the way my day started.

Off the water around 2pm today.

Best smallie of the day below (sorry for the lighting) - came on the same chatterbait that you can see in the next photo - basically on the cast after catching the walleye.

[Skippy]

Bonus walleye - this one really surprised me because it hit very near the boat and then took me right back down. I thought it was a small muskie for the longest time.
Speaking of muskies - I normally run into one or more, but I haven’t even had a muskie bite on my last 3 outings.

[Skippy]

Calm water - not what I usually see on this part of Sturgeon

[nbender81]

Nice job...I haven't had much luck with these calm waters...good SMB! Love the calm waters in the yak too!

The last 2 days with little to no wind have resulted in frustration for me. I did get a 40" incidental muskie (wrecked my PopMax!) and a 12" LMB, but that was over 10 hours on the water. I see other boats moving frequently too and chatted with guys and things seem slow where I fish over the past few days. I've been having decent luck on a 1/2 ounce chatter, 4" creature trailer...can I ask what your trailer of choice is? and skirt color? I fish a brownish, skirt generally, but should likely have another color/trailer rigged up when the fish don't care for that. Was thinking blue...

[Collingwood Dean]

There's a beauty!

[Skippy]

I use 3/8 oz chatterbaits mainly.

That particular one is Hite’s Hot Craw (half green pumpkin and half red) and the trailer was a Zako in Rainbow Shad I believe.
The other colour I use is Green Pumpkin Shad (half green pumpkin and half white/silver) with a Razor Shadz trailer in Redbone.

The Razor Shadz will last basically forever, but I have been trying out the Zako as some say it has better action. Still trying to see which I like better, but both do well for me.

Both Chatterbaits I use have dark blades - I prefer that over a silver or gold blade.

[toothhealer88]

Nice outing-congrats

[nbender81]

Thanks Skippy. Appreciated!

[Bredan2003]

Great catches!!