Jun 25 walleye & bass

Got out Saturday and was going to concentrate on the bass on Sturgeon lake. I tried along the shore for a few hours but did not get any action so started trolling the outside weeds to see if I could mark any fish. Finally came across a few in 12fow and threw out a marker. I noticed the mayflies were out on the drive up and used a black maribou and Berkley nymph on the high hook. I also tipped the maribou with a inch of worm. I managed to get 16" walleye on the chartreuse nmyph after a bunch of perch were pestering the worm. Meanwhile a lot of bass fisherman were pounding the shoreline but I didn't see any action. I did see a bass breaking the surface a few times further out. When I stopped marking fish it was time to move again. I got closer to shore and got bit off probably by a small muskie. I started working my way back to the dock and got a 2lb bass on the Ned rig. When I got to shore I used a new surface lure with a tail chopper which finally revealed a fish. I followed up with the ned rig and got a 3lb.
So it was not a numbers day but I was happy to connect with a Wally. It had a lot of the black speck parasites but I guess that is to be expected if they are hiding in the weeds all the time. It was hot out there but the breeze was welcomed. Maybe adding a nymph up high right now can get you an extra fish during the day. Goodluck!

You did pretty good! Nice outing and great report, thanks for posting!
Sturgeon is a big lake with lots of weeds and places for the fish to hide, so you had a pretty good action for the day.

Were there many boats around ?
I think it's quieter on the water this year compared to last year.

Thank you for posting about the black spot parasites. Not everyone knows about this in fish. I have been very lucky and have not seen any spots in the few dozen 10 to 16 inch walleye I have caught so far this year. As well no spots in the few that I have kept but I did see white spots in one of the the few big ones that I have caught. My friend caught one with spots and wanted to kill it. I told him to just let it go if he did not want to keep it. Letting these fish go does not affect or hurt other fish. These spots we see in fish from time to time don't look very appetizing. If someone catches a fish like this and does not want to eat it, just let it go. I myself will just cut out the spot if I catch the odd one that has a black or white spot. It is up to the individual who is going to eat the fish or not. I hope it will be okay to say this again. Please do not kill a fish just because it has spots. This is just part of being a fish sometimes. Thanks again for your report.

There was at least7 bass boats out and another 3 small tin boats out. Busier than the walleye opener.

There had to be a bunch of boats around on Sturgeon yesterday. My buddy is fishing in a 2 day tournament there Sat and Sunday. I don't know how many boats are involved, but usually the ones that he enters have upwards of 100 teams entered.

Looks like you had a pretty good outing overall pro-vel. You had to work for them but you got some. On Balsam so far i have not seen any black spots on a walleye and most of the ones i catch come from the weeds. I seems to me that water clarity seems to play a part, the more tea stained the more chance of parasites. This is just an observation, same as bass as well.

There had to be a bunch of boats around on Sturgeon yesterday. My buddy is fishing in a 2 day tournament there Sat and Sunday. I don't know how many boats are involved, but usually the ones that he enters have upwards of 100 teams entered.

This year's Canada-US Walleye tourny on Sturgeon in May had only 75 boats compared to 130-150 boats in Pre-Covid times.

And two weeks ago when we fished the whole weekend I also noticed reduced boat traffic.

I guess the price of gas and ability to travel around is keeping some folks busy somewhere else.