Black Hawk Lake


Surface water temperature is 57 degrees. Water levels are near the crest of the spillway. Bluegill - Good: Pick up bluegill just about anywhere along the shoreline in 2- to 5-feet of water. Use a small jig tipped with live bait or a small piece of crawler fished below a bobber off the floating fishing pier, the west stone pier, and the inlet bridge. Black Crappie - Fair: Use a jig with a minnow in 2- to 6-feet of water along Ice House Point, the floating dock and the stone piers in Town Bay. Walleye - Fair: Use live bait fished along the Ice House Point shoreline and near the outlet in the east basin. Channel Catfish - Fair: Use nightcrawlers and cut bait fished on the bottom near the floating dock, Ice House Point, and the rock piles near Cottonwood Point and the east basin. Largemouth Bass - Good: Use topwater lures, twisters, or live bait to catch largemouth bass just about anywhere along the shoreline. 

CANYON LAKE:

 Water stained; 84-88 degrees; 2.42 feet low. Black bass are good on watermelon red Whacky Sticks on jigheads, drop shot rigs, and white spinnerbaits along main lake bluffs in 10-20 feet. Striped bass are slow. White bass are slow. Smallmouth bass are fair on Smokin' Green Devil's Tongues on drop shots over rock piles in 14-28 feet early. Crappie are fair on minnows and pink tube jigs upriver. Channel catfish are slow. Yellow and blue catfish are fair on trotlines baited with live bait.

Brushy Creek Lake Bluegill

Brushy Creek Lake Bluegill – Fair: Use a small jig tipped with a piece of crawler in 5- to 15-feet of water. Drift near deep structure, drop-offs and weed lines. Black Crappie – Fair: Try a small piece of crawler or minnow on a jig in 10- to 15-feet of water. Largemouth Bass – Good: Throw topwater lures, weedless baits, spinners and plastic worms along weed lines, near cover and wood structure. Fish deeper for larger fish. Pick up small fish in the shallows. Muskellunge – Fair.

Big walleyes at night

Big walleyes at night and are eager to bite. 
Some of the best fishing takes place at night and you usually have the lake all to yourself. If you are chasing these big hogs at night crankbaits should be your first-choice, period.
 Casting and trolling are the two most popular methods for catching fall walleyes. The choice depends on which body of water you are fishing. When selecting a crankbait don't shy away from big baits. Large profile baits make it easier for walleyes to find and attack your crankbait at night

Fenton Lake picked up

Two weeks ago, the fishing at Fenton Lake picked up and that pattern continued last week. Thanks to a stocking of 123 rainbow trout that averaged nearly 20 inches in length, anglers picked up some big rainbow trout last week. In addition, the fishing for the naturally-reproducing population of brown trout at Fenton has also picked up. Brown trout are fall spawners and you could catch the trout of a lifetime at Fenton this time of year. Despite its small size and heavy fishing pressure, Fenton has given up brown trout from 24 to over 30 inches over the years.

walleye fishing on Lake Erie

The walleye fishing on Lake Erie has been almost guaranteed for limit catches of legal sized walleye so much so that a number of local anglers have been timing how long it takes to get a two or three man limit. Dunkirk has been steady with concentrations of walleye reported straight out and slightly east, in 80 to 91 feet of water. The fish are concentrated in the bottom 10 feet of water and anglers have been utilizing downrigged presentations of spoons, stick baits or worm harnesses to coax these fish. Set your releases light enough to open if hit by smaller light bites, or you may end up towing a hitch hiker. When in doubt, pop the offering.

Chautauqua Lake

Surface temp is up to 75 degrees. There are a ton of floating weeds on the south basin according to Mike Sperry at Chautauqua Reel Outdoors. In part it’s because of a lack of wind. It certainly makes trolling tough. They did pick up a few muskies over the weekend. Trolling small musky crankbaits is working if you're willing to deal with the floating weed situation. Walleye has slowed down some in the past week. That should pick back up again as the water cools next week. The deep water jigging bite has yet to really get started. Perch are hitting minnows but you have to weed through the smaller ones.

Arkansas River

The upper river is in excellent shape and is easy to wade. We are seeing caddis and pale morning dun activity through Hayden Meadows down to Granite. Grasshoppers are beginning to become more important as the larger aquatic insect activity in the river slows down. With consistent weather behind us and before us, water conditions should continue to remain excellent. It is now possible to wade across the river in many places in the middle basin. Be careful and conservative with your wading. We are still experiencing good dry fly fishing with the fish responding to attractor dry flies imitating grasshoppers and stoneflies. There are red quills and blue winged olives hatching during the afternoon bringing fish to the surface as well. At these flows, do not be afraid of tying on smaller patterns. Midges as droppers in the morning have been productive and mayfly nymphs in sizes No. 16 to No. 18 work well through the afternoon hours. The key is finding the right water. At these lower flows, the fish are beginning to disperse away from the shoreline, so spend more time picking apart likely lies out towards the main current and adjusting dropper depth until you find the sweet spot.