Available Fishing Guide:
Website: MoonsGuideService
Went camping at Potholes Monday-Friday.
Got there Monday late afternoon and setup camp. Had lunch, then went out onto the water for a couple of hours to see what would bite. It's pretty breezy on the water. Decided to hit up the ripraps. Caught a handful of dink SMB and headed back in.
Tuesday, got out on the water by 10AM and went up into the dunes to look around for some LMB. In 4 hours, 2 nibbles. I was throwing cranks, spinnerbaits, swimbait, jerkbaits , wacky senkos and dropshot inbetween the winds. Only about 4' max of water visibility. After lunch on the water, started looking for SMB instead. Found this cove I think it's at the end of "Medical beach". Looks like SMB heaven to me. Got 1 bite and 1 dink from that cove. Since the wind was milder, went back to the ripraps and deep humps and got a handful of SMB. Only 2 over 2# with biggest one at 2.95#.
Weds, slept in and hung out at camp. Headed out to fish at about 2:30PM. Should have headed out early today bc the weather was just about perfect. Very light wind all day long. Wasnt too hot. Maybe high 70's and at most low 80s, with light cloud cover. Anyways, went exploring on the lake. Headed out towards what I think is called the mouth of Crab Creek, up against the high banks of Medical Beach? Anyways, holy smokes the bugs were bad. I dont know what they are, seems to be a mixture of a few variety. You dont have to bring lunch, just open your mouth for a high protein meal. Bug spray and my Thermacell didnt do squat against these buggers. We couldnt stand it so we boated off to keep the bugs away. Brushed away what we could. Ended up at what I believe is called Lind Coulee arm? Went underneath a bridge and looked like LMB heaven to me. Big fields of fresh green looking things growing out of the water. Dont know what these weeds are called. Looked kind of like bamboo stalks to me. Anyways, made a few casts there but moved fishing an arm to the north of that. Got 2 nibbles there. On a wacky, i had a LMB come out of nowhere and strike the bait at boat side. I set the hook. The fish jumps out of the water when I set the hook and the worm and hook goes flying while the fish does a backflip and disappears. Looked like a 2# LMB. Bah! Didnt want to get skunk, so we hit the ripraps to caught our dink SMB. Caught 6 out of 7 casts on a DS at a specific spot. Granted, these were under 1#, but still fun after a slow day.
Thurs, got out on the water by 8AM. Went farther up the Crab Creek to see maybe some LMB will be in that area. Spotted 9 boats at the mouth working it. As we continue up, saw 2 more. Pulled up and worked along this beautiful looking stretch of brushes. NOTHING. Bugs werent bad at first, but they kept coming and it got thick. We pulled away and headed closer to the mouth where everybody was. Busted out a couple of deep diving lures and see if we can get lucky on a walleye. After about 30 mins of nothing and bugs were back, we moved around spot to spot but the bugs were just everywhere. So nasty. Saw a handful of dead carp scattered about.
Tired, headed in for lunch and just to hang out. Headed out there later in the evening and see if we can find these elusive LMB. Started working the west bank in the dunes. Again, looked great there, but zero bites. At first, the bugs were minimal to almost none. But about 30 mins into it as we're moving around, they're here. We blasted off to medical beach and started trolling our deep cranks. Was marking fish in 30' of water. About 1.5 hrs into it without a bite, we headed towards the deep humps to caught a few more SMB and headed back in.
Friday, woke up to gusty winds. So didnt go fishing. Slept in. Made a big breakfast. Clean up camp and headed home. Saw the forecast was raining here on the west side. And yep, sure is raining.
Cant seem to unlock the mysteries of Potholes. We did have a family of 4 owls hanging out on the trees at camp. Very cool to see. They were chowing down on what looked like half a rabbit or squirrel.