McKee, Kramer repeat

After a strong showing on Lake Washington in which three-time defending champs Stu McKee and Roger Kramer posted a four-fish weigh-in over 13 pounds, the duo followed up with a two fish, 13 pound 3.8 ounce showing at Madison Lake.

The duo also won the big-fish prize for Madison, pulling in a walleye topping the scale at 8 pounds, 4.3 ounces. The top billing pushes the duo into first place, ahead of Dan Griep and Bill Holland, who didn't boat a fish at Madison Lake.

Second place went to Chris Roemhildt and Dan Bunde, who netted two fish for a 3-pound, 6.6-ounce stringer. Third place went to Lloyd Tru and Ron Patterson, who weighed one fish at 3 pounds, 2.9 ounces.

Tim Hobbs, who helps organize the tournaments, said 21 boats registered for Tuesday's Madison Lake tournament with 38 anglers participating, a good number considering the rainy weather.

"After the first 45 minutes, it wasn't too bad," Hobbs said.

Next up, the walleye tourney heads to Lake Jefferson, which brings me to my next thought.

Big Jefferson
Went out fishing Thursday with my brother-in-law, Dave. We really wanted to mix things up and try a lake we don't normally fish, so we headed out to Big Jefferson (East Jeff for those of you still confused).

I'd heard the rumors of overgrown weeds and the difficulty the weeds were causing anglers, but until I saw it, there was no way to really understand how bad it has gotten.

If we were in 5 feet of water, there would be 6 feet-plus of weeds. Thirteen feet of water, 13 feet of weeds. In close, out deep, the weeds were everywhere.

We spent the first three hours battling the weeds and finding pockets to fish through. Dave, being a master of the mimic minnow (he contends there is a special skill for using this lure that involves twitching and jerking, something a straight retrieve can't mimic), hooked into a couple of stripers before catching a small walleye.

For me, nothing but a bullhead. Needless to say, the frustration level was high, so much so that even I tied on a mimic minnow, which led to my first largemouth of the outing.

The struggle got so bad that I'd contemplated calling it a day, and anyone who knows me knows I hate to leave a lake. With little hope for the lake and with a big list of complaints growing in my head (something I intended to vent about here in this blog), I suggested to Dave it was time to throw on a scum frog.

"Well, you better do it soon, cause we're running out of daylight," Dave said.

With the invitation, I tied on the old scum frog, more so because I just wanted to throw a lure that I wasn't going to pick weeds out of.

Within a minute I lost a bass. Within five minutes I had two bass on. During those last waning moments of daylight, I managed to pull in five bass, all pretty decent in size and all very violent on the bite.

What went from a horrible outing on Big Jeff turned into a pretty tasty day on the lake. I just wonder if we would have caught bass all day had we switched to that presentation earlier.

Waiting for word ...

I was trying to wait to do a blog post until I talked with Tim Hobbs to see how the third Tuesday Nite Walleye Tourney turned out.

Unfortunately, between our schedules, we haven't talked yet. So hang in there, I'm sure I will have an update at some point tonight or early tomorrow.

Until then, I briefly went fishing at a new spot today. This rather unique body of water has a lot to offer, I think. I hooked into a 2 1/2 pound bass within my first few casts.

I'm trying to track down some official information on this spot before I give you a more in-depth analysis. And perhaps, just maybe, I'll let you all know where it is.

I'm hearing the water temps are rising quickly. Free Press photographer John Cross was out on Lake Washington this past weekend, and he said it was easy to catch a limit of crappie. Makes sense, considering the water temps in 8 to 10 feet were 65 degrees.

As I discussed in my last post, the crappie spawn begins to cap off around 65 degrees, and the sunfish spawn should be in full mode. So go catch some panfish while the catchin' is good.

Lastly, I'll try to give a little update on Big Jefferson. Oh, excuse me, that's East Jeff for those of you who prefer directional names as opposed to sized names.

I've heard the weeds are pretty thick, but I've also heard the bass action is picking up. We'll see.

Hot and bothered ... about the spawn

I'm hearing a lot of people talking about the spawn being off for panfish and bass. I'm also hearing the panfish on most area lakes are hitting and hitting hard.

But one such angler recently said after a good run of sunfish on Madison Lake that upon cleaning them, the fish were all full of eggs.

Nearly three weeks ago, I caught a 19-inch bass that barely weighed 3 pounds. A female, its belly looked about as skinny as it could be, so I naturally figured the bass in the area had spawned.

Not even a week ago, I caught a 14-inch female bass in the same spot on the lake, and it was full of eggs.

So what does this all mean?

Well, personally, I think the weather has had a lot to do with it. Every time our area waters start to reach those magical temperatures, the weather gets cool or down right cold.

Think of this past week of weather. We were seeing 50s and 60s during the day, 40s and 50s at night. I think it's awfully tough for water temperatures to warm when there isn't enough warmth in the air to raise those temperatures.

I figure a good week of warm weather and sunshine should help finish off the spawn in the lake I fish most often, but in larger lakes, spawning stages will vary throughout the lake.

Which brings us back to the sunfish, which had surprised this angler. He figured the spawn should have already been done.

Considering sunfish spawn later than crappies and need warmer water to do so, I don't find it odd to see sunfish still spawning. Most of the temps I'm hearing from people in the area are low to mid 60s. This is just below the magic temps for sunfish, but a great temperature range for bass and crappies.

As for walleyes, well those tough, cold-water fish spawn when the water temps creep into the low 40s and ends when the temps reach 50ish. So walleye should be good to go.

One last thing on the spawning period of fish in our area. A long time ago, this guy fishing an area lake from shore decided to pass along some wisdom to me.

He told me to always concentrate my energies on the parts of the lake that warm fastest. So I went home and started researching what parts of a lake would logically warm the fastest.

Aside from the obvious shallow-water answer, I've learned something about as obvious — the northern and western parts of a lake warm faster because those parts of the lake soak up the most sunlight throughout the day.

So consider where you are fishing on that area lake. Could you be finding fish in the northern parts that have spawned, while the fish in the southern and eastern parts of the lake are spawning or are in the prespawn?

In all, make notes of the temps from the various parts of the lake you fish. Watch for shallows with temperatures in the IT zone, and go to work on those fish.