Spadille's Blog

Largemouth Bass
Largemouth are brawling fish, often eager to strike most, if not all, artificial lures, including bass bugs and flies, with enthusiasm. Favorite bass baits include: spinnerbaits, spoons, topwater plugs, buzzbaits, crankbaits, jigs, as well as a whole range of soft plastics.
Minnows and crayfish are good live baits.

Largemouth like cover and are often caught in weeds, lily pads and among sunken timber. Overhanging trees, docks and swimming floats also provide good largemouth hideouts.
Length 25-55 cm.

Habitat: warm, weedy, slow or still waters , termperature: 27°C


Smallmouth Bass

Popular baits are: crayfish, minnows, hellgrammites, leeches.

Small, deep-diving plugs and lures, and surface lures (in early morning and evening) are effective. But soft plastic lures in the form of crayfish imitations, twister tails and small worms or tubes are among the best smallmouth baits. These are often fished deep, in combination with a jig.
Length: 25-50 cm
Habitat: clear, rocky water with little vegetation. termperature: 25°C

Walleye

Walleye caught by anglers are usually 0.5 to 1.5 kg in weight, 25 - 85 cm and more than three years of age.

Walleye thrive in a range of river and lake conditions from cold, clear water to warm, weedy and stained water. Preferred cover includes weed, wood and rock. Bottom types can be anything from soft mud to flooded timber, rubble or bedrock.

The walleye is a light-avoiding fish, caught most often under low light conditions. Fishing is generally best on cloudy or overcast days, or on days when waves keep light from penetrating too deeply into the water.

In springtime walleye will take almost any bait or lure, but may be more challenging to catch through the summer months. Fall often brings another peak of walleye feeding activity.

Excellent live bait includes: minnows, earthworms, crayfish.

Water temperature preference: 23°C

Yellow perch

Perhaps the easiest of all fish to catch, it is taken in all seasons of the year.

A yellow perch seldom exceeds a length of 30 cm or weighs more than 450 g, averaging in weight only 100 to 300 g and 15 - 30 cm.

Water temperature preference: 22 °C


Northern pike

The Northern pike is the wolf of the fresh waters. Average-sized northern pike in the commercial catch measure 50 to 75 cm in length and weigh 0.9 to 2.3 kg. (45-100 cm)
In a lake environment pike prefer weedy bays, estuaries and shoals as spring and summer habitat. During cool autumn days pike are most likely to seek deeper water.
Pike are aggressive feeders through spring, summer and fall and continue to be caught through the ice during the winter months. Pike will take just about every kind of live and artificial bait, including very large streamer flies. For trolling or casting try: spoons, bucktail spinners, crankbaits, topwater lures, spinnerbaits, buzzbaits.
Live baits include large chubs and shiners.

Habitat: quiet, vegetated waters, temperature preference 20 °C

Lake sturgeon
Usual size of lake sturgeon in the commercial catch is governed by the allowable mesh size of the nets. Total length ranges from 90 to 140 cm and weight from 4.5 to 35 kg.

Habitat: larger rivers and lakes, usually less than 30 feet deep.
Water temperature preference: 17 °C