We are still catching walleye along with a good number of crappie, sunfish and bass.  The walleye bite has best in the evenings, but the day bite has been very good at times too.  The rest of the species are usually willing to bite all day long.

Finding the fish is always the key to a successful day.  This time of year I like to use my locator as well as troll a small “search type” bait.  By search bait I mean something I can cover a lot of water with, for example a small jig and a plastic or crankbait.  I will troll these baits at 1-2mph until I either catch a fish that gives away the location to a larger school or I mark the fish on my locator.  Then I can go back to that area and fish a slower presentation that usually yields a better number of fish.  This technique allows me to fish where the fish are and not where I think they should be.

We are using leeches and #5 crankbaits for the walleye.  I’ve been having my best luck with leeches in 18’-24’ foot of water.  Where as the crankbaits have been good trolled over deep water during the day and as shallow as 3-6 foot of water at night.

The sunfish and crappie have both been hitting small jigs pulled slowly over the weeds.  You can tip these jigs with either a leech or worm for the sunfish and a small minnow for the crappie.

The bass are not in their prime yet but we are catching a decent number of them.  Soon we will be in what I call the prime season, where a trophy bass is always a possibility!  The hot bite for trophy smallmouth is generally September into mid-October.  It’s a favorite time of year for myself as well as many anglers.  I start with fast moving baits and as we move into Sept I will throw larger baits and continue to slow them down as the water temps drop.

If you have any questions about fishing the Alexandria area feel free to reach out and I will try to get back to you as soon as possible.