Another week has passed and again we can say that the fishing has been fantastic. No wait, it was more like incredible. Ok, it was unbelievable. I think you get the point.
We thought the changing weather patterns this week, along with a Mayfly hatch, would slow things down slightly
but that was not the case. We had warm weather in the beginning of the week and then a cold front came in midweek, on top of a fairly large thunderstorm, but each day we had anglers catch great numbers and size of Walleyes and Pike.
Walleyes were biting in shallow water and slightly deeper water this past week. There is no doubt that you can catch good numbers of Walleye along the weeds in depths of 5-10 feet. However, some of our stand alone reefs are starting to kick in and producing fantastic numbers of fish. We had one Grandfather, son and Granddaughter catch 175 Walleyes in one day just sitting in one spot near a reef.
There is no doubt that our frozen minnows are working the best but leeches and Nightcrawlers are also working on sunny days. We have leeches and Nightcrawlers for sale here at the lodge for a cost less expensive that other lodges. It is our way of minimizing the hassle for our guests to handle bait on their own.
Since we are talking about Walleyes, a topic that we have discussed in the past involves that tackle used to catch Walleyes. We tend to see anglers using very heavy rods, fishing line, steel leaders and lures such as jigs to catch Walleyes. While an angler might have some success using heavy tackle, they will catch a multitude more using light tackle. We have to admit that Stormer & Kirkness lakes are “spoiling” in terms of how many fish a person can catch even with heavy tackle but they would be amazed at how many more fish they could catch if they lightened their tackle. A prime example would be the weight of lead head jigs. We see most people using 1/4 and 3/8 ounce jigs especially when it gets slightly windy on the lake. I have never used a heavier jig than 1/8 ounce even in 40 feet of water on a windy day. Boat control is key to this scenario and we would be more than happy to discuss all aspects of getting our guests to lighten their tackle and catch even more fish.
Ok, back to the weekly fishing report.
Pike were extremely active this week and quite a few large Pike were caught. We had 2 Pike over 40 inches this week and many in the 35 to 39 inch class. Most fish were caught with Johnson Silver minnows during sunlight days and Rattle Traps were a close second. Weeds seemed to be the area to target for Pike but some of the larger Pike came on Walleye spots on the reefs. There is no doubt that deeper standalone reefs will produce big Pike but this is usually at the cost of reduced numbers. Casting along weed lines will always produced great numbers of Pike and also size.
It is hard to believe that it is almost July already as the summer is flying by quickly. We will post more fishing reports as the summer progresses. We are going to start getting our bear stands ready for the start of bear hunting in August.
We now have two foxes that have been coming around quite regularly to get a free meal. Our original pet fox, Stormie, has not been seen since early Spring but her friend “Kirk” is here every day to great us with her friendly smile. Kirk is now bringing another friend to the lodge as we suspect the word is out that there is free food at Stormer.

That is all for now. Back to work (or should we say play).

Email with any questions and we will respond quickly. email address: stormerlakelodge@gmail.com

Dave & Linda