GATORS on Lake St. Joe!

Nothing is more exciting than having a monster Northern Pike swirl behind your lure as you quickly retrieve it back to the boat. Once that fish grabs a hold, the fight is on and the excitement is intensified! I experienced this feeling many times throughout this past summer on Lake St. Joseph. Starting with low water levels, the spring fishing was very productive with focus on warm shallow muck bays often finding fish in less than 5ft of water. The use of a fly rod was a key factor in being able to work the extremely shallow waters, as other tackle would snag up a lot easier. Certain days I was able to spot many large fish just by standing up in my boat. While targeting pike, many large walleye were also caught in the shallows mixed in with the large northern. As we moved into transition (late June), the fish were found outside the shallow bays typically holding on the nearest structure. Such areas include sunken rock piles, rock points and sand bars. The quick retrieval of a spoon was the easiest way to cover large areas of water and seek out the most active fish. Having a miserable month of June weather-wise (plenty of wind, snow and rain), July brought on higher water levels and hot weather. This boosted weed growth and the main lake weedbeds began holding the largest northern. They were usually found on the drop where the weedbed ends meeting deep water. Large northern tend to spend most their time in the deep water and return to the weedbeds only to feed before leaving. When I was unable to locate a fish in the weeds I'd turn to deep diving Rapala's and troll the weed drop off. This technique was rewarding on many occasions! As the summer came to an end and temperatures began to drop, large congregations of fish began returning back to the shallow bays. The weedbeds began to die off and the ones exposed to open water were totally knocked down during large storms. Fish again were cruising the shallows in large numbers and were easy to locate. Overall it was a successful season with many large northern caught and safely released. Lake St. Joseph has an extremely healthy fish population where any cast could bring in that monster!