I've been busy hammering the saugeye at Indian the lat 5+ week. Many limits this week and they're now getting bigger. 6 saugeye that went 19"-22.5" and 1 of the finest 2 man limits that I have seen. Threw back lots of legal 15"-16"ers all week long.

Still killing the saugeye at Indian. Easy pickins this season.They moved on me but I found them friday night 1/2 mile from the previous hot zone.Went alone yesterday and limit'd out by 9 a.m. Pretty slow with only 6 hits but didn't lose any.All avg 16"-17" and on the skinny side. Tood dad out this morning to that exact waypoint and nothing.This waypoint is named after my guest vernon from friday night. Gameplan was to hammer that waypoint at 5:45 a.m. Trolled all around there for 30 mins and nothing.Then trolled on up to the previous hot zone and pulled a nice 19" on our only planerboard with a bandit 100 series orange crush.

This weekend is the 1st time trying the deeper Bomber B04's. Since my B02's are getting scarce,a buddy of mine has been doing pretty good on them so I decided to risk the slightly deeper model in these snag infested 6' water.

I can only get 10 yards released,but they are hammering all our side rods and really tearing up when running 65' behind the propwash.Extra drag with the bigger lips are turning on the saugeye. Got a couple 3 each of sunrise craw,okie craw,and nestrobber 04 craws from basspro and they all caught saugeye.I've got many colors of 02 bombers as well as 100 series of bandits that have never touched a fish and these new ones are all performing. I haven't gotten to test them on the planerboards.I'll probably have to run 7 yards out behind the boards.The 04's down the middle propwash are working so well this weekend,I didn't even bother launching the other big board.

The okie craw on my main siderod hit major paydirt.Most of the big ones hit it. Lost a lot of fish,threw back a few small dinks and culled 2 keepers.

Hot time was 9 a.m. and most of the bigguns came in the 45 min span.



Full moon is near and I'm expecting to break my boat record of 17 tomorrow with 3 of us and running 5 rods in these snag infested waters.Lost 2 baits today,but found 1 of them later on floating in that area. Losing 20+ baits per season is no biggie when running planerboards in snag infested 6' water.

Had 2 trips yesterday so had to conseverve my limit in the a.m. to 4 and we caught 12 but threw back 2 keepers. 2 of them were fish ohio's at over 21",couple 19's.

Fished P.M. and we finished our 3 man limit of the day with 8 and culled out a lot of saugeye. Another 21" fish ohio,20",4 19",and puny ones of 17.75" and 16" that we couldn't cull.

1st 4 eyes were 19"-21" then came the dinks.

The a.m. pics didn't turn out.

Got 3 of us this morning,full moon baby!!!

man - looks like you're having a good time there.
I'm jealous Fishing is pretty slow here at the moment.

How are you preparing those saugeye's?

I tell you what mark,but it's been one of the best saugeye seasons in the last 10 years. Steady weather. Lack of rain is leaving the lake down a foot or so.3-4 days 99-104 degree temps.It doesn't sound much,but it avg's 7' deep and hard to find 6' of water to troll.The only coldfront we had didn't do much damage to them.

Usually saugeye are scattered.Pick up 1 here,and about 1 and hour after that.Finding certain hotspots are rare.This season,every trip has yielded 1 or 2 of those hotspots and they're stacking up on those hotspots for weeks at a time. If they move,I usually find them 500' from that spot and hammer them some more.I'll hit that hotspot and get nothing 1st couple times there.But the 3rd or 4th time on that same exact hotspot and the frenzy begins and it's been lasting an hr or so.

Another thing I changed up on is leaving my planerboards at home.I went with the deeper Bomber Model A's in the 04 size and the saugeye are obliterating them.It sounds crazy that a deeper diver would outperform a shallow diver in 6' of water.Both the 02's and 04's will easily drag bottom with superbraids.
The saugeye really love the living craw series from bomber.Behind the propwash with a sunrise craw and charteuse craw B04 is doing the most damage.. I even leave my siderods up straight and out of each corner.

Last saturday I only caught 4 and the water temp was a scorching 92.I was calling it quits so didn't even bother with fishing sunday morning.I put away my elect knife,which I'm on the 3rd one this season.Also put away my vacuum sealer. Usually those eyes go off and hide when the water temp hits 88.I'll usually get no good marks on the graph throughtout the main part of the lake.Only marks are the huge carp on top.

I heard someone else reporting limits monday and tuesday morning so I decided to try it last evening after work and limit'd out by 7 p.m in 90 degree water temp.4 in 30 mins with 3 missed fish and a couple channelcats. Nothing over 17" but I marked tons of fish at the 3 waypoints that I've been hammering them out of.Also threw back 3 dinks and usually they disappear in the middle of june.

I basically threw away my book on them.They are defying logic this season.

This year,Indian has to be one of the top saugeye lakes in the country!!!

I usually deepfry those saugeye in my bass pro propane fryer with a batter of beer and drake's fry krisp. It's been so scorching hot here that I pan fried the last 2 batches.

Secret to deep frying fish:Don't use the basket.Individually put those fillets in the hot grease slowly and try to keep them from hitting the metal and each other.A larger turkey fryer would be even better.
Get some standing wire racks.After taking the cooked filets out of the fryer,place them on that wire rack to drain out. They will be extra crispy. Placing them on paper towells will make them soggy.They're even great as leftovers a couple days later and don't smell up the area when reheating them. I get many compliments when I take leftover fried fish into work and no complaints about stinking up the break room, LOL!

I found a bag of saugeye from 2010 in the freezer and they still tasted great.If you love walleye,you'll love saugeye.



There's last night's haul in 3' waves and 90 degree water temp.

Season's been over for the last couple weeks and it was a phenomenal year.Only 1 coldfront all season and a handful of t-boomers.

My boat totals were 40 trips and 166.5 hrs of trolling.Limit'd out on over half those trips!!! That 4-stroke kicker saved me a ton of $ again this year.Way down on hrs this years because of limiting out very early and quite a few solo trips.

269 saugeye keepers.500+ dinks thrown back,and missed 50+ keepers.Over 100 eyes released in the 14"-16" range.Going to be lots of 17" and 18" next season now after the hatchery cleared up a disease from the walleye eggs a few years ago. 500,000 fingerlings released each year is the budget.

50 channelcats,but most got released. I'd bet we threw back that many that were in the 8" range.I've never caught them that small until this season. Channelcats turned off this season.Usually 100 keeper sized per trolling season.They do wreck havoc on my trebles because they love to drawstring them.

59 white bass. We threw back 300+ white bass dinks last year trolling and they were fierce til june hit.A huge fishkill done them in a few years ago and they're making a huge comeback.They're starting to be a nuisance now. 4-6 was the avg til last 2 seasons.

6 flatties: ODNR stocked them 1 time a few years ago.Largest was 11 lbs,5 oz.They are thriving and reproducing very well.They are a battle for shortline trolling.It's like a snag that moves!!!

4 Crappie: Nice ones.Caught20+ dinks.Usually 20+ every year.Been a screwy year weatherwise and the crappie are always skiddish.

1 largemouth bass. 20.5" and probably the best fight of the year not counting that 11 lb flattie.

1 snagged shad and 0 snagged carp.0 perch. Usually we catch half a dozen every year and they're always big and fat.

This season featured my heaviest fish ever with that flattie and my smallest saugeye ever,a 3" snagged fingerling.Only 14 lost crankbaits and no broken or lost rods!!! This isn't a typical year. Last year's haul was 186 keepers,but we only limit'd out once or twice.

Already prepping for next year with 4 matching diawa accudepth linecounters rigged with 30# spiderwire. Also have new electronics on my agenda-DI and SI.If the Overtime and doubletime keeps up the rest of the year at work,maybe even the minn kota terova I-Pilot trolling motor???

dam good