G-Man Fishing

I went to Burke Lake during the late morning on Saturday. Nothing biting for me on the dam or other places from shore. The day became fairly sunny and warm in the afternoon. A couple of fellas on a bass boat landed a 6 lb largemouth in the opening of the channel that leads to the boat launch. I think they were fishing a spinner bait. Wow, what a bruiser of a fish that was and I could tell it was large from where I was standing on the shore.After being blanked on Saturday I decided to try Burke again on Sunday. This time, instead of going during the late morning I decided to wait until the late afternoon as the skies were getting dark. The pier was fairly busy at this time of the day. I decided to cast a suspending rattling Rapala from shore just to the right of the pier. The water was very low and I was very careful not to get snagged. On the third cast I hooked a small walleye. I was kind of surprised to catch one from shore but it makes sense since walleye supposedly come into the shallows to feed in the evening.After working the shore for a little while I decided to check out the action from the pier. There were a couple of guys at the very end of the pier that were fishing 4 surf rods who caught about 15 catfish using nightcrawlers. The catfish were of all different sizes and ranged from 8 inches to 20 inches or so. They were casting their bottom rigs way way out from the pier; probably 20 yards directly out. There were also a couple of guys on the pier with 4 foot ultra light rods catching small crappie with small plastic jigs just by dropping them straight down. One of the guys brought home a stringer full of crappie and bluegill. None of them seemed to be very large; most of them about palm sized.I was getting cold on the pier since the wind was blowing strong and I wasn’t really feeling it there so I drove over to the boat launch area near the dam. I walked on the trail on the left side of the channel and casted the Rapala not far from the end of the channel. The water seemed extremely shallow here so I figured I would work the shore for fun. I did not expect a largemouth bass to pound the Rapala on the very first cast! I reeled him in and measured him up at 13 inches.I was kind of surprised to get such action from shore in the fall but when I think about it the water was warm to the touch. The weather we’ve been getting has been rather warm so its no surprise that the water hasn’t really transitioned to cold temps yet.The fishing today reminded me of the diversity at Burke Lake. There’s plenty of catfish action if you want it. There’s definitely plenty of crappie and bluegill action although they tend to be on the small side. There’s walleye and muskie in Burke but are very elusive; at least to me so far. As was seen today as well as yesterday, largemouth bass are plentiful and can grow pretty large too. The weather will be getting cooler in November for sure so I’ll be coming back to Burke to experiment with cold weather fishing patterns soon.

The leaves are changing into their fall colors but the high temperature today is 90 degrees. It sure doesn’t feel like fall. Got to Burke Lake this morning and the water was completely still. I threw a RattleTrap a few times from the fishing pier not far from shore. On the third cast I hooked a baby largemouth bass which measured about 6″. The guy next to me on the pier told me that I was the only one to catch anything that morning. Hmmm, not a bad way to start the day.When my fishing partner for the day arrived, we rented a jon boat and worked the shoreline around Vesper Island. We made our way into one of the coves at which point my partner, William, reels in a baby walleye. I had instructed him to cast a Road Runner jig and do a slow retrieve. Its interesting that the same method with the same lure was used to catch a much larger walleye at Lake Frederick last year. I’ll have to experiment some more with the jig at Burke Lake. The rest of the morning was spent working the shoreline with the Rattle Trap while also at the same time drifting a slip bobber’d nightcrawler on the second rod. I had caught a few pesky shad baitfish on the nightcrawler. I even caught one on the Rattle Trap too. Those things pretty much strike everything regardless of size. Later in the morning I anchored the boat near a point and drifted the slip bobber rig with the nightcrawler. While setting up my other rod, I hooked a pretty nice channel catfish which was quite a battle on a light spinning rod with 4lb line.The morning ended without any more bites. As usual, most of the action was early. By 10am the lake was full of boat traffic. With that much boat traffic, the bite definitely disappears. We even had a couple of kayakers paddle between our boat and the shore when it was obvious we were casting towards the shoreline. So the day ended with one channel catfish and several smaller fish; all of which were tossed back to live another day. It wasn’t a bad day given that Burke Lake fishing can be tough. The weather is still warm and there will be many more great days of fishing left before the end of the year. The Burke Lake marina closes down for the off season at the end of October which may mean fewer boats. I’ll have to bring the canoe back to Burke Lake at that time and see if the fishing is more productive.