I was pre-fishing a new lake for the first time this past weekend and fish the main lake and a main draw that runs off of it on Saturday. I didn't have any problem locating good numbers of small fish but could not find anything over 18". The lake is fed by a feeder creek that runs down from another lake above. There is about 8 miles of creek between the two main bodies of water. I figured that females would travel up the creek towards the upper lake and its spillways to spawn so I went to check it out on Sunday morning. The creek channel starts out 15'-20' and by about 6 miles up it it averages 10'-12' at deepest point. I fished a few fishy looking spots along the way but no fish. Things were getting pretty shallow and it looked on my map that it turned into a shallow flooded flat type situation further up so I turned around and went back out on the main channel and kept fishing. After comming off the water to head home I saw a guy at the fish cleaning station with a big Eye(I estimated about 10-11 Lbs). I went and talked to him and he had caught the fish from shore up at the head of the creek I had followed that morning. He showed me on my map where he was and it was only about 1 mile further up the creek from where I had turned around. Evidently there are some deeper holes up there(probably 15'-20')and the females are indeed up there to spawn. The water was 50.6 Deg at the furthest point I went. The big fish the guy was cleaning was still full of spawn(sad to see the knife use on this old girl!!)The egg cluster looked quite tight still and were not breaking up yet. I have a tournament on the lake in 3 weeks and I'm going back to pre-fish it again in 2 weeks but wonder if the fish will be done by then or not?? If so, will they be back to the main lake or scattered throughout the creek channel in between the two bodies? Shouldn't these fish be spawned out by now judging on the water temp?? The guy told me he had seen a few of these big females caught over the last couple of days that he was there as well as lots of males(18"-20")in this area above where I stopped. I know now I can get my boat up there without problem,I wish I had just pushed on further but it was new water and the running was getting shallow and I didn't want to get stranded. No other people were trying to get up this creek so I think I will have little to no company during the upcomming tournament in about 3 weeks. Based on what I have written, do you Pro's have any ideas about how to attack this situation. Again, water in the creek was about 50-51, water in main lake is 44-45, water in draws where we caught our small fish was 51-52. Any and all help would be appreciated. Thanks a bunch..

Hey RDJ,

I guess as long as the water keeps running fairly well, there is no reason to think those holes won't continue to produce all year. One would assume that there would be plenty of forage base in those areas as well. The key is the flow and the forage base staying up stream. BUT...you could "burn" small holes like that easily. So don't "test" things too much before your event. I'd make sure I could get a limit of those 18"ers down stream quick and then gamble with the big girls, unless it is a given deal. Decisions, decisions...lol

Also...some walleyes simply don't drop their eggs. This isn't uncommon to see, even weeks after the water has warmed beyond spawning temps.

Good luck!