Shell L opener

[Cooter]

Looks like I'll be on Shell L for the opener - have had mixed luck there opener and prefer end of May but the plans dictated the opener. If anyone's gonna be up there I'll be staying in a 5th wheel at the campground in town.

[klecker]

My in laws used to rent the cabin right south of the landing. The yellow one. Lots of good times on hard water up on shell. I'll be up chasing the turks that week end may stop by. Fish the cribs out from the landing!!!!

klecker

[snoozebutton]

I just drove by Shell Lake yesterday and there's still a pretty good size chunk of ice floating around out there but it should be gone by today or tomorrow.

Lots of cribs in the lake and if you need a map of where they are, stop by the city office (same building as the library) and Brad, the city manager, will gladly give you a copy. Not a great map but it'll give you a good idea of where to find them.

[Cooter]

Any tips for the eyes there on opener? As stated, we've had mixed results - a lot of it probably due to windy, cold, rainy weather....thats my excuse anyways!

For the eyes we've been fishing south bay in the evenings with jig/minnow or minnow/slip bob. Might troll her this year. For the smallies it seems if the sun peeks out during the day we get them on husky jerks - otherwise those prespawn fish are tough for me up there. You guys getting bass and walleyes off the cribs early in the year? I have a decent map and have fished a few but not really given them a fair shake. Thanks, later.

[snoozebutton]

The bay's a good place to start, depends on water temps though. Cruise some of the rocky shores and if the suckers are in spawning, the walleyes are usually around the deeper cribs on those shore lines. That's a general rule of thumb we use there.

I talked to a friend of mine and he said they were doing really good on some nice sized pike though the ice in the south bay the last couple of weekends before it closed. I wouldn't rule out the weed edges in the bay for some of those monster bluegills.

[Cooter]

Thanks much! From what I've seen weather and water temps, as you mentioned, are bigger factors that early in the year vs say June and on. Hope for the best and no WIND!!

[Cooter]

Change of plans, I will not be up there for the opener. Date moved to May 19-20 IF I have my second turkey tag filled.

[fisher98]

I plan on coming up Sunday morning to chase some Smallies around.

Does anyone have any recent rports on lake water level or even temp???

If anyone is up there on Sunday the 6th I will be in a red and black Fisher FX 21 and my brother will be in a Tourquoise 18ft Javelin!!! Say HI!!!

fisher 98

[Cooter]

Fisher - good luck and be sure to post a reply.

[Cooter]

Well guys, whats happening on Shell? I'm gonna be up there this weekend chasing mostly smallies and eyes.

[Cooter]

Looks like we need to recruit more Shell L fisherman to FM!!! - I need all the help I can get! I'll post a report Monday.

[snoozebutton]

I'd like to help you out Cooter but I haven't talked to anyone down that way in a while (this working just gets in the way of everything). I grew up in Shell Lake but now I live near Hayward. The bite on some of the bigger lakes around here is starting to pick up so I'd say you should do okay.

[Cooter]

Well we had good fishing Fri night and Sat until late afternoon, then the cold front hit....you could see your breath Sat night. I caught 6 walleyes, 5 on Fri night and one Sat, from 14-21". Got some nice crappies as well Fri night and then Sat we absolutely hammered them. One after the other, ran out of minnows twice, cleaned fish for an hour and a half. Also a few small pike and medium bass. The smallies were on the beds although with the crappie bite and then the weather we didn't spend any time on them. There was a bass tourney there and they struggled, bass were actively spawning on and wouldn't bite, mostly they caught single males guarding nests.

We did the vast majority of fishing in south bay - minnows and slip bobbers and jigs for walleyes and crappies, then minnows/bobbers and twister jigs for crappies. One group did have a bunch of walleyes Fri night and they were trolling shad type cranks. Good weekend overall before the cold front.

[snoozebutton]

Glad to hear you did good and sorry I couldn't help you out a little more. Sounds like you didn't need any help though.