| Fishing was a challenge on our first day, the fishing here seemed a little different than the other lakes in the Ogoki Reservoir we had tried.
We didn't catch much the first day and using our regular techniques didn't work. So it was pretty clear that we needed to be doing something different.
 Todd and I are crankbait fishermen. It's fast, it's easy, it's fun and it really works, usually! They don't snag up as much as jigs, and you can usually get them back if they do hang up. But we couldn't catch fish casting the islands and shorelines like normal.
Trolling didn't work hardly at all which seemed very strange too. Normally we begin casting the obvious shoreline structure and trolling the 15-foot depth but when that didn't work we decided to fish the shallow rocks. Very shallow. See the bottom. Anywhere where there was exposed rocks extending out from shore usually at the narrows or some of the points, that's where we caught our early season walleye. Also the big mid-lake rockbar on the north east end (the dangerous one) was good walleye fishing too.
Just drifting and casting, concentrating at the level where the bottom just disappears. Close to dark, when the wind would die down, we'd jig-fish just outside the rocks where the bottom went back to sand, where we could work a jig without snagging up constantly. Normally, we're not concerned about colour, but pink and white jigs and tails were definitely the best color there. at least on that trip, for the walleyes.
The water was warm that week, in the 60's already. We stumbled across the one back bay to the left of camp (I'll look at a map at the show tonight and mark some spots), but this one had no rocks, it narrows down to a mud bottom inlet, there's a patch of weeds. It didn't look like much, but we made a trolling pass Into that bay one day and realized we caught fish when we were as far back in the bay as we could get. So we went all the way in, drifted, casted and caught fish like crazy. The walleye fishing there was in 3-7 feet of water. If you couldn't see the bottom, you wouldn't catch a fish. There were mayfly larvae hatching there. Had to be the key. Water must have been very warm in that shallow water. This was that 75-degree sunny week, remember. Crankbalts and jigs worked equally well, sometimes, you'd be able to see 3 walleyes chasing your lure as it approached the boat.
In any of these spots, we'd catch anywhere from 20-40 walleye per visit and all In the 11-22 range. Our favorite crankbaits are things like Smithwick Suspending Rogues, Rapala Husky Jerks, Ripsticks....anything really in the 5-6” size, we like suspending crankbaits that can be worked a little deeper, they cast down to about 8' or troll down to 15' or so. We like rattling crankbaits, but haven't ever compared their effectiveness to non-rattlers. Colors don't matter much, except blue and silver with an orange belly does out produce (you'll see that lure in all of Todd's photos, he won't use anything else). Don't know why, but that Rogue is a great lure, might be the color, or the action, or something I won't say it's the fisherman! You'll see these lures in most of the photos I sent.
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