We are partway into our first week of the season here with guests. On Saturday, eleven familiar faces made their way off the planes and onto the dock to kick off our 21st season at Aikens (and the 61st overall!) The fishing started off a little tough as a lot of the bays still had water in the mid-40's. This has been a cold spring - we've often had nights below freezing since we've been here. Just look at the snow pictures from a week and a half ago! However, the guests seems to have brought the sun with them! Temperatures have been steadily rising and with it, so has the action on the lake. The hot bite seems to be a the point (Split Rock/Kik's Corner). Slowly working trolling and jigging patterns from 10-25 feet has been producing good catches of walleyes, lakers, pike, and even the odd whitefish! Chris's Corner is holding large schools of fish, but at this point they are still sluggish on the jig. The "Usual Suspects" like the Falls, Honeyhole, and Fastwaters are all producing their usual fare of shorelunch walleyes, pike, and even a random lake trout!

Yesterday, Kik's Corner produced the largest fish of the season thus far... a 36" laker that Kitty Chism expertly handled! You may remember Kitty from last year's newsletter article about "Little Blue" and her 46" pike. Despite having four broken bones in her foot, she has not shied away from the lake and is relishing in the opportunity to fish Aikens in the warm sunshine! The weather calls for continued highs in the 60's and 70's through the weekend. The water temps are over 50 degrees in most of the bays and some places are starting to hit 55 degrees. It seems that spring has finally sprung!

Weather and Water heating up after long cold spring