(Orleans)– Things are looking good when it comes to fishing this weekend for Walleye Weekend in the Iowa Great Lakes. Mike Hawkins, a fisheries biologist with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, points to good populations and quality of fish…
“The fish look really healthy. We’ve got good body condition, so the fish are there. I think at this point it’s about the conditions and whether the weather is going to cooperate. We know that the water temperatures have been kind of lagging behind even after this early spring. We measured just 50 degrees the other day on West Okoboji and a couple of degrees warmer up on Big Spirit Lake, so we’d like to see a little bit of an inclining trend in water temperatures for fishing activity to really pick up, but we are seeing some good activity. It’s not just walleyes, there are some nice panfish being caught in Big Spirit Lake and on the Okoboji chain as well, so there’s a variety of things you can try if the walleye bite isn’t there.”
KUOO news also asked Hawkins about the active weather pattern that will continue through the weekend and what impact that might have on fishing…
“A lot of theories as to how fish react to the weather but generally fishing activity will pick up on the front side of a front that’s moving in and it seems like high pressure, stable weather conditions are probably not as conducive to fishing, so if we’ve got some unsettled weather it might be the perfect combination.”
Officials again remind everyone to exercise patience this weekend at boat ramps, which are expected to be busy with the high volume of boats anticipated.
