To start I’d like mention once again, everyone makes their own decisions when to stop fishing based off water temps but when fishing during this mid summer period in our area make sure you have all of the correct release tools ready and pick what fish are worth taking pictures of or measuring, attempting to not add to any stress that may occur from the fight and provide the highest likelihood of a healthy release.
Beyond that, the overall fishing has been great. I’ve been able to jump around to multiple places around northern IL and southern Wi lately and every one of them I’ve seen to find a fairly consistent deep rubber pattern. I’ve found once the thermocline has set in as it has here, you can spend a little time using your electronics to find bait schooled up off of weed edges and sharp breaks, as well as suspended in the basin sections near by. Pull and pause style lures such as Chaos tackle Medusa’s of all sizes have been the go to for my boat but also jerkbaits like a barfighter and weighted suicks have boated fish as well.

Once the sun goes down, the bait fish seem to disperse and pulling up to your deep weed lines or structure that tops off near or around the depth of your thermocline, has been most productive for me. Getting musky mayhem Detonators, chaos tackle Poseidon’s and Kramer bros Revo’s down into the 6-8 foot zone has been the ticket. Night fishing can become extremely good for these summer months but I suggest keeping your boat clean and organized, release tools handy and in multiple pairs, and as many headlamps aboard the boat so when a fish does get hooked, you can make the landing of the fish as safe and clean as possible.

Austin Wiggerman