South Center Lake Fishing Reports (2024)

Fished middle of the water column at transition of 14-16ft of water along submerged vegetation. Medium speed retrieve at about 8pm.

Slow trolling / long lining at 1.2 mph on top and on the sides of the new weed growth was the ticket to catch a good amount of these pre spawn and spawning chappies in 8-12 feet of water.

Cranking weeklies with a 6xd, fish were aggressive so a constant retrieve sufficed. Caught one about every other cast for a good 30 mins then bite window went away.

Had our best luck throwing a Frog in the pads.

We had a club tournament on North/South Center and the weather and patterns were all over the place. Early in the week the water temperature was 70+ degrees and we thought some fish were already off beds. Then the air temperature dropped to the low 40s on Fridayand cooled the water to 60 degrees. By Sunday, the water temperature had climbed back to 65 degrees and we found that fish were sliding back up to shallow cover in tight to sand, docks, cattails, etc. All of my fish were caught on a 3/8oz steath feider with a zoom ultra speed vibe craw and most were caught skipping docks.

Bass were cruising bluegill beds, only managed to catch 2 small ones but seen several quality fish as well.

We just finished a local kayak tournament on the Chisago Chain of Lakes. The water temps are in the mid-70s and the bluegills were actively spawning. I targeted fish that were patrolling bluegill beds and caught a lot of fish that were up close to the bank in the first opening between shore and the heavy grass (4FOW or less). The bigger fish were on small points with sand and lily pads mixed in. The key was working past the outer grass mats to the inside openings as this is where a large amount of bluegills were spawning. 2-3 second pauses worked well to elicit strikes.

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Got a few flipping a Texas rigged stick bait to the edge of the reeds. Also got a couple small ones with a wacky rig on the edge of reeds or on docks. Small fish largest was 14”.

During our last Greenhorn tournament we got our fish on docks using t-rigged Yum dingers. The bass were just starting to show up under the docks. The better limits came out of patches of milfoil in 5-8 feet of water.