Went to Deer Creek after work last night (Monday, June 11th). Was there from about 6:15-9:30, spin casting from shore in Wallsburg Bay. I started with a 1/16 cricket tube jig tipped with a worm and got a bite on my first cast. Looked like a small yellow perch, but I didn’t land it, so I couldn’t say for sure.
I continued with that lure for a few more casts and got nothing, so I proceeded to try every spinner, jig, and rapala I had with me. Didn’t get a single nibble. So after 2 1/2 hours, I went back to the tube jig (it was a Berkley atomic tube in the cricket color, which is a light speckled brown). I started getting bites and short hits on almost half of my casts, and hooked into two more, but couldn’t land them.
At least I found what worked though. Sort of. From the few glimpses I got, they looked like small (4-6") panfish of some kind. The annoying part was that the fish were clearly active, because they were hitting at something on the surface frequently, and really close to shore. Maybe I should have tried a fly on a bubble. Anyway, if you’re stumped at Deer Creek, maybe try a tube jig in cricket brown. If anyone knows what they were feeding on at the surface, I’d love to know. I need to head back for some revenge! Happy fishing!
walsburg bay can be a little tricky for me, ive caught a few trout when i was camping there but thats it. you gotta go explre places that knowone really fishes and then youll get into em, the island rainbow bay are heavily fished so think less pressure.
i fished it about a week ago away from crowds and caught a few crappie maybe8 perch 3 green sunfish which ive never caught there, some largies and my friend caught a 8 inch bullhead catfish, crazy stuff. heres a pic of the perch and sunfish i kept.
That makes sense. It was my first time fishing Deer Creek, so I won’t be going back to Wallsburg. I’ll try the west shore along the tracks next time. Probably less people on that side. Thanks for the help!
Another good thing about that other side is that they probably don’t/can’t charge 10 freaking bucks just to use the parking lot…
no charge to park below the damn or more towards charleston, just be prepared to take a good walk to get access from the damn cause its buoyed off about 500 yrds up the lake.
Awesome, thanks. I identified some likely points and inlet areas on Google maps, and looks like I’ll be hiking up a mile or two anyway.
Plan on company regardless of where you’re fishing deer creek. It’s getting hammered hard right now. Especially from the bass guys. There were atleast 12 boats working the western side of the lake tonight. A few of the boatshaas 4 guys in them. The bass are getting hammered hard. It’s also hard to hold on a spot with 6 boats trying to pull skiers in the same area. Toss in some afternoon wind and it almost makes a guy desperate enough to go catch slimers at strawberry. Or head to starvation maybe.
Thanks for the heads up Rapala. Maybe I’ll get up at 4 some time and hit it for a few hours before work. Hopefully I’ll avoid more crowds that way.
The reason “Bass Guys” are hitting DC is that it’s fishing a lot better than Jordanelle or right now. Plus there was a pretty succesfull tournament there on Saturday. I’m pretty sure that alot of good fish were caught in the Walsburg arm…
I don’t do this myself, 'cuz fishing at Deer Creek I look for something besides rainbows, but I “hear” that if you fish Wallsburg with PowerBait it’s a pretty reliable way to bring in some bows.
Thanks for your report. [:)]
Ha ha, nice. The ONE thing I had in my box that I didn’t try. I was really hoping for some pan fish, but a bow or two would have been better than nothing!
Anyone care to share what soft baits have worked the best for them at deer creek recently?
At Deer Creek, you want walleyes, PBB (pestilential baby bass) or sunfish, worms are the best hands down that I’ve found, anyway. The 'eyes like 'em floating off the bottom 18-24", the sunfish and PBBs like them retrieved slowly. (I fish from shore, lol.)
Good luck 
Don’t much matter. Any earthy toned grub or worm fished near the shore is gonna get ate, but it’s getting harder. There are a lot of sore lipped fish.
My conservative guess is that I’ve handled around 400 bass the last month or so out of there, with a handful of crappie, perch, and even bluegill. I think we’re seeing a peak of some warm water species in there. I think it’s because of the high water the last few years. Now it’s dropping like crazy and it’s getting pretty hammered.
Big smallies are super hard to come by. There are a few very respectable lmb. But I doubt it’ll fish this good for bass in the years to come. Hope I’m wrong.
Trust me, ifishutah knows what he’s talking about. Gee ifish…who WON that tournament at Deer Creek? Congraulations.
Cool. That was an impressive weight. Congrats.