We have fished Eloika at least a half dozen times since our last report. We went out this past Friday, Saturday and Monday from 4:30 until 6:30 pm each day. We split our fishing time between top water bass fishing and panfishing with jigs and a bobber. Fishing has been great this fall and is just getting better! Bass of all sizes are hitting top water lures along the weed lines and shore. The lake has come up 6 inches and flooded over the dollar pads and a lot of fish seemed to have moved back into the shallows. Bass in the 9-12 inch range are abundant this year and we have had several in the slot range too. The Perch began biting again a few weeks ago and are now feeding with a vengeance in the late afternoons. Most are in the 7-9 inch range. Crappie are averaging 10+ inches but haven't been biting until the last few minutes just before dark. We landed 20 fish in 2 hours on both Friday and Saturday and we brought home our limits of 10-12 inch bass and a dozen perch for the fryer.
Yesterday was the best day yet. We were working our way along the weeds south of the boat launch with floating rapellas and had landed a couple 10 inch fish in the first 20 minutes. Sammi cast out ahead of the boat and I saw water come flying up and heard and a huge splash. At first I though the beaver had snuck up on us again, until I saw the look on Sammi's face and heard her reel screaming as line was ripped off. She had hooked into one of the lakes monsters. It went for the weeds and nearly pulled the rod out of her hands while she tried to steer it away. I wish I had a pict of the OMG look Sammi had. lol After a short battle she got it turned away from the weeds and it headed the other way like a rocket. It came to the top, threw some more lake water at us, and spit the hook. Damn. This was definitely the biggest fish we had a hook in all year. What a rush though! It left our hearts pounding for a while and we jumped at every hit for the next half hour. lol
We caught and released 10 fish in the first hour and had a close encounter with a monster, so we decided to head back up the lake to open water to do some bobber fishing. Sammi landed the first perch in under a minute. In 2 minutes I had one. And that's how the rest of the night went. Got fish after fish almost as fast as we could get our hook in the water. Landed 47 more fish before dark. 3/4 were perch and the rest were a mix of bass, crappie and pumpkinseeds, and one pickerel. We kept some more perch for the freezer and let the rest go.

57 fish in the boat in 2 hours and lost a bass as big as beaver........lol not a bad evening

We like Eloika Lake a lot

travislikesfishing

10/16/2007 9:32:00 PM

hey im trying to go to elioka this weekend havent been thur in a couple months can u give me some pointers on wats working

Paul & Sammi

10/17/2007 2:55:00 AM

For bass we are using 2-3/4 and 3 inch floating jointed rapallas in perch and shad patterns. For panfish we use 1/16th or 1/32 jigs with a tube skirt and fish them about 3-4 feet below a pencil bobber. White, brown and black-yellow skirts tipped with a worm all worked well. Last time out we were fishing north of the launch on the east side just past the big ugly new house and about 150 feet out from the weed line. We found some bigger perch (9-10inch) in the deep holes south of the launch near the beaver house, but not near as many as out in the lake.

panfisher

10/17/2007 9:05:00 PM

are you sure that isn't a young tiger musky? i've fished and caught pickerel back in the midwest and they don't have the markings that one has?

Paul & Sammi

10/18/2007 6:13:00 PM

Yup. I'm sure its a grass pickerel. The first one I ever saw in Eloika was back in 1979 or 1980. I took it to the Fish and Game office here to ask them what the heck it was. We have caught 6 in the last couple weeks. Grass and Redfin Pickerel look very much like a young musky. I'm sure that's what the moonlight biologist who planted them there thought he had. Most likely you caught chain pickerel. They get a bit bigger and their markings are different. Some tiger muskies would be a nice addition to Eloika.
Here is a couple links I found about pickerel: http://myfwc.com/Fishing/Fishes/pickerels.html http://www.redorbit.com/education/reference_library/fish/american_pickerel/659/index.html

panfisher

10/20/2007 8:41:00 PM

thanks for the info on the grass pickerel i had looked up the pickerels before and missed that one, any other lakes around there have them? sounds like a great lake to fish. <')//<

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