I got out fishing on Lake Ronkonkoma last night. The target was catch and release fishing for walleyes.
I fished with Tim MacNamara and we launched to pleasant conditions with an air temperature of around 60 degrees at 7 pm.
The water temperature was 44 degrees. This was surprisingly high and made me optimistic for a good night. About an hour after launching, a big cold front moved through. This dropped the air temperature by about 15 degrees and brought some wind with it. As the night progressed, the water temperature dropped a couple of degrees as well, which is normally a recipe for disaster in freshwater fishing.
The cold front made the fishing tough and I only managed to catch one 17" walleye. I also dropped another walleye after a brief hookup. In addition, I had several hits, but these hits were soft and almost tentative. They felt like reaction strikes.
Fished for about three hours. Tim had at least one walleye as well.
The pre-spawn walleye fishing is pretty good on Lake Ronkonkoma, and there is a strong population of 15" - 18" walleyes in the Ronk. The forage base in the Ronk doesn't grow many 20"+ walleyes. But, it is very good for consistent action for "schoolie" type walleye during the pre-spawn period at night. I'm sure that there are some larger females in there as well. I will continue to follow this pattern for the rest of the month.
Here is a picture of the only walleye of the night for me.
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