How’s the walleye bite at pipestone bay/jack fish during the middle of May? And what’s everyone’s go to bait/jig color/ or lure. Any good hotspots in the area?!

Basswood is pretty much fished out. I usually troll big baits on the flats that time of year.

Wallski: "Basswood is pretty much fished out. I usually troll big baits on the flats that time of year."

Admin help needed here, IMHO.

I don't know if this is sad or funny:)

tgeiss29: "How’s the walleye bite at pipestone bay/jack fish during the middle of May? And what’s everyone’s go to bait/jig color/ or lure. Any good hotspots in the area?! "

Tgeiss29, welcome to the board. I have no experience on Pipestone so I'm unable to answer your question. I hope other willing members can help you out.

Sometimes Pipestone is closed on the sw side to fishing early in the season because of the spawn. With late ice out check with the dnr before fishing. Basswood has a good early bite , but I doubt anyone will give up hot spots online. Buy your bait in town and ask for some advise,

Here is a small excerpt from my Zulu Magic fishing article about fishing soft plastic jerk baits ( Strike King Zulu\ZMAN ShadZ ) for walleye around Pipestone.......

Subsurface finesse fishing also works on walleye. While living in Ely during the spring and summer of 2007 I was able to fish with some local friends who primarily target walleyes with night crawlers and leeches. They gave me the opportunity to tag along one early spring Saturday to fish Pipestone Falls on Basswood Lake . I like to eat walleyes, but I’d rather catch smallmouth bass. So I started casting the Zulu after I wasn’t having much luck with the live bait. I accidentally caught 4 walleyes, keeping pace with Scott and Chuck who had caught 5 and 4 walleyes respectively on live bait that morning. After lunch I talked them into going back to the falls to see if they were still hitting. I caught the next 4 walleyes to their nil upon our return in a short time period. Scott said those had to be the “dumbest” walleye he had ever seen before. All I knew was that the Zulu caught more walleyes than live bait that day and dumb walleyes taste just as good as smart walleyes.

To prove it wasn’t a fluke catching all of those walleyes, I decided to take a solo canoe trip back to the same spot the following Thursday. I arrived there early in the morning and started fishing on the left hand side of the falls. I managed to catch 15 smallmouth, one being over 4 pounds, but no walleye. So I moved back to the right hand side of the falls and caught 2 walleyes straight away. After a quick breakfast snack on shore I was back to fishing. I caught 4 more walleyes fishing the right side of the falls in no time at all. I filleted the fish on a small island and placed the 12 fillets in my cooler for portaging back to Fall Lake. I was back at the landing by noon and frying walleye by 12:30. I guess it wasn’t a fluke after all.

So to answer your question, look for moving water, try leeches and night crawlers if you are a live bait fisherman. If you like to throw lures, give a Strike King Zulu or ZMAN ShadZ a chance in the current. Out in the bay, find some of those reefs and humps on your map or via electronics and just use a leech, a red hook and a split shot weight about 18 inches up the line. If you are not a live bait fisherman, get some Gulp Leeches and rig the same way.

If you would like to read the whole Zulu Magic article or any of my other articles just drop me an email at - queticomike@yahoo.com - Good luck!

tgeiss29: "How’s the walleye bite at pipestone bay/jack fish during the middle of May? And what’s everyone’s go to bait/jig color/ or lure. Any good hotspots in the area?! "

Basswood can be hit or miss IMO. Big water and fish are always biting somewhere. Keep moving until you locate. Classic structure has always been good to us.