Here is the early season forecast from Val Aubrey’s excellent, Eaglelakefishing.net:  Expect water temps to hold early AM and later PM for shore fishing but also expect to find recently planted fish as well.  Temps are expected to cool down this coming week and there is a slight chance for t-storms.

With low water levels, be very careful traversing the area between Wildcat Point and Christie. There is a large ledge that comes well out into the bay. You can get around it and there was a lot of 9 foot deep water as the ledge flattens out as you head towards the east end of Merrill Campground. It is just a good place to slow down in until you find the channel, then the bay off Christie is plenty deep.   So the west side is really going to be nasty. Last fall/winter, there were humps 3 feet deep and submerged rock piles surrounded by 15 feet of water or more all along the west side heading up towards Shrimp Island, Slough Point and Pelican Point. The water we used to fish between Slough Pt and Pelican has plenty of channels, but the flats we used to troll over are now very shallow. The rock pile off Slough Point was buoyed last year so I expect that will be buoyed again. With only one single lane ramp to serve the lake, opening weekend is expected to be busy. Last year LNF employees kept the line moving and a wait of about 20 minutes to launch wasn’t bad at all.  During the early part of the fishing season we can find good fishing on top water but we can also find fish holding between 18 and 24 feet over deeper water.  It is not unusual to find a good bite around 30 to 35 feet deep once all the boats hit the water Saturday morning.   I will run a top line first, my leadcore at 1 ½ colors before sunrise, but after the sun has been on the water for a couple hours I will drop out my “lucky” number of 4 ½ colors of leadcore to the water with an orange trolling fly or Sure Catch Red Dog double jointed…brass back.  When the lake temps are under 60 degrees, many of the shrimp and scuds are orange. Florescent orange has always been a good color on Eagle Lake and has remained a top producer for decades. The best lures have been Sure Catch large red-dog double jointed and Needlefish….normally the brass back over nickel gets more attention early in the season. 

 www.eaglelakefishing.net