We arrived at 4 pm to find the parking lot nearly full. A lot of the people seemed to be there for "opening weekend". No need to wait. Eloika is a year round lake. We did see a couple trucks we recognized as regulars amongst the crowd.
It was a warm and dead calm afternoon for a change and we started out working our way down the edges of the east side toward the river outlet and around the south end.using rapella's. We stopped a few times and tried our bobbers with jigs and a worm as we went also. Got 2 bites on the jigs, 0 on the rapella's and caught nothing. By 6 pm we had figured out what wasn't working today.
After a brief stop back at shore, we headed up lake a 1/4 mile and started fishing with black / orange jigs again set to just above the bottom. We drifted in towards shore until we found the edge of where the dollar pads meet open water in summer. We got a few bites and finally landed a perch and a crappie. Then we moved back out a little. It was kinda hard to find the right area to be in because the dollar pads are not growing much yet and are submerged by the current high water level. We found lots of fish that were actively feeding in about a 100 foot wide zone running just outside the submerged dollar pads. By dusk we had a dozen fish in the boat. A mixed bag of perch, bass, crappie, and 2 catfish. The second cat Sammi caught was pretty big for a bullhead at 15+ inches and about 2 lbs.
As the light faded away, Sammi made one last cast. She topped off the evening with the biggest bass we have caught yet! 19 inches and an even 5lbs!! She hasn't quit smiling since. I think it will take a few days to wear off.

I like Eloika lake a lot