Last Boat Trip of 2014

Tim's new best brown trout

Dad with a nice rainbow trout

Headed out to the Milwaukee Harbor for one last boat trip before it gets too cold for me to enjoy being on soft water.

Together we boated about 7 fish (I only caught one) and lost about a dozen more boat side .  Tim lost a real nice fish after a pretty substantial fight.

We were primarily using 4" White Gulp Minnows on 1/4 oz jigs while also dead sticking small spawn sacs over the side of the boat.

The bigger fish definitely prefer the Gulp.

Water temp was 35 degrees.  Air temp not much higher.

Cool view while fishing

I FINALLY CAUGHT SOMETHING DECENT ON LAKE MICHIGAN!

Did not handle the fish enough to weigh or
measure, but this is my personal best brown trout
(for now...)

We braved the cold to fish Lake Michigan today.  Tried a variety of techniques.  Trolling would have been by far the most successful technique, but I am bored by trolling,  so we went and started casting jigs and gulp.

We had a great time today, landing well over 15 fish.  For a little while we were getting hits every minute or so.

Besides the jigs and gulp, we also caught fish dead sticking spawn sacs over the side of the boat.

After no fewer than 8 trips down to Lake Michigan without catching a fish, I am pretty confident I am starting to learn what is necessary to be successful.  It turns out, you can't learn a body of water this immense in 8 trips.

I now realize that Tim's trout looks substantially larger than mine...Tim dropped the ball with photography today :(

Tim caught a lot of brownies today, and while this one
did not fight as much as it should have, it was a
beautiful fish.

You may ask yourself...what on earth is this picture...
It is Tim and Eric Haajata with what can only be
described as a big ass gizzard shad.

October 10 - 12 @ St. Germain, WI

I am pretty confident this is my personal best walleye!
Didn't weigh it, but it was heavy...and ~25" long.

This is Tim's best walleye to date
at ~18"+

Spent a couple of days up in St. Germain, WI...again, staying at the St. Germain Lodge.  As I have mentioned before, if you are looking for a great fishing trip, only 4 hours from Milwaukee, I highly recommend checking out St. Germain and the St. Germain Lodge.

Again, here is a link to the lodge: CLICK FOR LINK

This was really my first FALL walleye trip, so I was not totally sure where to catch them.  I got some good info from YouTube (man you can learn anything there) but the tips I got simply sitting at Fibbers (the bar at St. Germain Lodge) is what made the fishing trip.

We found fish between 15-28 ft of water over hard bottom.  To catch them, we simply dragged 4" walleye suckers behind a small bell sinker and a single gold hook.  We tried other things, and some fish came on fatheads and jigs, but the sucker/gold hook combo was by far most effective.

John may have lost his muskie, but he did
land this 30" pike.

Lake Michigan - Part One of Many

On September 20th I took a charter boat out on Lake Michigan with Carly and our friends Nicole and Travis.

While it was beautiful out and we caught 7 brown trout, fishing from a charter boat just isn't the same as fishing on your own and catching them with rod in hand.

Travis is pictured here with a nice brown at about 8 pounds.  While it is a gorgeous fish and no doubt did not just submit to being caught, a combination of the planer board and the force of the moving boat made the fish feel more like a plastic bag in the water than a powerful fish.

If you are looking to hang out on a boat and have a nice time with your friends without having to do anything but reel in fish, a charter is for you...but if you want the pride of finding your own fish, and the excitement of catching them on light tackle, you may find that you will be disappointed.

That being said, I did learn a lot from our guides and I got a good feel for the Milwaukee Harbor...enough so that I will feel comfortable taking a boat out there myself.

September and October appear to be the time of year when the King Salmon are in the harbor on their way to spawning grounds.  This makes it a great time to fish from shore or from a small boat.  In the next few days, I plan to hit the harbor hard from shore, then from boat to catch some salmon on my own.

I am guessing I will not have a ton of success right away, but I am pretty sure this will be my new fishing passion.

Below is a video of the type of fishing I can't wait to learn.

August Minnow Fishing

Are you tired of catching little fish?  Now is a great time of year to pick up a dozen shiners, chubs, or suckers and drag them along the deep weed edges.  For muskies, you would need some 12" suckers or larger, but for bass, pike, and walleyes, 5-6" bait works great.

The bass pictured here were caught on Okauchee Lake with suckers.

Carly's northern pike was caught casting and slowly retrieving a 6" sucker in Portage.

The walleye pictured is one of the first walleyes I have caught on Lac LaBelle in Oconomowoc.  I caught 4 more like it up to 17" using a 5" chub in 9 feet of water.

The bluegill pictured was caught under a pontoon boat in Portage in about 10' of water.  The gills on the lake I was fishing seem to have moved out of their deep water summer haunts, and back to break lines.  This one is probably the biggest gill I have ever caught.  It is 9.75" on the tape measure and was thicker across the back than any bluegill I have seen.

Anyway, this is it for summertime fishing. I have never been much good at fall time fishing, but I am hoping to turn that around this year.

Winnebago Perch are on FIRE!

Dad with his personal best
catfish...we estimate it at 20 lbs.
The scale was not functioning.

48 keepers on the day.

Dad with one of the bigger
gills I have seen in some time

  Spent Saturday out on Winnebago's, east side doing some perch and walleye fishing.  Never found any walleyes greater than 10", but we did find our way into some spectacular perch fishing.  It has been a while since I have decided that I was tired of catching big perch, but Saturday was that day.

Unlike the previous time out, the fish were NOT in the 11 foot range...rather they had moved out into 13 feet.

To find them, I recommend starting shallow and slowly drifting deep until you get some bites...then when you find some active fish, anchor and try a variety of methods.

Travis with his personal best
perch.  ~11"

The bait of the day again was a red worm on a plain gold hook.  This technique out fished all others by at least 3:1.

Dad took the multi species crown today (as well as the perch crown).  His giant catfish in the upper left was caught on his ultralight and bit a small piece of worm under a slip bobber in about 11.5 feet of water.

All in all, great trip.

I have preached catch and release in my previous posts, and I realize this is my second post in a row with fish being kept.  All previous fish were consumed during a family fish fry and the 48 kept here were divided amongst three families.

First Week of August...Bass and Perch

 My first fishing trip in August was a brief evening excursion with my brother Tim.  We spent most of our time drifting the 17 foot break line with 6" suckers...when that failed to catch anything but a medium sized pike, we anchored in 10 feet of water and casted our suckers to the weed edge and let them swim around on their own.

Eventually, the line would shoot out and you would have a fish.  We caught a few nice bass this way, but a fairly violent thunderstorm chased us off.

On August 4, my dad and I went out on Winnebago to try for some perch.  We did terribly on our last two trips out on the west side of the lake, so we changed it up and headed off of the east side.

Perch fishing is extremely relaxing, as perch like the bait to be completely still.  This means that the best two ways to fish them are 1) with slip bobbers and 2) simply dropping your bait next to the boat and holding it still.

Dad's 12" Winnebago Perch

While this is relaxing, it is also very frustrating when you are not getting bit.

All fish were caught between 11.2 feet and 11.4 feet of water. Anything else, and you were assured to catch nothing but sheepshead.

Also, despite the hundreds of dollars I have spent over the years on different baits, the most productive bait today was a single #6 gold hook with a red worm or chunk of crawler.

We took home 21 perch and one small walleye.  All perch were between 8 and 12" with the majority being in the 9" range.

I am quite excited for tomorrow's fish fry.

Okauchee Lake Bass

 I am very happy to report that fish on local WI lakes finally seem to be in their summer patterns.

I took two trips out to Okauchee Lake this last week and each time caught more than 20 bass.

All the bass seem to be on the outside weed edges, with the larger ones along steep drop offs.

Of the bass we caught last week, we did not find a lot of great size (most of them in the 14-16" range)...but we were using crawlers and looking for action over size.

The next time I go out, I am going target fewer bites, but larger fish.

Either way, the fish were cooperative and we had a great time.  My niece Grace learned how to fish without a bobber and can now 1) cast a spinning reel 2) detect a bite 3) set the hook and 4) play the fish to the boat.

The next thing we are going to work on is how to know when to stop reeling and let the fish take line.  We did suffer one break off on a large fish due to this.

This picture is a good example
of why you should not have
the sun behind you while
taking a photo...oops.

July Fishing

Since coming back from St. Germain, I have not had too much time to do much serious fishing.  I have gone out in Portage a couple of times and have taken one trip out to Lake Winnebago.

I don't know what I have been doing wrong, but the fishing has not been good for me this month.  In Portage, I fished my mid summer spots and found that the fish were not there yet due to the cooler than usual weather.  We moved to some earlier spring spots and caught the fish photographed here and others like them.  The only larger fish we caught were bluegills and some of them still had spawn in them.

Since the Portage fish were not in summer patterns yet, I prepared for more spring like patterns out on Lake Winnebago.  It seemed that all month people have been hammering walleyes on the reefs with jigs and crawlers.  I hammered them too...unfortunately, all of mine were about 6" long.  This is good news for the future, but bad news for my freezer.

I have never been much of a troller, but I just purchased a line counter and other materials needed to troll for walleyes out on Lake Winnebago, primarily #5 Flicker Shad in a variety of colors.  I don't plan on using planer boards, but I do think I will have to try moving out to the mud my next trip out.  I started trolling them along the reefs a week ago, but only caught catfish and sheepshead.

I was able to find some perch...both in Portage and on Winnebago, but I don't keep them unless they are at least 8" and I have at least six of them.  I did not manage that in either location...not that I would keep perch in Portage anyway.

The best fish that we caught this month was caught by my mother in law Robin (pictured on the left).  She caught a catfish that I estimate to be between 10-12 lbs.  It was a great fight, but there was no way I could get her to hold it for a picture.

On Friday, I hope to take my niece Grace out to catch some BIG largemouth bass...I will let you know how that goes soon there after.

Four Days of Vilas County Fishing

 Last week, my brother John, my father Bill, and I took a fishing trip up to Vilas County.  This was our second of what will become an annual trip.  Hopefully next year, my brother Tim will be able to make it.

Vilas County is filled with hundreds of lakes and just as many places to stay, but after a good amount of research, we decided to stay at the St. Germain Lodge (info linked here).  Last year we stayed in a single room, which was nice enough, but this year we wanted all the conveniences that come with renting a cabin.  All the cabins are privately owned then leased through the resort.  We stayed in Cabin #7 and could not have been happier (photos are on the left).  Everything was clean and comfortable.

While we consider ourselves good fishermen, and we own a fish locator with a Lakemaster Chip...there are so many lakes that it can be overwhelming trying to decide where to fish.  We like to target walleyes and smallmouth bass while we are up there.  Just like our first trip, we decided to hire a guide for a couple morning trips to show us a few lakes and some new techniques.  Hiring a guide was not an easy decision for prideful fishermen like us, but I am super glad we did.

We hired guide Rob Manthei (info linked here) and had a wonderful experience.  I have taken a lot of guide trips over the years an I can say that Rob is the only one who has earned my repeat business.  After an hour or two, you forget that you are fishing with a guide and it feels like you are fishing with one of your friends.  There are a LOT of variables that go into fishing the smaller lakes in Vilas County, and hiring a guide like Rob will help make your entire trip more successful.

This trip, we focused our efforts on four different lakes and had success on each and every one of them.  Two of the lakes we fished with Rob, and two of them we fished by ourselves.  We finished the trip with a total catch of 72 walleyes, 56 smallmouth bass, 4 largemouth bass, and countless panfish (especially rock bass).  Our largest fish are pictured on this blog.  We did not keep any of our largest fish, and all of them posted here were released.  We try to keep only smaller walleyes (below 18") and panfish.

Had we chosen to stay closer to home and fish Lake Winnebago, we would have been legally able to keep many more walleyes than lakes in Vilas County permit, but I would not trade this experience for a full freezer.  Not all fish need to be kept, so a daily limit of 2 walleyes per person on most Vilas County lakes is just fine with me.

Anyway, this concludes my longest blog post ever.  If you are looking for a great fishing trip that is not too far from home (4 hours from Milwaukee)...I highly suggest giving Rob Manthei a call at the St. Germain Lodge.  Even if you don't need or want a guide, the accommodations are worth checking out.  And if nothing else, you can probably learn enough from people just hanging out at the lodge's bar, Fibbers, to get you on the right track.

Remember, if you want to see larger versions of the images posted, all you need to do is click on the picture.

Memorable Fish

~28" Walleye from Big St. Germain

My personal best bass...~8 lbs
Lake Fork, TX

Giant Sheephead
Lake Winnebago

John with a large crappie from
Lake Fork, Texas

30" Northern attacked by
a giant muskie as Carly
reeled it in.  Fowler Lake.

5lb+ bass from Delevan Lake

Large pike from Portage, WI

Catfish from Lake Winnebago

19" Smallie from
Big St. Germain

Carly's biggest bass to date
Okauchee Lake

After catching nothing but small to average fish all year so far, I thought that I would post some of the larger fish we have caught in recent memory...just to remind myself that someday I will again catch a large fish :)

Giant Smallmouth (sadly caught by someone else)

I don't generally plan to post pictures or video of other people's fish, but this is an impressive video.  The guide in this video, Eric Hajata, and his fishing partner stumbled into this MONSTER.  While the video just says "Southeast WI Lake", every fisherman in SE Wisconsin will recognize this as Rocky Point on Pewaukee Lake.  Amazing fish!

Pewaukee Lake

Some people think that the up close
photo of a fish makes it look artificially large,
but I prefer pics like this because the beauty
of the fish is what I want the pic to focus on.

 Water Temperature = 72 degrees

Today was the most summer like day we have had so far this year.  Before embarking on 8 hours worth of yard work I went out with a friend for a quick morning out on Pewaukee Lake...only my second time ever fishing this lake.

It turned out that we only really fished for about 2 hours due to engine problems so we never really found any sort of steady pattern.

On an unrelated note, my mother-in-law
sent me a picture of her personal best
perch caught in Portage...9"

I ended up with 4 bass...three small male largies and one nice 17" smallie.

All fish were caught on a 1/16 oz green jig dragging a crawler in 12-13 feet of water.

I included two pictures of the same smallmouth to demonstrate two different ways of photographing fish.