St Germain 2015

It took quite a while to find a pattern for fishing in St. Germain this June.  I think the colder than usual start to summer had the fish more spread out than usual.

We ended up finding two different lakes that produced fish.  One lake produced numbers of eaters in about 6 ft of water, while the other produced trophy quality fish in about 25 ft of water.  The largest walleyes pictured were around 25" long and I consider them trophy sized for small inland lakes.

Most fish were caught on jig and crawler and as always we caught a mixed bag of walleye, pike, bass, bluegill, perch, rockbass, and even dogfish.  

Portage 2015

  Portage fishing was slower than usual this spring for walleye, bass, and bluegill, but the crappie bite was crazy.

We caught and released all of our crappies, but unfortunately a couple different boats had pulled in between the piers and were keeping limits of fish for each guy in the boat.  A little catch and release would be nice.

On May 16, the crappies were caught on small jigs tipped with a minnow.  Bass were on beds and bluegills were still pretty deep.  Walleye were definitely in the shallow flats.

On June 27, the crappie and bass had moved out, but the walleye were still up pretty shallow.  The walleye pictured here is the first one Norah ever reeled in.

Norah's First Fish

Today was a very exciting day!  Not only was it Norah's second birthday, but it was also her first time landing a fish...we had tried in vain to catch a tiny bluegill on Fowler Lake a couple weeks ago, but this was her first real fishing trip.

We went to a small pond in Waukesha that had been stocked with trout in April.  I casted a small Mepps spinner while I gave Norah a bobber with a small jig and a grub (a "butterworm" as Wal-Mart labels them).

Norah loved reeling in each cast and she even had a fish bite while she was retrieving all by herself.

The fish pictured here was one of three we landed in about 20 minutes of fishing.  It took the rod and I made sure it was hooked well before Norah helped reel it in.

If you ask her what she caught, she will tell you it was a trout, but she did tell me on the way that she wanted to catch a walleye.  I am pretty sure that will happen when I take her out in two weeks.

Carly did a great job helping Norah and being our photographer...even though Norah did get upset each time Carly would take the rod to cast.  Hopefully we can catch a couple more this week.

If you are interested in catching some of these trout, here is a link to the DNR stocking locations and quantities just Google "2015 WI DNR Trout Stocking" and a PDF will come right up.  

Spring Walleyes - Wolf River

Hit the Wolf River in Freemont three times this spring.  In early April, we were skunked, in end of April we brought home some small walleyes and the two Tim is holding on the left, and on May 2 we brought home 7 walleyes and some white bass.

Each trip was fun (except the skunk).  We are much better while fish are in their post spawn patterns than when they are in prespawn.  Prespawn fish want you to anchor and keep a stationary bait while postspawn fish seem to prefer you to drift.

We had the majority of our success dragging crawlers on 1/8th ounce jigs.  You never know what you are going to catch doing it this way...we ended up with walleyes, sheephead, white bass, catfish, suckers, and in previous years sturgeon.  While we didn't catch any sturgeon this year, we did have a stick on for a couple minutes that when in the current sure felt like one.

Anyway, a couple weeks of good river fishing remain if you thinking of heading out.  In fact, the big white bass are not in the river yet.

First Saltwater Fishing Report

 For Spring Break, Carly and I took a trip down to Jupiter, FL to visit our friend Steve and to enjoy some sunshine.

The weather and scenery were beautiful and we had a fantastic time on the beach and the surrounding areas.

On Wednesday, we took a guided fishing trip with Craig Korczynski from Phlats Inshore Fishing (click here for link to his website).  Craig was a great guy who worked hard to put us on fish.

We ended up fishing brackish water in the Loxahatchee River.  It was great to fish in a place with no boats where sightings of manatees and alligators were common.  In fact, the manatees were so interested in us they came right to the boat.

It was strange to catch both fresh and saltwater species in the same place.  Carly ended up out-fishing me both in number of fish and species.  She caught: gar, snook, jack, catfish, ladyfish, snapper, and largemouth bass on light spinning tackle.

I caught snook and snapper and suffered a broken line costing me a nice tarpon.

While we didn't catch any trophies in our trip, we had constant action, beautiful scenery, and a great time.

Back on Soft Water - Lake Michigan

 After a long and mostly disappointing ice fishing season it was finally time to get back out on the boat...this time with a new bow mount trolling motor complete with iPilot which is pretty much the greatest fishing invention of all time.

This morning I celebrated Tim's birthday with him by landing a couple beautiful brown trout.

We started the day by the main lighthouse gap looking for lake trout, but couldn't coax any into biting, so we went and casted for browns.

After about 2.5 hours of fishing, we had yet to land a fish.  Luckily we struck up conversation with a couple great guys in another boat when we saw them catch a couple fish in our old spot and they told us they were dead sticking 3" Gulp just off the bottom.  

While it seemed impossible that any fish could want to eat a small piece of plastic just sitting near the bottom, they did.  Tim caught three browns and a smallmouth bass this way.

I had some fish on with Gulp, one of them breaking the leader knot off...but I caught my two trout in very different ways.

 My first trout bit a small fathead (we had two small fatheads that accidentally found their way into our minnow bucket) and put up a heck of a fight.  After losing another fish on my other fathead, I tried using the shiners that we bought, but to no avail.  I ended up catching my second trout by filleting a shiner and suspending the minnow filet a foot from the bottom. 

 In the end it was a fantastic day and I can't wait to get back out there next weekend.

January 16-18 Tomahawk Trip

I only catch monsters

 My friend Mike at work owns a lake place on Muskellunge Lake in Tomahawk, WI.  For the last few years he has been gracious enough to invite a bunch of co workers up for a guy's weekend. This year, my buddy Kevin (pictured above) convinced me to bring some fishing equipment.

We had never been out on this lake before, so I just followed my own advice from my last blog.  We set up some tip ups 2 feet off the bottom in 4-10 feet of water.  After getting bit a couple times on one in 7 feet of water, we moved all our tip ups to this range.  At about 3:00PM a flag popped and line started peeling out.  Kevin pulled the flag and caught his personal best northern pike.  I was impressed by Kevin's ability to play out some line, get the right angle, and pop a perfect hook set into this beauty.

It is important to note, this was my first real attempt at pike fishing without steel leaders.  This guy bite on a tip up rigged with 30lb fluorocarbon line and despite taking the hook well into its mouth, it did not cut the leader.  We had 5 tip ups out, and the only one that never got bit was the one with a steel leader.

Ice Fishing Has Arrived!

Ashippun Lake on Friday

Most people I know are not excited that winter has finally arrived, but if you are an ice fisherman you are.  It is important to note that I much prefer soft water fishing to ice fishing, but in Wisconsin, you have to adapt.

To ice fishing's credit, the same allure still exists...Can you solve the multi-variable puzzle required to locate and catch fish?

There really are two ways to enjoy ice fishing.  The causal and the serious.

Casual Ice Fishing:

1. Buy some tip-ups and shiners
2. Find some weeds in 3-10 feet of water
3. Set the tip ups 1-2 feet from the bottom
4. Start the grill and drink some beers while waiting for a bite

Nagawicka Lake on Saturday

Serious Ice Fishing:

1. Buy an ice shanty
2. Buy multiple Vexilar units
3. Buy a power auger
4. Buy a portable GPS
5. Read fishing reports like crazy
6. Buy tip ups and shiners
7. Buy jigging poles and a variety of jigging lures
8. Drill dozens of holes and move dozens of times until you locate fish and get some bites
9. Repeat process when the fish move on.

Serious ice fishing is a lot of work, and does not assure success.  And to be fair, I kind of still suck at it...but that is the draw to continue doing it.  One of these days I will hit the mother load.

I will say, this year for Xmas, my loving wife purchased me an Aqua Vu underwater camera.  Now I can identify pods of fish as they come.  In clear water, I can even watch them bite.  It is amazingly fun.  Below is a video of the camera in action CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO