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.