Okauchee and Nagawicka Weedline Fishing

 It has been pretty hot out lately so the fish seem to have gone fairly deep.  This week I made it out fishing twice, once on Okauchee Lake and once on Nagawicka.  Both times I rigged one rod with an egg sinker, large hook, and medium sucker or large golden shiner and dropped it to the bottom along weed lines.

While the minnow was being dragged I used another rod to cast crawlers, leeches, or twister tails.

The bass were caught on Okauchee in my usual spots.  The gills and pike were from Nagawicka which I had only fished once in the summer.  The pike was kept not only because it will be tasty, but because it was hooked deeply and had a previously torn gill.

I really enjoyed Nagawicka.  We caught both largemouth and smallmouth bass, pike, bluegills, and even a nice 16" walleye.

Texas Fishing

My brother John has lived in Texas for quite some time now, but has relied on coming to Wisconsin for most of his fishing adventures.  A few years ago, we started taking guided trips out on Lake Fork, and now John has bought his own boat and started learning to fish Texas.

My niece Ella has been enjoying her time on the water with John and has recently been able to catch some nice fish.

I look forward to being able to fish with her next time we see each other!

Family and Friend Vacation in Minocqua

 We had a great time staying in Minocqua for a few days.  We were able to get a place at The Beacons of Minocqua and it was a great place.  They had excellent shorefront property with convenient boat docking, sandy lake bottom for swimming, fire pits, grills, playgrounds, and an indoor swimming pool (which was handy the day it was 60 and raining out).

We ended each evening doing a little fishing on the Minocqua chain of lakes and had great success on panfish.  A jig and twister tail under a bobber caught crappies on almost every cast and a piece of worm kept the kids busy with bluegills for as long as they wanted to catch them.

Although he is too young to reel anything in, I consider this Carter's first fishing trip.

We rented a pontoon from Lakeside in Minocqua and we were really happy with their boat.

One day Travis and I snuck out on a less populated lake to try for bass and walleye.  We ended up catching some nice 12-17" smallies and two walleye.

It was difficult for me to not just fish all day, but Minocqua proved to have plenty to do with the whole family.

Lake Winnebago Update

It turns out that just when you feel like you have figured out a lake, the lake changes.  This year, we have yet to catch a perch on Lake Winnebago and the DNR perch estimates are not good.

We have spent most of our time jigging and casting small reefs on the west side of Lake Winnebago for walleyes.  The most effective strategy has just been to use a jig and a third of a crawler suspended under a bobber.

Unfortunately, sheephead also very much enjoy this technique, so bring plenty of crawlers.

To fish the reefs, you really need a fishfinder with a Lakemaster chip or some other type of topographic map.  I use the Lakemaster chip, but I have found the Navionics App on my phone (for only $10) to be almost as good.

I have not noticed many people trolling lately so the best I can figure is that most people are struggling like we are.