Pier fishing at the Dentice house

This post is a simple reminder that you don't have to catch big fish to have fun. We had a family party at my sister's house last night and the kids fished from the pier. Not a single fish longer than 7" was caught, but the kids had a wonderful time catching the small sunfish, bluegills, and perch that were swimming around the pier.

2019 St Germain Anderson Men Fishing Trip

To say it was a cool spring would be an understatement. When we got up to St. Germain, we found water temps on the surface to be only in the 66-69 degree range, weed growth was behind, and bass were still on beds in many lakes.

We ended up having a great trip. In our seven day trip, we easily caught 100+ walleye, 150+ bass, and a variety of other fish.

This was an excellent year for big fish, as I was the only one who didn't catch a 21"+ walleye and we caught more than a half dozen bass longer than 20".

These might not be Canada numbers, but for a trip where we were only 4.5 hours from home, it was pretty spectacular.

We were successful with minnows, leeches, crawlers, paddletails, jerkbaits, and topwater poppers.

Over the week, we ended up fishing eleven different lakes, including three that we had never fished before and three that we had only fished minimally. We also made a day trip up to Lake Superior for smallies and walleye and had a great time.

I guess if there is one thing that I will take away from this trip, it is that you should not just pound the spots that have produced in the past. Keep moving, trying every hump, break, and weedline until you find large numbers of fish. This can turn an average day into an amazing one.

As I type this, the countdown begins towards next year...only 356 short days away.

At 21.5", this was one of the biggest smallies I have caught in a long time. 

June 2 Fishing Club Outing - Delavan Lake

On June 2, the Waukesha West Fishing Club held its annual walleye and bass tournament. This year, we had some help from Chad, owner of Hooked Up 101 guide service, as he came in and delivered a presentation for us on tactics and locations specifically for Delavan Lake. We had beautiful weather and caught some awesome fish. The best presentations for the day were June Bug colored wacky worms, squarebill crank baits, and lunker grubs. Below are some of the highlights.

Fishing with Carter

Carter has become a big fan of fishing. He has been able to make it 3+ hours in the boat having fun the whole time. He has learned the names of all of Wisconsin's fish, and has no second thoughts about holding his catch.

Carter and I fished together on opening day and caught a couple nice bass!

Carter also came along with Joe Jenna (one of his "favorite guys") and I for a panfish trip during the first week of June. He caught dozens of bluegills, crappie, perch, green sunfish, pumpkinseed, and bass. I was really impressed with his dedication. 

Spring Walleyes

We did not get out for spring walleye as often as usual, but we ended up having three trips with some success. The first one was a March 31 trip on the Fox River in De Pere. We drifted using 1/4 oz jigs and fatheads. We caught a few fish, highlighted by this pig. It may have only been 25" long, but it was heavy. This is my new largest walleye weight wise for sure.

The next week, Tim, dad and I went back to De Pere and hooked into a couple more nice ones. This time we caught fish on jig and minnow, hair jigs, ring worms, and Rip'n' Raps.

The final spring walleye trips were an April trip to the Fox River in Oshkosh where we easily caught a limit of 13-14" eater fish on jigs and minnow, and a May trip to the Wolf River in Freemont where we caught some quality fish on Keitech swim baits.

Waukesha West Fishing Club - February 17

Tried a new lake with the Waukesha West kids today. It snowed all day and was a fairly slow drive there and back, but it was well worth it. We didn't get a ton of flags to pop, but the ones we got were pretty awesome. Most fish were caught between 5-8ft of water.

Big thanks to the Kwaz family for all the four wheeler rides out there as walking would have been terrible.

Thank you as well to Dan Huebner for bringing a backup grill, as I forgot mine at home. It would have been devastating to have 60ish pieces of meat out on the lake and nothing to grill it on.

We took out a group of 12 kids today and it was Natalie's first time out with us. She added a great dynamic and even caught a bunch of fish.

A big shout out to Parker, who caught his first fish with the fishing club. A 34"+ plus pike.

Enjoy the photos below.

Waukesha West, North, and South Fishing Jamboree

Tuesday, February 5 we held a fishing jamboree with students from Waukesha North, South, and West High Schools. The fishing was much slower than we would have liked, but we had a simply fantastic time. 

Students from the Waukesha West Fishing Club joined Joe Jenna, Terese Mislang, Steve Kwasinski, and me as we took 14 students who had never ice fished before out for a day on the lake. When you add in the students and adults from the other schools, we had about 100 people out on the ice. 

The kids played hockey, did some ice bowling, ate some food, goofed around, and learned about fishing. Admittedly for some, the highlight was probably riding in the sled behind a four wheeler. 

We got to work with Jim O'Brien from Dancing with Walleyes guide service, and filmed a show with Outdoor Wisconsin.  

Some local businesses showed us some love as we enjoyed food from Roberts Speciality Meats, bait and equipment from Dick Smith's Bait and Tackle, jigging rods from 13Fishing,  and new tip up gadgets from Vulture Systems. 

While he often finds himself on the sidelines when fish are being caught, I also have to thank our parent volunteer Dan Huebner for his incredible generosity in the form of his time and tackle. He is a one man sporting goods department and is wonderful with our students. 

Please scroll through the images below, look at the smiles, and appreciate one of the many new experiences kids can have at our public high schools. 

January 27 Fishing Club Outing - Fowler Lake

It was -8 degrees outside when we woke up. I had texted the kids the night before hoping they would cancel. No one took me up on it so we went out ice fishing on Fowler Lake in Oconomowoc. We set up tipups mostly in about 8' of water and had pretty constant action all day. I am guessing we had somewhere between 12-15 flags pop and caught somewhere around 9 fish. I had a great time with these guys and look forward to our trip out in warmer temps next week.

Here are some of the highlights:

Not a huge fish, but it was Nick's first ever fish ice fishing. 

Aiden started the pike action off with this nice little fish. 

Big fish of the day goes to this pike. We wanted to return it to the lake so we didn't measure it due to the cold...I am guessing it at 28" and very fat. 

Bass in this photo looks smaller than it actually was. It measured at 18"

Lake Michigan Giants (and some smaller ones)

Tim may have waited all day for a good bite, but when it came, there was no messing around. He caught this 37" giant on a green and glow 3/4oz Kastmaster vertical jigging over the side of the boat. This is the biggest brown trout I have seen in person. 

Rachel made her first ever trip out on Lake Michigan with us, and while fishing was slow, she caught her first ever rainbow trout on a spawn sac. She caught another later in the day and lost on boat side. It was an unusually warm day and we had fun. 

John came up after Christmas for some winter weather and we ended up out on the lake in some pretty heavy winds. We had intentions of fishing in Oak Creek, but the wind required we stay in the harbor. We did catch more than a dozen nice trout though. Almost all of them were caught on a jig and Zoom fluke. 

Since we had caught so many lakers my last trip out, I thought we were a shoe in to catch a bunch more with John and Tim, but instead this was the only one. I hooked it on a 5/8oz bullet jig and a white tube. John had never caught a laker before, so I let him real it in and enjoy the intense fight they provide.