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. 

Determination and Perseverance

Yesterday was the most interesting fishing trip I have had in some time. Joe and I pulled out of the driveway at 6:30 to head out to Lake Michigan. When we got there, the boat launch was frozen over with about 1/4" of ice and stayed that way for a couple hundred yards down the river. Fortunately, there was a boat with a couple of guys just ahead of us, trying to break up the ice with a large tree branch.

We went to launch and found out that not only would my motor not start, my emergency jump starter pack would not work either. With the ice and malfunctioning motor, we almost just went home, but instead we disconnected the boat and jump started it with the car. By the time we got back to launching the boat, the path that was cleared by the last boat had partially closed up and we got to plow through ice.

After plowing through ice, we finally made the turn to go fish the discharge by Jones Island for brown trout. After about 45 minutes of casting, I had a hit and Joe caught a small brown. We were not going to give up so easily after having gone through so much work to get out there. Our second usual option (the Summerfest Lagoon) was surely iced over, so we went out to the main gap to fish for some lake trout. On my first cast, I caught my first ever lake trout without being on a charter boat.

I caught my fish on a bullet jig and a 5" Kalins Jerk Minnow. About 15 minutes after my fish, Joe jigged up a beautiful lake trout as well. It turns out they have just finished spawning and were pretty hungry.

We each lost another trout to either broken line (Joe) or poor hookset (me). We already felt pretty good about ourselves, but we noticed another boat hooking up much more regularly. They weren't landing them all, but they were getting more bites. One of the things I like about fishing Milwaukee, is everyone is super nice out on the water. These guys literally drove their boat over to us, threw us a jig and a tube they were using and suggested we downsize baits and jig less aggressively. We did that and it wasn't long before I landed this beast.

There was definitely some small technique difference between Joe and I as for some reason I was hooking up much more regularly. Once we downsized to 4" baits, it didn't seem to matter what we dropped down there to get hits. I caught fish on a white tube, white jerk minnow, and a white lunker grub. Notice the common theme of "white". It is pretty much the only color I have confidence with out on Lake Michigan.

In all, we landed 13 fish in just a couple hours...we had other plans, so we left with the fish still biting...All of which must have been over 12 lbs and the smallest fish measured at 32". This was without question the best morning of fishing I have had on Lake Michigan and one of the best fishing experiences of my life. Like Joe said, "You know it is a great day of fishing when you are catching fish this size and you stop taking pictures.

This beast will be earning me my THIRD In-Fisherman Master Angler Award.

October 2018 Fishing Club Outing Nagawicka Lake

Took 10 members of our fishing club out on Nagawicka Lake today (October 14).  This trip was made up of 3 returning members and 7 new members.  Sports and other commitments took a lot of our returning members away today, but it was great hanging out and having fun with everyone.

It was an extremely slow day...not sure where the fish were as we tried all depths and a ton of techniques, but that is okay...we had a blast on a beautiful day.  The largest fish of the day are pictured here. 

We had some great volunteers offer their time, equipment, and boats to take these kids out, and fish or no fish, I could have stayed out all day.

This year we will be going on another soft water outing, down to the Lake Michigan lakefront where we had some good success last year and we hope to try our hand at a couple ice fishing tournaments.

My Lake Michigan Monsters

This is my person best Brown Trout.  it was caught in the summer fest lagoon on a cool March day.  I caught it on a firetiger scatter rap shad.  It measured 33" in earned me a Master Angler Award from In-Fisherman Magazine

This is my personal best King Salmon.  It was caught in September on a 3/4oz Glow Kastmaster Spoon.  Great fighting fish.  It measured 36" long.