Back in the Harbors

Got back in the harbor this past Thursday. Found a spot with TONS of bait fish and a pile of browns and steelhead to go with it. Caught fish jigging, casting spoons, and cranking Flicker Shad. Just an amazing day as I caught over 30 fishing by myself in about 6 hours.

Steelhead coming in ...

Fished Milwaukee on Saturday with a buddy. Got there early and had some decent success right at sunrise but my oh my did it shut off in a hurry. Hoping to get back again this week at some point.

PB for Johnny

Took a rookie out yesterday and got him his personal best largemouth. Nice fish, Johnny!

One more 5

Picked up another 5 last night just before sunset. Again ... ripping through he shallower weeds. Ripping weeds all day is tough on the arms, hands, and shoulders ... but under these clear, cold conditions you have to really tick them off to get them to move.

Saturday, October 6

Major cold front moved through on Friday and it slowed the bite considerable. It took me about 2 hours to realize I had to slow down and down size. Once I did ... the bigger fish were still cooperating. Everything came on Strike King cranks over weeds in 5 to 7' of water.

A few pics from vacation last week

Well that sucked!

First salmon outing of the fall is in the books! And the results are ... 1) One set of x-rap hooks in the right leg. In the ER for an hour Saturday night. 2) No salmon. (one hit and miss) 3) Boat back-ended in Milwaukee. Motor in the shop until further notice.

Holy Surprise, Batman!

Went out chasing muskies last night. Had a storm come through at sundown so missed out of the best time of the night. Went back out after the storm and caught this in the pitch dark ...

Must have hit it in mid-air. Cranked it in and noticed in the dark that my tally wacker wasn't spinning properly. Pulled it out of the water and tugged on what I thought was a weed. Soon learned differently. That was enough fishing for me last night!

Labor Day Blues

Had a few hours to kill yesterday so I headed back to the familiar spots on Mendota. Almost got sea sick from the boat waves and the temp was in the 90's again. I am SOOOO ready for fall! The day pretty much sucked with the exception of one 15 minute spurt. Had 2 floats go down within 30 seconds of each other and managed to land this 18" smallie and about an 8 lb cat. Then it went back to sucking again. This coming weekend ... it's salmon time!!!!!!!

Up and Down Weekend

Weird weather last weekend led to an inconsistent bite for me. I was on the water by 5:45 on Saturday. Dead calm conditions made for a slow bite. The wind picked up about 10 am ... and so did the bite. I picked up the two smallies below in the next 15 minutes. Then about noon the wind blew me right off the lake. Sunday I chased walleyes for about 4 hours. Picked up 6 on a deep, steep rock hump (from 55' to 25'), 4 of which were just under the 18" size limit. The other two were twin 20"s.

Duh! Why did I think of this earlier?????

A few weeks ago I picked up one of my personal best smallmouth … a chunky 5.5 lbs brute. When taking the hook out I couldn’t help but notice the tail of what looked like about a 6-7″ perch sticking out its throat. The picture I took doesn’t show the tail real well, but you can definitely see the bulge in the fishes belly. So, what should this have told me? DUH! It took a while, but it finally came to me today. The smallie bite on the rocks has slowed signifiicantly and the bite in the weeds has picked up. Also … I’m not seeing as many boats nearby when I’m out on the humps? Why not? THE PERCH HAVE MOVED OFF THE ROCKS and are now on the deep weed lines! The bigger, meat eating smallies followed them! I should have figured this out Wednesday night when I caught a couple of perch on leeches just before the smallie bite exploded at sunset! So … tomorrow morning when I hit the lake at first like … perch imitating gulp minnows on drop shots on the wind blown weed edges.

Off and On Night

Got out on Mendota yesterday at about 3:00. Really struggled to find decent fish on the rock humps. Trolled harnesses for a while and picked up my first walleye (18") on one of my own harnesses out in about 35' of water. Later moved to a weed edge and hammered the smallies. BIG fish picked up about 8:00 with a 20.5" coming in the dark at 8:20. The were real aggressive on a 4" chartreuse Gulp Minnow on the drop sot! Even picked up a chunky 12" perch on a leech.

Something New

Going to try something new today. People keep asking me if I'm catching the walleyes on Mendota using crawler harnesses? The answer is NO. But ... why do they keep asking? Especially people that know what they're doing out there. Hmmmm ... So, this afternoon I'll be dragging harnesses and bottom bouncer on the rock humps on Mendota. Started tying some up this week. We'll see how they work out!

Slow Down in Madison

The weekend was a little slower than normal. The walleye bite is still good on Mendota but the smallmouth bite was slower for me. Perch are pretty scattered right now. If you want to catch white bass ... you can usually catch as many as you want just about every day. Muskie fishing on Monona and Waubesa is slower than it was early in the summer. Murky water may have something to do with that. Nice weather this week should stabilize things again for a while. I'm looking for the smallmouth bite to pick up again. The challenge on Mendota is figuring out where they're more active ... on the rock humps or on the weed egdes. In both spots ... there are plenty of big fish to go around!

Back to Crazy

Got back out on Mendota for a few hours yesterday. Again ... amazing! The mid-day bite on that lake is incredible. Caught 2 walleyes at 23" and 27" ... and a 20" smallie. All on leeches on either slip floats or drop shots.

When in doubt ...

With the falling water temps I decided to go after muskies again this weekend. After about 3 hours of nothing (and a heart that just wasn't into it) we decided to try to find some walleyes on Waubesa. Changed gear in the boat and bought some leeches. Headed out to a rocky/gravely flat and found 2 walleyes and a bunch of nice gills. Biggest was about 10". Did the same then next day and found it even slower. So ... back to Mendota we go!

A pain in the bass!

Tough night last night. Got a few smallies and walleyes right off the bat but then the white bass took over. They were so thick we could have literally caught hundreds of them. We chose not too.

And the Bite Goes On!

Quite the weekend on Mendota. I fished the morning and afternoon on Saturday and the evening on Sunday. My Buddy Matt Folz picked up a beautiful smallie and an 11" gill on Saturday ... And I picked up two nice walleyes, a 20" smallie, and a 21" - 5.5 lb smallie on Sunday. It was a different pattern for me on Sunday as I found the fish on a rock hump that came out of 50' of water and topped off at about 15'.

Just Typical ...

Spent last evening on Mendota again, but the wind kept me from my normal spot. I was forced to fish the west shore and I'd never been over there before. I looked for deep weed edges and started drop-shotting and floating leeches. I didn't take long to figure out that I was on to something. Ended the night with about 20 smallies to 18", 3 walleyes to 23" and a 32" cat. There was nobody else fishing within 1/4 mile of me. This lake is absolutely LOADED with fish!

How did this happen?

Can anyone tell me what killed this muskie?

Hmmm ... no responses. That's a good thing, because only a fish pathologist would really know how this fish died. Of course, there are a ton of wannabee fish pathologists who THINK they know how it died, but all they are is wannabees!

Smallie Bite Contuinues

The smallie bite has been incredibly consistent for me. I just have to put up with rough water and wait out the ever moving smallies. I found out Saturday that my boat can take on decent wind but it's really hard to chase fish in those conditions. So ... sit tight and wait for them to move around. Picked up a bonus 10" gill. She's in the freezer waiting to see if I get one bigger yet this year. If I do ... she becomes cat bait. If I don't she goes on the wall with the 11" from May.

Smallies LOVE the wind!

It got a bit breezy out on Mendota last night ... but it was well worth the bouncing in the boat. Smallies were eating live leeches and Gulp leeches like they were candy! Got them under float and on drop shots ... on the rock flats adjoining the weed beds.

Another Typical Mendota Day

Got out for the afternoon and evening Saturday. It took a while, but eventually found some smallies and walleyes on the weed edges. Got this guy drop-shotting live leeches.

At sundown my buddy caught this 30.5" channel on a leech under a slip float. It pretty much convinced me to take some bluegill chunks out the next time I go. We also saw a number of cats rolling on the surface.