Wisconsin fishing pics

 

Chequamegon Bay

Outdoor Allure Sporting Goods & Guide Service

1/30/06

*Well the big winds chewed up a bunch of ice between Washburn and the Lighthouse over the weekend, opened up the pressure cracks as well. There are open holes scattered about the more current prone areas of the bay (off points, near submerged pilings, etc.) I have heard of a truck, snowmobile, and ATV going down off Ashland, and a guy on foot falling through off Washburn, and some sleds out in the middle having to jump open water of a pressure crack to get home! Luckily no-one has been hurt yet. Freezing nights and/or a cold snap should heal up what ice is left, but until then PLEASE play it safe and walk, with a spud bar if you are going to go out on the bay in the near future. I am at a loss. No-one can ever remember a winter where you couldn't A LEAST get out to Houghton Point/ Long Island to fish. This weather is not just weird, it's historically unprecedented!!!!! I don't know what to tell you. Fishing on the bay has been spotty to poor lately. A few fish being caught here and there, the typical mixed bag of splake, browns, walleye, northern, whitefish, and herring with a few perch and burbot thrown in, but this is typically the midwinter doldrums in the bay, and we are out in deep water, or chasing new ice over shallow water up north this time of winter. There have still been more people fishing out of boats up north, off Bodin's , Bayfield, and Red Cliff both bobbing deep water and splake fishing in 20-40 feet. Reports from the boat anglers have been good to excellent, but the weather must be perfect for a midwinter boat trip to be safe and comfortable. PS ALL icefishing products left in house are on sale now, stop in to enjoy 10-20 % off all remaining Vexilars, Clam & Fish Trap shacks, Husky Hauler sleds, Tee-Pees, Aqua-View, and all other icefishing gear. BOBBERS, I am sitting on Miles of wire! Bring in your old kinked and frayed hoops for me to put fresh wire on them for HALF PRICE!!!!!! Hurry while supplies last. * At least inland lake fishing has still been going great. Ice thickness reports have been varied. Anywhere up to a foot on some of the smaller waters. Ice fishing reports have been good for panfish suspended over deeper water, Northerns over remaining green weeds, walleyes on structure at dark on the larger waters.

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Stevens Point Area

10/19/05

Kenny Wallock's Professional Guide Service

Fall colors are at their peak in Central Wisconsin and this means BIG FISH caught on the Stevens Point Flowage. The month of October to the date my clients and myself have caught 18 WALLEYES in the slot size, from 20 inches to 28 1/8th was the biggest. Along with a couple dandy Northern Pike and Muskies. The bite for big fish is now. We have been also catching 13-14 inch Crappies and legal Walleyes, along with some very nice Small Mouth Bass, 19 ½ was the biggest. My presentation is 1/8 or ¼ oz jigs with very large Redtail and Blacktail Chubs and Suckers. (4-6 inch in size). My clients and myself are fishing rock humps adjoining deep water and very steep rocky shoreline drop offs. For a last chance to book a trophy trip with Kenny Wallock’s Professional Guiding call or e-mail me quickly as dates are very limited. If you see me at the launch or on the water stop and say Hi for a daily fishing report. Until then get out on the water and enjoy some of the best trophy fishing and the fall colors the Stevens Point Flowage has to offer. Kenny Wallock

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Manitowish Chain Fishing Report

10/8/05

WISCONSIN ANGLING ADVENTURES

Musky fishing has been excellent as of late on Lake Wausau. Between Saturday and Sunday alone, I know of a heavy 47" and 48 3/4" release as well as a monster 51" with a 25" girth (also released)! In addition to those beauties, there were several more fish caught and released. Most of the action has been either on rubber such as Bull Dawgs, Twin Fins, Big Joes, or on quick-strike rigged suckers.Not only have the muskies been quite active, but the bigger northern pike as well. On Sunday, we boated 6 pike between 32"-38" from 2 boats and I heard from several other anglers who were also encountered some good sized pike while musky fishing. Tight lines and bent rods, Joel

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Lake Geneva

Lee Borgersen's Lake Geneva Guide Service

8/9/05

The northern bite seems to be at it's peak while drifting or back trolling in waters from 30 to 50 feet with live bait rigs. The big gills are grouping up in the deep water also and you should have no problem limiting out on nice keepers when anchored in 27 t0 40 ft with small #8 hook and chunk of crawler. The smallmouth have been hard to find for most anglers and I would recommend a guide to help you find them. I would stick with waters over 25ft for a start and work my way deeper. The largemouth bite has been the most consistent on the weed edges early mornings and evenings. Walleye action is still best in the evenings long lining Rapalas at 1.5 mph. Troll through the baitfish schools at night. Sorry about the lack of updates, but I've been out of town for 3 weeks and busy guiding on Lake Geneva. Hope the weather starts to cool down soon and we get some good rains. Fall is just around the corner so it's time to think about some changes in your fishing strategy's soon. See ya on the water, Lee Borgersen

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Central and Northern Wisconsin

WISCONSIN ANGLING ADVENTURES

8/2/05

Smallmouth Bass fishing remains good with crankbaits (Frenzy Minnows and jointed Shad Raps) and 3" Power Tubes producing action all day long. Current breaks, as well as docks are holding fish. Musky fishing is improving after the cold fronts, with smaller bucktails (Baby Bootails), rubber baits (Bulldawgs), and weighted jerkbaits (Burts and Suicks) producing action. August is BIG musky time for the summer, and things should get back in the full-swing soon. Catfish remain active from evening on through the night with fresh cut bait the bait of choice. When choosing your cutbait, make sure the forage is native to the river as it represents the most natural presentation - the best choice for BIG cats. Panfish remain out deep and can be caught while suspended on slip bobbers or while vertical jigging small jigs (Lindy Quiver Jigs, Flu-Flu jigs) tipped with live bait. www.wisconsinanglingadventures.com

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Lake Michigan Milwaukee

Blue Max Charters

7/27/05

July fishing is fantastic. Our numbers of fish per trip have been great. All species are active. Within the last several days we have caught mostly Chinooks to 5 to 20.5 pounds. The spoons have been the best. Fishlander ultra glow spoons size 2 or 3 in the easter egg or bloody nose color are taking most of our fish. Try silver spoons with green or blue accent stripes on the cloudy days. All presentations are working. Half core lead, downriggers 24 to the bottom in 40 to 100 feet of water and Dipsy divers set on 2 with 70 to 100 feet of line out. The cold water is into Milwaukee. We have been setting up in 50 feet of water and fishing out to 80 and back to 50 enjoying steady action on morning and afternoon trips. Brown trout are active early in the day working 20 to 40 feet of water mostly on glow spoons. There are a few Lakers on the bottom in 100 to 200 feet of water on Opti-Dodgers and flies. The boat speed of 2.4-2.8 G.P.S. works well with all the presentations I have been using. Slow down to 2.0 or less for Lakers. Run a speed of 3.0 to 3.2 for Rainbows. Good Luck Captain Jim. Let's go fishing!! Jim charters out of Milwaukee, WI. With Blue Max Charters He can be reached at 414-828-1094 or visit his web site at http://www.bluemaxcharters.com

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Central Wisconsin Area

Hooksetters Fishing Services

7/6/05

Thank God it has finally cooled off! The fishing has not only improved but it has made for more enjoyable trips!!! Walleyes are very active but.... It is a very early morning bite. Be on the water at 4:30 am and set up over your favorite deep water holding area and work it with jig and minnow, crawler or leach combos right on the bottom. Simply hop the presentation slowly along the bottom until you feel that tell-tale tick, tick. Wait two seconds, then.... SET THE HOOK!!! Catfish...Catfish!!!! These deep water giants have definably been on the prowl lately. A simple gob of crawlers or a cut chicken liver hooked up with a #4 or #6 baitholder hook and placed right on the bottom of the river will drag any nearby cat in for a looksee. Look for the deeper holes in the river system, anywhere from 6 to 16 feet of water depending on the average depth. Best time is late evening into the night and then fish all night long. Once you have hooked up with one of these stray cats you will be back for more. Bass are still active, look for them to be holding in wood and rock rip-rap along the river shoreline. Tube jigs and small twitch baits like rapalas will work best here. These prize fighters will not only give you the fight of their life, the aerial acrobatics is nothing short of amazing. Panfish are now holding in there deeper summer haunts and can be caught by working these areas carefully with pieces of crawler or small minnows suspended below a slip bobber. Change depth frequently to find the most active fish. I like to start out at 2 to 4 feet off the bottom and work up. A half dozen or so of these tasty morsels and you have yourself the start of some goooooood eatin!!!!! Musky are our most sought after fish and for good reason with their shear power and strength they will put not only your tackle to the test but they will give you the fight of a lifetime. We have been finding them in two main areas: 1: The easiest way to locate these freight trains is by working the slop weeds. The best method we have found to do this, is by what we call checkerboarding! What it that? It is when we get along side of the weedbed, what we first do is cast vertically along the outside weed edge and then we proceed to work the entire weedbed in a criss-crosss manner like a "checkerboard" This will ensure us that we thoroughly covered the entire weedbed, not missing a spot. These are hot but lazy fish that will strike out after your presentation, but will not chase far after something. Therefore you need to literally drop the bait right on their nose. We work these areas with spinnerbaits from companies like KDC tackle or Ducktail lures and make sure they have adequate weed guards. We also just RIP Suicks through these areas. This technique really tears them up! Of course you will have weeds hang up on your baits, but that will not stop a hungry musky from striking. Believe me this works. Proper line to use in this situation is none other than 80# or 100# Power-Pro... Yu will need good strong no-stretch line to help get these fish under control quickly and to the boat safely. 2. The second way we have been finding fish has been by working open deep water. First we cruise around and look for baitfish on our locater. Once we find them we mark the area with a buoy or on our GPS and begin to cast through and around the school of baitfish. We like to run Cisco Kids and Bucher Depth Raiders the most but one bait that has been really producing for us this year has been soft plastics... Big Joes, Bulldawgs and Shimmy Shads form Trophy Technology have been our top producers. When we can't find baitfish we like to look for mid lake humps and cuts between islands or underwater points. We work theses areas in the same manner but with a little faster presentation. 3. If these two ideas don't fit your bag we have also been doing real well trolling the main river channel of the mighty Wisconsin River. Small crankbaits like the Cisco Kid Wranglers or a Bucher Baby Depth Raider run from 15 feet to 100 feet behind the boat has produced not only BIG muskies for us, but trophy pike and walleyes as well. Give these methods a try, I think you will be more than pleasantly surprised. As always be safe and good luck fishing.

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Lake Michigan Sheboygan

Last Chance Charters

5/13/05

Weather has limited our chances to fish the last week, but when we do get a chance to get out the fish are cooperating. We have been fishing south of the harbor in 15 to 20 feet of water targeting Brown Trout. Stick baits in black/silver and orange/chartreuse of the boards 70 to 90 feet back and green/glow spoons on the downriggers 10 to 12 feet down have been producing. With the cool weather pattern we have been in the water temps are running a little cooler than normal, 43 to 45 degrees this past week. Once we see a stable warm weather pattern we should have some excellent fishing as the fish are here. Saturday’s catch consisted of 5 Brown Trout up to 14 pounds.

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Sheboygan / Lake Michigan Spring Report

Dumper Dan Charters

5/07/05

anglers enjoyed a great morning of fishing on Lake Michigan off the port of Sheboygan. Included in our catch are Brown Trout, Lake Trout and a King Salmon. We were fishing south of the harbor in depths of 15 to 20 feet of water. Water temperatures were 44 degrees on the surface and conditions were foggy with northerly winds. Dave's shallow diving cranckbait Ka-Booms in the Gander Mountain glow series worked very good on the planner boards. Yeck Spoons or Stinger Spoons in the smaller size with colors of green or chartuese worked very good as well. Look for fishing to even get better as the weather improves and water temps start to warm up here in May. Good luck to all and enjoy the spring fishing...

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Mississippi River Pool 8

TGIF Outfitters

5/07/05

Thank God the cold front that lasted over a week is toast ... almost! With warmer temps and lowering barometeric pressure, the bite was back on. Our guides are catching walleyes trolling in twelve feet of water on rocky shorelines using jointed Rapalas in red crawdad or fire tiger. Nice size smallmouth are being taken on black/blue tube jigs along the riprap also as the smallies are starting their spawning. At the Onalaska Spillway, white bass are falling for small tube jigs either pink or white.

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