3-24-2012 Sat
9:30 AM – 5:30 PM
Weather: N 8, overcast, 61˚, 29.92 steady
Water: 6.97’ falling, 56.3 kcfs, 62 ˚, clear
Location: Mississippi R. Pool 7
Caught: Many pike and largemouth bass
Partners: Myself, Norm, Grant, Riley

Comments

My good friend Norm was back home in Genoa with his kids and they have had limited success walleye fishing the past couple days. Since we usually get together a day in the spring I suggested he come up to my home waters of Lake Onalaska and fish for bass and pike.
Norm agreed, and himself and two of his kids: Grant and Riley came up for a day of fishing. It proved to be a good plan. We had pretty much consistent action most of the day, with the morning bite being better than the afternoon one. We caught fish pretty much everywhere we tried. The fish were either relating to weeds or stumps in two to three feet of water. We caught fish on spinner baits, senko’s, swim baits and rattle traps. We did not get any big fish, but a few pike were in the upper twenties. It seems as if the big pike on the lake have succumbed to over harvest during the ice season, what a shame! Don’t get me wrong there are still some big pike around, but I don’t catch near as many as I did just a couple years ago. We also had a couple bass in the 17 – 18 inch range. I would have to say we caught three pike to every bass, and the pike were not yet spawned out.
Norm’s daughter Riley was probably the fishing champ of the day, but Grant was right on her heels. Both kids really are good fisher people and did not want to hang the rods up after a full day of fishing.

Observations:

The water is very low for this time of year with weed growth very profuse in some areas. The water temp is around sixty degrees. The pike have not yet spawned, which is a total shocker to me. My red bud tree in the back yard is very close to blooming.