7-27 thru 8-3-2012 Chippewa Flowage

7-27 thru 8-3-2012
Weather:
Beautiful, highs in the 80’s, sunny and light winds
Water:
clear, definite lack of weeds, 78 – 83 ˚
Location:
Chippewa Flowage, Sawyer County
Caught:
Muskie 36”, LMB 10 – 18”, walleyes 10 – 17”, SMB 10 – 16”, crapped 9”, bluegills 6 – 7”.
Partners:
Dwayne on day

Comments

I got back yesterday from our annual vacation on the Chip. We stayed on the west side at Treeland's Resort, which is a first class place. In general fishing was fairly good. I never do fantastic on this body of water, but I do catch fish. I believe my problem is I am a river fisherman; I have to have moving water. On Sunday I caught a 36" muskie on a Top Raider and on Monday I missed one on a Pacemaker, which I was aggressively jerking trying in vain to get the back prop to turn, when the fish hit. That was all the musky action I had for the week. Sunday we went out with a guide (Walleye Max), the main species we were targeting were walleyes. Fishing was ok, we did catch two walleyes that were above fifteen inches, but the majority of the walleye we caught were very small. We also caught a few decent smallmouths. The main areas we targeted were woody humps. I opted for a guide to help us out on the walleye fishing, and explain what to look for on their locations. If you do not know the water and how to fish it a guide trip is money well spent. I never targeted walleyes again on the trip; I myself believe their numbers are low. I never heard much about anybody else catching them. I would have to give a thumbs up to Walleye Max, he tried his damndest to get us on fish, and he did not even mind that my brother in law marked the spots with his GPS! I never fished for pan fish, just did not tickle my fancy, I am an active fisherman and like to be on the move constantly casting. Other guests at the lodge were doing quite well on crappies, the bait of choice was a minnow suspended below a bobber in areas with suspended fish. The last couple days I pared back on the musky fishing and fished for bass and pike. I found nice ones on the west side with bass up to 18" and pike up to 32". The best baits were swim jigs and spinner baits. Early morning and late evening were best for me, this lake gets a ton of fishing pressure and the recreation boaters come out in force once the temps warm. We once again had a great time, with plenty of fishing time for me and tubing, skiing and wake boarding time for the kids.

Observations:

The weed growth is definitely down this year, walleyes seem to be low in numbers, once again small mouths dominate the east side and largemouths dominate the west side.