4-28-2010 Wed

4-28-2010 Wed
5:30PM-7:00PM

Weather: S14 / G21, clear, 65°, 29.79 falling

H2O: 5.8 falling, 40 kcfs, 59°, clear

Caught

White bass (2) 13", 14" - jig
Northern (1) 25" - rattle trap
Crappie (2) 9", 9" - jig


Location: Mississippi R. Pool 8 - Dresbach Dam

partners:

Jake and Ben

Comments

Tonight I had a request to go out fishing with Jake and his co-worker Ben. How could I refuse, we were taking Ben's boat!
With the strong south wind we could not have picked a worse location. The dam area is totally exposed to a south wind so we got bounced around quite a bit, which made fishing very difficult. We all caught fish, so I think we were all happy with the outcome.
I was really hoping and expecting to get into the stripers, but it did not happen. From the dimensions of the two I caught they have not spawned yet, so hopefully good time are yet to come.

4-27-2010 Tue

4-27-2010 Tue
5:30PM-8:00PM

Weather: W5, clear, 57°, 29.89 steady

H2O: 640.6 falling, 40 kcfs, 60°, clear

Caught

LMB (2) 18", 13" - spinner bait
Northern (2) 22.5", 23" - in line spinner
Northern (4) 16", 28", 24", 27" - spinner bait

Location: Mississippi R. Pool 7 - Lake Onalaska

partners:

None

Comments

Tonight it was a one fish here one fish there type of evening. Which, is a good indication that the fish were inactive. When the sun went down it got very cold fast. The weatherman is predicting some frost around the area tonight. The trip back to the boat landing was made with me wearing my winter coat.

4-25-10 Sun

4-25-2010 Sun
6:30PM-8:05PM

Weather: E14 / G22, overcast, 58°, 29.58 rising

H2O: 640.8 falling, 39 kcfs, 55°, clear

Caught

LMB (4) 20, 19, 13.5, 20 - spinner bait
Northern (2) 27, 24 - spinner bait

Location: Mississippi R. Pool 7 - Lake Onalaska

partners:

None

Comments

Gigantic! That is how I would describe ther size of the bass I caught tonight. The two pictures are of two different fish, and I did not even get a pic of the biggest bass. The first bass I caught which I did not take a picture of was twenty inches long and weighed 5lbs 1oz.
I was not very optimistic at the start of the evening. The water temperature had dropped five degrees since yesterday and the wind was out of the east. I could not buy a bite from where I had caught fish on the last couple of outings. I tried both a spinner bait and a swim jig and only got one bump. After a half hour and no fish it was time to do some exploring on the big body of water. It did pay off in a big way. The fish were not stacked on top of each other, but I did find some very nice ones. who says you cannot catch fish when the water temperature takes a dive and the wind is out of the east.
Seasonal note - Apple trees are in full bloom, lilacs are beginning to bloom and I have heard reports of morels being found.

4-24-2010 Sat

4-24-2010 Sat
2:30PM-4:10PM

Weather: E9, cloudy, 58°, 29.58 falling

H2O: 640.94 steady, 41.1 kcfs, 60°, semi-clear

Caught

LMB 19.5 - spinner bait
Northern 27 - spinner bait

Location: Mississippi R. Pool 7 - Lake Onalaska & protected areas

partners:

None

Comments

I did not have much time this evening so I decided to explore. I am a firm believer of always trying something different, whether it be a new location or a new bait. I concentrated on main lake areas, but I never caught a fish or had a strike. I ended up catching both fish in an area that has been producing the past couple of days.

4-23-2010 Thr
6:00PM-7:30PM

Weather: S14, cloudy / light rain, 56°, 29.79 steady

H2O: 640.93 steady, 40.9 kcfs, 60°, semi-clear

Caught

LMB (6) 15, 17, 15, 18, 14, 16 - spinner bait

Location: Mississippi R. Pool 7 - Lake Onalaska - protected areas

partners:

Jake V.

Comments

Tonight Jake was fishing with me. Jake does not have a lot of fishing experience, but he did catch a couple of nice bass. Since the weather was so nasty out on the main lake we stayed in the areas that were sheltered from the wind.
Fishing was pretty good, and the fish were staying extremely shallow again. I had heard rumors that the bass had spawned or were in the process of spawning, but I believe that is false. We did keep a couple of smaller fish for supper and they still had spawn in them.
Contrary to popular belief, if cooked on the grill bass are one of the best eating fish around. Cook bass or any other white flaky fish on the grill in this manner and I think you will agree.
1. Make an open pan out of foil.
2. Melt an ample amount of butter and cover the bottom of you pan with it.
3. Put your fillets in the pan and turn to coat both sides.
4. Sprinkle the top side of the fillets with seasoned salt and dill weed if you have it.
5. Put pan and fish on the grill and put cover on grill, cook till almost done.
6. Poke holes in foil to allow butter to drip onto coals and produce smoke.
7. Cover grill (to prevent a fire) **note: this only works with charcoal, if you were to do this on a gas grill you would have an inferno
8. Cook / butter smoke fish several more minutes until fish flakes easily
9. Enjoy!

I am not an advocate of harvesting large amounts of fish of any species, but if a person enjoys eating fish, harvest in a responsible manner. What I mean by this is selective harvest; keep a limited amount of fish and return the larger fish of all species so someone else can enjoy catching them.

4-21-10 Wed

4-21-2010 Wed
1:30PM-7:00PM

Weather: NNE7, partly cloudy, 68°, 29.80 falling (5:05 PM)

H2O: 641.09 falling, 43.2 kcfs, 60°, clear

Caught

Dogfish 31" - spinner bait
LMB (15) 16, 10, 20, 10, 17, 15, 16.5, 11, 13.5, 14, 11, 14, 16, 18, 14.5(kept) - spinner bait
LMB (1) 16.5 - in-line spinner
Northern (3) 23, 27, 27 - spinner bait
Northern 27 - buzz bait

Location: Mississippi R. Pool 7 - Lake Onalaska - Boat club, north east shoreline

partners:

None

Comments

I took a half day off work today to take advantage of the awesome weather. I fished very hard and caught fish, but they were not jumping in the boat. The dogfish I caught was the biggest I have ever seen, it is to bad that the picture did not turn out very well.
I missed / lost several pike that were in that mid thirties to around forty inch size. I am really struggling with hooking and keeping these larger size fish on. The majority of the fish I caught were in extremely shallow water.

day 366 4-19-2010 Mon

Day 366
4-19-2010 Mon
6:00PM-7:35PM

Weather: calm, clear, 63°, 30.09 rising

H2O: 641.43 falling, 47.7 kcfs, 63°, clear but muddy in areas infested with carp

Caught

LMB (3) 14.5", 17.5", 16" - spinner bait
LMB (2) 17", 17" - in-line spinner
Northern (2) 34", 27" - spinner bait

Location: Mississippi R. Pool 7 - Lake Onalaska

partners:

None

Comments

I have my year in, but with weather like this and me knowing the fish are biting how could I stay off the water. I have not gotten out on the lake during decent weather for some time so I figured tonight was going to be a good night. I wanted to hit some of the spots that were productive for me last year during this stage of the season.
The first spot produced a quick bass and a decent pike in the first ten minutes. I was searching for fish, so I moved onto spot two.
This spot was not holding anything except carp, and I believe that was the problem. The carp had really stirred the sediment up and made the visibility very poor. I believe water clarity is a major factor in catching or not catching fish. It did not take long for me to come to my senses and get the heck out of this loser spot. I zipped back to my original starting point and dissected it further. I fished this area for about twenty-five minutes and did real well. I also lost one giant pike after a very brief hook-up!