5-29-2011

5-29-2011 Sun
6:30 AM- 11:30 AM

Weather: S7, cloudy and rain at end of trip, 63˚, 29.85 steady

H2O: 4.54 falling, 1.2 KCFS, 63 ˚, clear

Location: Black R., North Bend

Caught: ten inch walleye and a ten inch sucker and one fourteen inch channel catfish

Partners: Jake and Mark Tupper

Comments

The fishing was very poor. I was the only one to catch anything, and the fish I did catch did not bite very hard. All fish came on a night crawler sitting on the bottom. From the activity of the fish I believe the Black has better fishing later in the summer.

Observations

None

5-28-2011 Sat
6:30 AM - 10:00 AM

Weather: S 10, clear, 63˚

H2O: 9.12 rising, 81.6 KCFS, cloudy, 63 ˚

Location: Mississippi R. pool 7 (Lake Onalaska)

Caught: Four bass, with one being a dandy that was probably twenty inches!

Partners: None

Comments

I wanted to get out onto the lake and try the pike fishing in the weeds, but it was just too windy for using a buzz bait over top of the weeds. Usually I can do pretty well on the pike around Labor Day. I fish the emerging weed beds in the main lake basin. The bite is usually a top water bite, and they can be aggressive.
The bass I did catch were shallow and located at the upper end of the lake where main sloughs were emptying into the lake. The fish I did catch were all caught on spinner bait.

Observations

Adam K. says the bass are on the beds in the marina where they have their house boat.

5-26-11

5-26-2011 Thr
4:00 PM- 8:30 PM

Weather: NE 10, clear, 63˚, 29.95 MB, steady


H2O: 37.2, falling, 1.18 KCFS, clear, 63 ˚

Location: Black River below the Black River dam

Caught: I caught one twenty inch pike and one fifteen inch smallmouth. Scot caught one thirty-two inch pike.

Partners: Scot

Comments

Today was an after work excursion on the Black River exclusively in search of Mr. Musky. Scot and Adam had been having some pretty good success on muskies on their last two outings and it stimulated my curiosity.
Except for the one decent pike that Scot caught, it was a pretty dull evening. The scenery on the river is very pretty, and for being very close to town it is very remote. The river has a lot of rock and sand. The sand does not bother me much, but it mentally hurt me every time I hit a rock with the motor. Must stretches were quite tranquil, but we did traverse some mild rapids.
The only other action besides the two fish I caught was a follow by a very small musky, which I estimated to be about twenty inches.
When we came back to the landing there were quite a few young kids fishing off the concrete landing. One of the kids had been fighting a very large fish for twenty minutes, but lost it shortly after we pulled up. One of the other kids told me that he had caught a forty six inch musky at the same spot last week.

Observations

The water was quite clear, and I noticed that there is absolutely no aquatic vegetation. All the blooming trees (apple, lilac, pear, and red bud) are pretty much done blooming. Even the dandelions are over their big pop!

5-21-2011

5-21-2011 Sat
11:00 AM- 8:30 PM

Weather: S 8-15, heavy rain to clear skies, 70˚, 29.78 MB, falling

H2O: 10.2’, falling, 61.2 KCFS, clear with some muddy areas, 63 ˚

Location: Mississippi R. Wabasha, WI


Caught: A fair number pike, and bass with pike outnumbering the bass five to one. Scott also caught the two odd fish; a dog fish and one seventeen inch walleye.

Partners: Jake and Scott

Comments

It was readily apparent that the vegetation had exploded to the surface since I was here last week. The lily pads were now in all the spots where I had done so well last week. We caught plenty of fish in the pads, but the size was small in them.
The larger pike seemed to be in the less weedy areas in about two to three feet of water. We caught fish on spinner baits, rattle traps, man’s minus ones, and swim baits. My best bait of the day was a swim bait, but I still had a hard time hooking the fish. I did learn the best way to hook fish with the swim bait. I found if I let the fish take the bait for a second or two and then use a hard hook set my percentage of missed fish was reduced.
Jake had issues with feeding the pike new rattle traps, you see he did not think he had to use a leader, but the fish proved him wrong. Scott also fed lures to his own share of pike. He kept snapping the line when he set the hook. Scott also had issues with stripped gears on his reel. At times he would set the hook and the reel would scream like a scared cat, and he would end up empty handed.

Observations

Aquatic vegetation, especially the lily pads are in the process of taking over the water surface. The lilacs and apple tree blooms are at peak and soon will be a shadow in our memories until next year.

5-19-2011

5-19-2011 Thr
4:30 PM- 7:00 PM

Weather: E 8, clear, 70˚, 30.01 MB, steady

H2O: 9.11’, falling, 81.5 KCFS, clear, 63 ˚

Location: Mississippi R. Pool 7

Caught: One 15 inch small mouth bass

Partners: None

Comments

I escaped work early today, and I was ready to stack em up. Well, I did not stack anything, in fact the fishing was so poor I quit early and came back home and mowed the lawn. For me to do that is sad!
The one fish I did catch was located on a stump in about three feet of water, and he had his spawning colors on. I missed one other fish and that was the extent of my evening. My target audience was bass and pike.

Observations

Lilacs and apple trees are at full bloom, and some areas on the big pond are seeing quite a bit of aquatic vegetation growth.

5-17-2011

5-17-2011 Tues
5:30 PM- 10:45 PM

Weather: E 7, clear, 64˚, 29.94 MB, steady

H2O: 9.48’, falling, 85.8 KCFS, clear, 60 ˚

Location: Mississippi R. Pool 7 and Lower Black river

Caught: Approximately 10 bluegills and two channel cats

Partners: Jake V.

Comments

Jake is moving up near Hayward this weekend, and I wanted to get out cat fishing with him one more time. I figured it was too early for flatheads, but I thought we could get a channel cat or two.
I met Jake when I was working in Holmen and he was a new hire; he is a good guy and I will miss him. I still chuckle about the time he came to help me out at a rural customers premise. The customer had a rooster (Clem) running loose and he had warned me that Clem could get a little ornery. Old Clem kept pretty close tabs on me and I never turned my back on the old fart as I worked.
Well Jake shows up to help, and of course I did not fore warn him about Clem. When Jake went back to the truck for tools, Clem sprang into action. He ran up to Jake and tried to spur him in the back of the legs as Jake was walking away. Jake did quite a dance to get away from the unwanted attack. I was just rolling on the ground. It was one of the funniest moments I have had on the job.
As far as fishing goes, it was okay. Jake caught two medium size channel cats and I missed two hits. I was glad he was able to catch a fish during what may be his last time catting.

Observations
The water is still quite high and flowing pretty fast. Bluegills were not the easiest to come by, but we did get a few nice ones.

5-15-11

5-15-2011 Sun
9:30 AM- 5:30 PM

Weather: N14 G25, clear, 61˚, 30.00 MB, steady

H2O: 656.5’, falling, 91.3 KCFS, clear, 56 ˚ - 60 ˚

Location: Mississippi R. Pool 5a (south of Alma, WI).

Caught: Approximately 15 pike and eight LMB

Partners: Terry C.

Comments
Today was an exploratory trip with a past co-worker. I had never fished this pool before, so it was a blind excursion. It did not take long to see that there was a pretty decent population of pike here, but the size was lacking. We caught pike everywhere, but the largemouths were tough to come by.
The conditions were comfortable, but the wind was very strong. In fact we could not fish the main body of water in the Weaver lake area, because of the wind. This lake is very shallow and the water was very dirty from all the wind.
We did not catch a ton of fish, and nothing of any great size, but I would have to say we did okay for never having fished here before. I do plan on coming back to this pool sometime in the future. A big plus for me was again the lack of fisherman in this area.

Observations

Trees are really starting to leaf out and things are definitely getting green. We did observe quite a bit of submergent aquatic green weeds starting to grow in the back of the warming bays