Turtle-Flambeau Flowage Fishing Reports

[rugbymn]

I'm going to be heading there next weekend. Anyone got any reports on muskies there?

[Jim Hudson]

Havent heard much from the Turtle this year.. But, musky should be going good right now.. Cover water with 'tails and topwaters. Weeds and rock.. Oh, and probably wood too..

[rugbymn]

Thanks, Jim. That's what I was probably going to do. I guess "cover water" is always Plan B, if not Plan A sometimes. A place like the flowage, I suppose that's all you can do.

[Jeff Robl]

Water temps are in the low to mid 70's, had kids swimming on our breaks the last two days water too cold for me to swim the warm water temps have the fish aggressive. the walleyes have been caught in a lot of depth ranges from 4-12' smallmouth also spread out in a wide range of depths. caught some nice panfish today in shallow weeds. Did the best on walleyes today in 8-10 with the bottom I've mentioned many times. Fishing with 1/16oz. jigs ,1/2 crawler and leeches. There are still mayflies hatching the "big hatch was the day I posted it a few posts ago, not effecting the bite that I can see.

Very enjoyable days on the TFF some wonderful families I've had the pleasure to fish with the last two days.

Thank you for choosing my guide service.

Enjoy the fishing.

[Jeff Robl]

Been fishing a lot, sleeping a little, the fishing on the TFF has been as hot as the weather. We're catching fish in a lot of different depths depending on weather conditions. With a good chop sometimes as shallow as 3-1/2' been starting to fish some of the deeper summer structure down to 12-15'.Some of the deeper structure is bottom transitions from soft silt to firmer wood strewn slightly shallower rises with some stumps often adjacent to river channels.

Some days it takes awhile to find active smallmouths and walleyes other days fish are caught throughout the day, on a lot of different spots. If catching fish is a priority it is important to not spend a lot of time in areas that either have no fish or no hungry fish, sounds obvious; how long? Depends how many people in the boat and how your fishing, the way I do a lot of fishing it's about 15-20 min.

Today fished with Todd and Craig two tournament bass fisherman, , fished four 12-14' spots and had 6 walleyes in the livewell at late morning. We then put on the hunt for smallmouth we caught some fish but not numbers on our fifth stop we found the fish in 5-8'on the edge of a small 4'flat there were a lot of stumps with rock/sand bottom. At the time the water was completely flat and the sun hot not counting rock bass we caught around 40 smallmouth and walleyes in two hours for some fantastic fishing. We were hoping to catch bass on artificial(s) had some luck on senco worms but a 1/16oz. jig and leech caught the most fish. In last week have also done well in 8-10'.

Have fished with a lot of great people some very experienced some not from 6 year old Hudson to 82 year old Arlene it was a pleasure to share a day on the TFF with everyone who chose my guide service.

Thank You

[Jeff Robl]

Ever been out when you cast your jig out and the line hangs up in the air? Pretty spooky, that was Tuesday with John and Tim.The approaching front had a little lightning in it so we had to head to an island for a 45 min delay. The fishing had been fantastic before the front after the front passed the bite slowed down considerably. I don't usually count fish but knew the fish were going to be on that day and could tell right away I had some very experienced fisherman. We ended the day with 64 walleyes and smallmouths about 40/60 walleyes to smallmouths we released one 20" walleye and had a lot of very nice fish. I was hoping for a 100 fish day.

It was a good week of fishing even when the bite wasn't real strong we had steady action and a nice catch of fish. Our biggest walleye was a heavy 23"released, and lot of nice smallmouths.

Did the best on the edge of a few different flats in 7-9fow with good stump coverage also caught fish in 12-15fow on the edge of river channels. Caught fish on bobbers and casting. Everyone seems to have their favorite mine for casting is a 1/16oz. slowfall jig. Some days did better on crawlers other days leeches some days they have a strong preference for one over the other.

Shared the boat with a lot of nice people. Thank You.

Looking forward to a lot of good summer fishing, have availability in July and August.

[Jeff Robl]

July 22nd, 2013 - Turtle Flambeau Flowage - Mercer Wisconsin 54547

The summer fishing is holding up real well, when the wind is blowing on full day trips 30-50 walleyes and smallmouths is the norm not counting the action from all the other species. Twice recently we had unsolicited action from muskies once from an 18" hooked walleye and almost had a nice musky in the net from a hooked 11" walleye. Even on the flat sunny days we're bringing in good catches of fish usually from deeper water(12=15). Crawlers leeches casting 1/16oz. jigs and slip bobbers. The cover been fishing the last week is similar to last report when the big winds are blowing getting fish in 4fow.

Let's talk about fishing in the wind. I sometimes get asked questions on things I've been doing so long I take them for granted. I anchor broadside to the waves in up to 25 mph winds. This is done with 20-28lb. navy anchors and 100ft of heavy cotton rope and 2 feet of heavy chain attached to the anchors to get them to bite. Letting out a lot of rope gets the boat to hold position and allows the boat to bob up and down with the waves so you don't have waves crashing over the sides. When you get an anchor stuck in a stump(and you will)You tie the rope short to a stong point on the front of the boat and use the motor to pull the anchor off going in the direction into the waves.

I love fishing in the big winds we catch a lot of fish on days you don't see many boats on the water.

Mike thanks for the post it was fun fishing with you and your family. Great to see young people enjoying the outdoors. Speaking of young people having a great time fishing nice, nice hook set Joey Its like a good golf or baseball swing and its not as easy to teach as you would think.

Thank you to all who shared the boat with me.

[Jeff Robl]

July 31st, 2013 - Turtle Flambeau Flowage - Mercer Wisconsin 54547

SUMMER COLD FRONTS/SCOUTING NEW SPOTS Left the dock Friday. afternoon to pick up customers for afternoon guide trip left the dock wearing a t-shirt an hour later sweatshirt and jacket. Dave and I took turns wearing the only jacket I had in the boat. After 4 hours of fishing Dave and Kevin decided to pull the plug, on the way in we could see our breath in the cold damp air. We fished two 10-12' spots and two 7-8' caught some smallmouths, perch and 8 walleyes one 21" released the others on the smaller side. I think if we could have put the hunt on for a little longer we would have run into more bigger fish. The cold NW wind and big chop wasn't compatible with summer clothes. In May a sharp drop in temp and a N wind almost completely shuts the bite down. In the summer with the water warm and the fishes metabolism high the bite goes on. Saturday same cold weather 46* in morning, cold rain off and on got to fish with son Jack in afternoon we were dressed for the weather. Jack hadn't fished the TFF in a while so I struggled with going out to see how many fish we could catch or going scouting, Jack generously said lets go find some new spots! The criteria was then to fish areas we hadn't fished before. We spent 7 hours in a 1/4 x 1/2 mile area and caught walleyes in 5 spots and a 6th I know will hold fish but not that day. 1) 30ft. out from a steep shoreline we saw a cluster of down logs over hard bottom in 8',quickly caught and released 4 walleyes and a bass, don't like to take fish off a spot like that, save them for guiding. Bounced the window weight on the bottom, nice stuff. 2)A point with two visible vertical trees poking out of the water, figured there must be more below 8-9' a walleye and a bass. 3)Two small sheltered coves with small log jambs and laid down logs in 5-7'(15-20 years ago fishing these log jambs with the wind blowing in was about all you had to know, not many left)perch, walleyes, pike. 4)Anchored in front of a downed tree near a point, put a couple bobbers out near the boat while we cast to the tree. The bobbers started to go down also caught a fish out of the tree, drove back and forth to see what was holding the fish by the boat, heavy stumps in 5-6' perch, walleyes. 5)Submerged bog 7-12' very small % of TFF bottom composition holds all species of fish from May-Oct. Pretty hard to describe this structure found by chance watching the electronics, walleye. It was a dark day with a good chop so we fished shallow. Working areas with live bait and jigs is a slow but methodical approach. It helps to have a partner, Jack is a fine jig fisherman, our time spent together in the boat is cherished.

[Jeff Robl]

August 1st, 2013 - Turtle Flambeau Flowage - Mercer Wisconsin 54547

'Beelzebob', I vowed to myself to post my toughest day you might be interested. Mon. had the pleasure to fish with family,Kurt&Katherine teens Bryce and Sierra the fishing in the morning started out slow we managed to get 5 walleyes and some panfish in the livewll for a shore lunch. The afternoon fishing picked up we kept 5 more walleyes to make a limit. We had our best luck fishing deeper wood in 12-14,crawlers and leeches. Tue. Fished with husband and wife Kieth and Caroline. Was pretty excited about the day, two days after the cold front, dark day, nice chop,30-50 fish day?The fish weren't reading it that way. Other than a cold front in May it was my toughest day this year. I reflected on the day in the evening I recalled 16 spots, deep, shallow and in between we skipped lunch to keep fishing(their choice,I'm not that much of a slave driver). We assembled a stringer of fish shown above I thought we had six walleyes in the livewell turned out 5 a sixth would have been pretty small. I don't meet many people who deer hunt more than I do so the day went fast we had a lot to talk about, they showed me a picture of a monster buck Caroline killed last year. Crawlers worked the best, walleyes in deeper wood panfish in 6-8'wood and rock on the bottom. Incidentally I talked to a fellow guide the following day who told me the barometric pressure that day was 31 which is really high, I don't like to have excuses all you can do is fish hard all day and let the chips fall where they may.

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Bobber Down Guide Service

Turtle Flambeau Flowage

Mercer, WI

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[Jeff Robl]

August 8th, 2013 - Turtle Flambeau Flowage - Mercer Wisconsin 54547

The fishing the last week in general has been much slower than all summer, there were a couple days that the fish were downright uncooperative. Even on these days with the fishery as strong as it is on the TFF a shore lunch of walleyes and perch is obtainable. On the tougher days it is done by fishing a lot of spots, scanning some first with the electronics then deciding weather or not to fish them, looking at deeper wood in 12-16'. For 5 or 6 days after the cold front ( July 26-28 ) smallmouth were all but absent from the catch,we're catching nice sized bass again, a deadstick with a big leech catching most of them. In the deeper water I've been putting an 1/8 oz. jig on the deadstick instead of a 1/16 . Also had some good luck on humps in 8-11' with good wood structure and rocks.

Got a tip from Doc at the landing 5or 6 days ago, he had a day where he could only catch walleyes on minnows, it was a day I struggled, I've been taking minnows ever since and had three days in a row where almost all the walleyes and some of the perch and bass came on the biggest fatheads I could get. Thanks for the tip Doc!