Madison Chain. Madison, WI

[UofMBASS]

Hey everybody,

The University of Minnesota Bass Team is fishing a tournament this weekend (the Big Ten Classic) on the Madison Chain of Lakes in downtown Madison, WI. I have never seen the lakes before and only get one day prior to the tournament to prefish. I was simply wondering if anybody had any info or tips for finding some of the more quality fish that live in these lakes.

Any information is greatly appreciated at this point.

Thanks!

[muskE]

Smallies and Largemouth or single species?

I grew up as a FIB and my folks still have a lake place on the last lake in the chain (Kegonsa).

Mendota is better for bigger fish in general (deeper lake) with an emphasis on smallies while Monona seems to have beeter/ more diverse structure. There are 2 main reefs near the southern/ southeastern portions of the lake with large, shallow, weedy bays close by. Then there's Mud Lake. PM me your contact info and we can chat about spots.

[Deitz Dittrich]

Never fished it either.. but would like to wish you the best luck!! Bring some hardware back to MN with you!

[HellaBass]

When I was there in late June, there was a lot of foil to flip in Monona, the water is much cleaner in Monona while Mendota is much dirtier and most of the vegetation is really shallow, the water was low then, so for the most part none of the docks had any water on them.

A good area to camp, would be the humps/fingers right in front where Yahara River comes into Monona on north side of lake,

Mud Lake is a small slop lake with a dredge hole, could be good this time of the year. Takes a solid 30 minutes through slow lakes between Monona/Mud/Mendota

[Raider4ever]

I live in Madison and EVERYBODY in Madison doesn't want you hooking those poor, undocumented fishies. That's cruel. I am very liberal. In fact, I am so liberal I don't like the word "liberal" because it has more consonants than vowels. That makes the word "liberal" Vowelist. And I don't care for Vowelism.

Good luck and bring the trophy home UMBass!!!

[UofMBASS]

Brought home the Big Ten Championship Trophy today!

[Cecil]

M-I-N-N-E-S-O-T-A. Minnesota, Minnesota, Goooooooooo Gophers!

Well done boys!!

[MN BassFisher]

Congrats, well done guys!

[Raider4ever]

Congrats!!

[Deitz Dittrich]

WOOOOOOOOOT!!!

So, tell us how it was done.. full recap please!

[UofMBASS]

The weights of each school's top three teams were combined for an overall weight. We had 33 pounds, beating second place by about six pounds.

My partner and I had only two fish by 1 PM, with weigh-in occurring at 3. So we abandoned our milfoil pattern in Monona and ran back into the takeoff lake (Waubesa) In less than a half hour we were able to fill out our limit with some nice 3lbers on the good ole' black and blue jig.

It was an awesome time and a great opportunity to make a name for our team.

[Cecil]

So whats next? National championship?