chippewa flowage

[gilby]

Is the big chip a good fishing lake, any general info would be great. Been thinking of changeing vacation spot and this is one I would be interested in. Thanks gilby

[WMRP Member]

What species of fish are you wanting to know about? What time of year are you planning on gong there? This info would help a lot.

[gilby]

I try change it up as much as possible for a weeks vacation,panfish, large mouth, I would like to try more smallmouth and some walleye. Looking for something that is a good fisheries and something that is closer to home for possible more trips. Maybe some long weekends too.

[WMRP Member]

Gilby

I have been fishing the chipp nearly all my life but a lot more in the last 25 years. I target muskies mostly but do fish walleyes and panfish at times as well. The panfishing, especially bluegills can be fantastic around memorial day weekend which is when they are in the shallow bays spawning most years depending on weather and water temps. Look for shallow bays protected from the wind that are off of the deeper main lake areas or main lake basins and old river chanells. I prefer the west side for this. I use very small panfish jigs with a small bobber. I never use livebait at this time and when you find them and there hitting you can catch tons of them this way. There are large mouth bass available throughout the lake but the west side seems to have many more. The east side has many more smallies than the west side. I fish walleyes on both sides but only fish them up until about the first week in june and then switch to muskies. The west side seems to produce better early on and then the east side picks up shortly after. The water on the west side is shallower and warms more quickly than the east side and the weeds develop earlier on the west side as well. I am not much of a walleye guy but do pretty good with them. I dont care for jigging or bobber fishing much so I just cast husky jerk rapalas in the same areas I fish for muskies. Shallow bars, flats and humps where either the weeds are starting to grow or where there is some stumps or snaggy brush type structure. Shallow areas like these or shorlines with rock or gravel rather than weeds or stumps can be real good too. Most of my luck casting these rapalas is either early morning or near dark when the sun is not high in the sky. On overcast days with a little wind this can work during the middle of the day as well. The walleyes you catch casting rapalas tend to run a little bigger than what you typically catch jigging in deep water or using slip bobbers. Defintitely get yourself a good map if you dont have one already and look for such areas. There are tons of spots like this and they dont have to be big spots either. If you try the rapala thing for walleyes be sure to move around a lot from spot to spot. I mean a lot! Most people make the mistake of staying on a spot too long after they catch a walleye or two and dont catch anything else. I have found that you almost always will catch more fish if you keep moving around from spot to spot. I cant explain why this is but trust me. Then you can often come back to a spot you already caught fish on earlier and get another one or two if you leave it alone for awhile. I cant help you much on what to do after the 1st week in June as I fish muskies from that time on.

Hope this helps.