Flambeau

[Rivernut]

Going to fish the river near Ladysmith, or the Holcombe for the first time. Any tips. Don't expect exact spots, but some general info would be great! Thanks!

[tunrevir]

Sorry bud, just caught this post this morning while I was at my desk and taking care of the necessary daily duties. My cabin is over near Ladysmith and to be exact, I'm upriver on the Turtle Flambeau about 2.5 miles from the confluence of the Chip. I have heard from the locals that they do catch some nice crappies above the dam over by Ladysmith as well as eyes and pike. I have no real experience fishing the Holcombe, flowage but it looks like there is alot of water that could hold crappies and eyes. My early season approach is to cast cranks, #5 shadraps and huskyjerks, thunderstick juniors, ect. You can do this early in the year because the weed growth is way down. The down side is with all of the wood laying on the bottom you are going to lose a few cranks. My next favorite presentation is casting and trolling twister tails to likely looking areas and then moving to livebait tipped jigs if all else fails. Spinner rigs can produce as well as lindy or 3 way rigs. The downside to those presentations is there are alot of suckers and redhorse that will nit pick you to death, the upside is there are sturgeon and catfish that are a blast to catch. Focus on the points and subsequent eddies, outside turns and of course the log jams as they all can produce. If you find an area that has wood, outside corner and a bottom transition you will hit the jackpot! I will fish a hole first with cranks, next with plastics and then with livebait. You are going to encounter alot of underwater snags that can be fished through with a weedless presentation via jig and plastic and or tipped with a minnow or crawler. I tend to stay away from the crawlers and fish more minnows early if I go with live bait. The other thing of note, is if you pull an eye from an area stick with the spot and use multiple presentations as chances are there are going to be more fish holding there then the one you just caught. I have one spot that is a washout hole with a beaver dam right on top of the hole and another where there is a downed tree above a washout hole that tends to always hold three to five fish each day. Once you find a few of these spots you will know what to look for. So, in a nutshell, look for current breaks above the water(trees,rocks), an outside corner or point and a depth change from what you are sitting in. Bottom transition from rubble, gravel to sand and mud will also hold fish at this time of year. The morning bite seems to be better then the evening bitwe and the mid day bite drops off quite a bit unless you can find significantly deeper water. Riprap areas can really produce but you have to fish them to find those little spots that might hold a couple fish. Expect to catch 2-5 fish from an area and then move on and look for the next pod of fish. Hope this helps!

Tunrevir~

[Rivernut]

That is great, much more than I expected. Appreciate ALL the info! Post how I do. My sister lives on the Chippewa just south of Bruce, gonna try that too.

[tunrevir]

I'll be doing my usual memorial jaunt up there before I head up the Gunflint so maybe we'll bump into one another. The river is low right now from the cabin but I suspect they will hold back a decent amount of water and let it out over the Holiday weekend, kinda seems status quo. Good luck!

Tunrevir~

[Rivernut]

Cool Tunrevir. I fish the Croix and Upper Miss a lot. Figure,for the most part,river fish are alike. Location wise. I will let you know how it goes! Thanks again, you're always one of those guy's w/info to share. It's much appreciated by all.