Fishing reports

[Steve Foss]

Fished a bay on Amnicon in NW Wisconsin at evening, a bay that had been producing a few walleyes so far. No flags. It's an early ice spot, and there's been ice nearly a month. Looks like that spot is done for the year. Bummer. Now I have to move on and explore other water. So much fishing to do, so little time.

Good thing I bought the winning Powerball ticket tonight. When I win, I'll treat a whole bunch of guys to a fishing trip.

[JAR JAR]

going down to Boyscout to search for "eyes" Sat. afternoon. Is there any certain bait , lure or present.Might try the Angel eye Jr. but I think the current might be alittle tough for it. I'll postwhen I get back Sat. night.

FLAGG!!!!

Jar Jar

[Steve Foss]

Jar:

Angel eye is OK if there's no current, but it's not heavy enough when there's flow. No telling about the current until you punch your holes.

I fish a Northland Rattle Buckshot spoon tipped with minnow head through one hole, and through the other I fish a minnow on a bare hook under a slip bobber if the current is slack, and a minnow hooked through the lips on a 3/8 oz jig head on a dead stick if there's current.

Make sure your deadstick/bobber rod is in a holder, or a pout may ruin your whole day.

Post us how you do. Good luck.

[JAR JAR]

Went down to Boyscout Landing last night caught 1 "eye" and four "pout" lost about four fish.There was only about 5 inches of ice.

FLAGG!!!!

Jar Jar

[Steve Foss]

Was at 131 on the river with Northlander and another guy this morning. All caught a few 'eyes and a bunch of pout. No keeper pout, no keeper 'eyes for the other guys, although one stayed behind when we left. I kept two over 15".

Ahhh, fresh walleye for supper.

Think we'll hit one of the Eau Claire lakes and try the evening bite.

[Steve Foss]

Fished Middle Eau Claire in Bayfield County from 3 to 6:15 p.m. Two guys meant six tip-ups. Fished a main lake rock/gravel point with tips from 10 to 16 feet. The 15 and 16 foot deep flags were the only ones that popped.

Got 10 flags, six walleyes, but they only ran from six to 13 inches. Northlander got nine of the ten flags on his tips. Couple that looked a little bigger got off at the hole.

Typical evening bite -- started at 4:20, ended at 5:30. Stayed til 6:15 without another flag. Might have stayed later because there's a night bite on that lake, but conditions were blustery, with snow squalls and 20-mph winds, and we've found that lake fishing doesn't tend to be good then.

Decided to wimp out and walk to the point, about 3/4 mile from the landing. Later, lots of guys in full-sized pickups drove all over the place. Twelve inches of solid clear ice.

[Steve Foss]

Fished the afternoon/eveing bite at Lyman Lake, a 400-acre stained lake in Douglas County. Clear to about 3 or 4 feet.

Flags were flying like crazy in 6 to 10 feet of water from 3:15 to 4:30, when the bite shut off hard. Caught 11 walleyes, but 11 inches was the biggest.

Want dinky walleyes? Here's the lake for you!

[Guest]

People are driving out on Boom Lake in Rhinelander. I caught a few crappies towards evening yesterday. Then the local kids started to do hot laps out in the middle of the lake, right at sundown. Lots of us trying to fish and these j-offs have to play Dukes of Hazard during prime time.

[Steve Foss]

Yeah, when we were doing our FM.com outing on St. Louis River yesterday, coupla yahoos on dirt bikes with studded tires were doing 60-mph dashes and hairpin turns.

As for today's fishing report, wasted about 3 hours at McClure's Landing fishing a Wisconsin Bay on the St. Louis River. Must have been at least 25 people there. Saw a few keeper crappies, a few keeper perch, the odd northern or two (actually, one pike went 10 lb, according to a DNR creel survey guy), but no one was setting the world on fire, and you had to sort through lots of dinks.

Finished out the day on the river upstream from Boy Scout Landing. Not too bad when you can sort through lots of dinks and keep the two-fish limit on the St. L and meet the 15-inch minimum. But today I sorted through all the dinks and the biggest was a heartbreaking 14.5 inches (I stretched it as hard as I could). Caught a few pout, too, but nothing with any size (although they were big enough for JAR JAR and Condor to keep ). Northlander, who also hit McClure's and the river later, didn't fare any better.

[JAR JAR]

O.K.!! Enough is enough. I worked really hard to catch that 12" pout and it even broke my line. I just could'nt let it go for that reason.
we need to get a puter for condor a.k.a. "BIG SEXY" so we can razz him alittle harder .
They went back down tonight so I'll post tomorrow afternoon on how they did.
Let's keep in touch on the Smith trip because you neverknow how much "bait" we may need to bring

See ya on the ice!

Jar Jar

[SPIN DRY]

OUT ON LONG BY CENTURIA. LOTS OF ACTION, BUT SMALL FISH. GOOD PLACE TO TAKE YOUR KIDS.WE WERE OUT ON THE POINT EAST OF THE BOAT LANDING. GOOD LUCK

[rascalP]

Was out on Popular on Sun. afternoon. First ice outing -- finally. Found some nice crappies in 16-17ft. Fast flurry around dusk, then slowed by 7:00.

Saw some people fishing Oseola backwaters on the way over. 5 or 6 vehicles parked, but only saw a couple of people on the ice. Pbow, were you there?

[pbowhunter]

rascal i wasnt there i wish i was. i was fishing on wappagasset near amery for walleye and didnt catch a thing. We got out there way to late. Was fishing down by lacross on goose island over christmas and cought a ton of gills. 8 where 9.5 inches

[Guest]

A little late with this but the NW Angle trip was a smashing success. I myself caught 60 + Walleyes from 6 to 25" , some dandy Perch and of course a few Mr.Twisters
( Pout ) LOL
Fishing was strictly a jigging affair. Jigging spoons tipped with minnow heads did the trick. Tried out the Angle Eye Jrs up there for the first time and they kicked butt ! Gold was the best color.
NW Angle Resort where we stayed rocked ! RC Carlson put us on fish right off the bat. I highly recomend the services of either of these outfits.

Anyways , back to reality here in Southern WI. LOL

I was up to Petenwell ( Barnum Bay )last Friday Walleye fishin - tip ups/jigging. Ended up with 2 dink Walleyes but got into some mauler Crappies and Whitebass. Not a lot of em but worth the time spent fishin. Marked a lot of fish but not a lot of takers.

I fished Rock Lake ( Jefferson County ) 4 consecutive days/nights from Sat on. Sat night we got 5 Walleyes from 17 to 23" and lost another on tip ups. Got a few dink Northerns and a small Tiger Musky. I was told it was a Barred Musky ? Never heard of them before but I'm no expert either. Neat lookin fish though.
Figuring we had the lake figured out we fished the same spot the next 3 nights with only a few dink Northerns and a Crappie to show for our efforts. Figured out ? NOT ! LOL
Caught a half dozen Northerns in that time span with one comming at 10 pm and one other comming just before 11 pm = Strange.
Ice is ok on the lakes around here but you have to be very careful where you tread. Some are running ATVs here but I don't recomend it. Stick to walking and keep your picks handy just in case. Gotta watch your step too as many small holes opened up here and there during the last warm spell and until this cold snap locks things up again there's a good chance a guy could bust a leg bone if he's not careful.

I tried using a Circle hook on one of my boards Sat eve. Forgetting it was tied on I set the hook like a regular trebble and lost the fish ! DOH ! Has anyone else on here tried Circle hooks on tip ups ? Pros/cons ?

Tight lines ~~~~ ><>

[Steve Foss]

I haven't tried circle hooks on tips yet. For walleyes, I just tie on a glow demon and back-hook a minnow. I like the glow for that low-light bite, and it anchors the minnow and keeps it from swimming like crazy. For pike, I'm using quick-strike rigs, so no circle hooks there. I'm getting some to try on my bobber rod for crappies and walleyes, though. Will report when I've had some trips using them.

I'd like to hear others' experience with circles on tips, too. With a rod, it's easy to tighten the line a bit and let the circle hook slide up out of the fish's throat and hook the corner of the mouth. But with hand-held line, you don't have that softness of the rod to tighten gently, and I wonder if fish will spit it out if they feel the harder tightening of a handline.

Anyone?

As for a "barred" musky. That's not a separate species/subspecies, it's a color pattern. Regular musky generally fall into three categories of pattern: solid or plain color, spotted, and barred or striped. I believe the tiger musky (cross between pike and musky) is almost always barred, but I'm no tiger musky expert, either, so that last bit on tigers may not be reliable. I'm just going off all the pics I've seen of tigers, and they were all barred.

[JAR JAR]

Well went to Winnie on tues. very cold and horse sh** fishing .Kept a total of 6 fish and released about the same.

Hey stf when do we want to start the post for smith? weather looks pretty good for the next week. are u heading up to vermillion this weekend or stayin locally?

as for the "barred" musky it is the same as the tiger musky, we used to fish them down in Illinois all the time. They are a hybrid musky and do not reproduce so it is a good reason to practice CPR on that certain type of musky

FLAGG!!!

Jar Jar

[Guest]

The Circle hook deal was just an experiment. Had hoped to see if they would cut down or eliminate gut hooked fish or not. I'll probably try them again as the fish I lost was due to me setting the hook like I would a regular trebble. I don't see why they would'nt work though.
I'll stick with quick strike rigs when Northern fishing.

Yea , that's what I figured concerning the Musky ID. I've caught Tigers before and this one was no different in appearence than any of them. Just suprised me that it was in this lake as I did'nt know they were present.
Personaly , I would'nt even consider keeping a Musky anyways. A good pic or two is good enough for me.

[Steve Foss]

Jar:

Here's the deal. Bunch of us will be at Vermilion this weekend. Weekend of Jan. 18 we'll be out after lakers. Weekend of Feb. 8 is the Burntside Laker trip. I'd say Smith should go for the first weekend in February, maybe Feb. 1, or the Saturday after, Feb. 15. Can't remember when walleye season closes in Wis without looking at the regs, but I'd bet mid February is right up against the season end, if it's not already over.

I'll start a post right now.

[Bodyman]

If your looking to get the boat out the river and landings are open at Dresbach and Genoa. Lots of boats out there and that usually means a good bite. Panfish slowed some on lake Onalaska but the back waters are still producing some good fish south of Lacrosse. Got some real nice gills sat, sunday was a real tough bite in the same holes. The front moving thru did it's thing on the panfish,but the walleyes didn't seem to mind. Good luck

Fishing is Life.

[Guest]

Just to answer your question about the walleye season in WI:It closes at the end of February.Along with northern,bass,etc.At least the general inland waters and some boundary waters.

[fish_on_llc]

FISHED BIG BUTTERNUT (POLK CO) SAT-SUN-MON NIGHT WITH WIFE AND KIDS FROM 6:30 - 8:30PM IN 18 FT OF WATER. 15 CRAPPIES SAT, 14 SUN, 11 MON. COULD HAVE HAD MANY MORE BUT KIDS ARE 2 & 4 AND NEED HELP. THEY HAD A BLAST THOUGH.

I HEARD YELLOW IN BURNETT CO. HAS A DECENT NITE BITE TOO.

GOOD LUCK,

------------------
Jeff Phelan
Fish On LLC
[email protected]

[This message has been edited by fish_on_llc (edited 01-08-2003).]

[fish_on_llc]

Wow, did the cold front seem to shut things off! Fished Sat 3-7, very poor. Sunday 2-4pm for perch.... saw lots but very few biting. tried minnows, minnow heads, waxies mousies, big jig small jigs and nothing to make the bite. picked up two perch and two nice bluegills in two hours. Lots of interest but no commitment. Oh well, better than working; although a little embarrassing when your 4 yr old daughter outfishes the old man! Any word elsewhere? Heard of a few walleyes being taken on Devils lake in Burnett Co.

Good Luck,

------------------
Jeff Phelan
Fish On LLC
[email protected]

[Steve Foss]

Looks like I picked a good weekend to be out of circulation. Had company in town and they took off a bit ago, too late for me to get in on an evening bite (or non-bite) somewhere.

Oh well, next weekend is lake trout opener.

[JAR JAR]

Went out to Lake Minnesuing in No. Wis. on Saturday for 4-1/2 hrs not a single bite but there was a fishing contest going on and there was four wheelers a snowmobiles flying all over the place

Jar Jar

[steve schmidt]

Fished Long Lake by Centuria Saturday and caught lots of fish. Had to sort. All gills. Havent found the crappies on there yet.

Also hit Balsam Lake and did okay...nice fish but sortin there too.

Fishing seems to have slowed down, at least for me, although the last few outings have been so cold mobility has been a problem. NOt a problem, but who wants to be out drilling holes and checking em with the Vex when it is about 12 degrees and winds 15-20mph?