Without a doubt, the heat of summer is here in full effect! I must admit, I was one of those questioning whether or not we’d see true summer-like temperatures in the recent past – guess I was wrong! With the warm sultry days, the muskies have been quite active, especially during the low-light periods of early morning and evening. There has been an excellent bucktail and surface bait bite on the lakes of North-Central Wisconsin for muskies the past 2 weeks, including the waters of Marathon, Lincoln, Oneida, and Vilas counties. While smaller bucktails have been more productive for most of the summer, the larger “double-ten” models have been really starting to produce of late. Double-ten bucktails such as the Mepps H210 worked over weeds and shallow rocks are producing fish consistently; a medium to fast retrieve has been best. Surface baits have also been working well, including at night on the clearer lakes to our north. Prop-style or creeper baits like the Tyrant Crusader and Dictator are all accounting for fish.

In addition, large rubber or hybrid jerkbait-style lures such as Mag and Super Mag Bulldawgs and Tyrants have been working well, with brighter colors producing the best due to the stained water conditions. Crankbaits offering large silhouettes such as 9” Shallow Czars have also been working very well; again, brighter patterns have been the most productive.

Our resident smallmouth bass population has been active, with good numbers of fish currently being found amongst the shallow wood and rocks. The morning and evening periods have held good action on buzzbaits or chugger-style surface lures, while numbers of fish are being caught during the day on both in-line spinners and crankbaits. Both the Mepps Aglia and Aglia Long have been the hottest in-line spinner presentation for smallies lately, with the top colors being gold or copper with a dark dressing, or a bright body and dressing combination such as orange or chartreuse. Crankbait fishermen should use bright crayfish patterns, chromes, and firetiger as they have been tops. Look for structure such as rock/sand bars, downed trees, and bridge pilings that create current breaks; then work your presentation from shallow to deep until you find the depth holding the most active fish.

Walleyes locally are being found in deeper more typical summer haunts. Look for deep holes and flats as well as seams in the current and present crankbaits or jig-and-livebait offerings along them. While the best bite has been in deeper water, there does continue to be some fish using the shallows, so don’t overlook the “skinny” water, even during mid-day hours if there is good flow, cover, and structure present.

Panfish remain available to anglers using small jigs or hooks tipped with livebait. Where present, lily pad beds and the deep edges of submergent vegetation are holding panfish, and should be fished thoroughly. Likewise, stump fields, blow-downs, and snags are also holding ample numbers of panfish; again, small plain hooks or jigs tipped with a piece of nightcrawler or a small leech have been working well. Fly-fishing in the morning and evening with tiny poppers and dry flies has also been an effective and entertaining manner in which to catch panfish. I’ll see you on the water…

Wisconsin Angling Adventures
http://www.wisconsinanglingadventures.com
715-297-7573
“Fishing’s our business… and business is good!”

"Fishing's our business...

and business is good!"

*PLEASE NOTE Lake levels are approximately 3 feet low, and approaching record low levels. Some landings are un useable. Use caution launching and retrieving your boat and use extreme caution in the sloughs when Bass season opens. >

*ICE OUT!. All ice is finally gone from Chequamegon Bay. Trolling north and south of Washburn has been good for Browns, Splake, and a few Steelhead, Coho, and Lakers. Shallow running stickbaits fished right along the shorelines have been the ticket. Find the pods of fish and re-work that area for multiple bites. Off the Coal Dock, Marinas, and in the Hot Pond, there have been some Splake, Browns, Coho, and Walleyes caught along with an occasional Northern. Please remember to keep a few fish for dinner and let a the rest go to put on some size and to be caught another day.

*Smelters have started catching some fish this past weekend. No reports of huge numbers, people have been working for a few gallons, but the numbers should get better through the week before they start tapering off. My best guess would put peak run at the middle or end of this week.

*The warmer weather and heavy rain on Sunday should improve the bite on the steelhead rivers. There have been plenty of fish in; widely scattered through the streams. Cover ground until you find a pod of fish then work the run meticulously and you will catch fish. There have been lots of 22-24 inch males around. A few hens have been caught but I believe the bulk of the females are waiting for this rain and runoff to head up. This should be a good week. GOOD FISHING

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The Weather these past several weeks has been pretty stable, but of course with those mixed summer days of Rain and Thunderstorms. Cool nights and pleasant Daytime temp’s makes fishing more enjoyable. Water Temps are in the mid 70’s on the Stevens Point Flowage.

Smallmouth Bass continues to be “HOT” with 3 to 4lb Smallies is common along with a lot of Smaller Fish. Pound for Pound, this is an excellent way to introduce a Young or Novice person to Fishing. We are catching the Smallmouth Bass on Crankbaits,Spinnerbaits,Topwater,and 3” Tubes are working the best for my clients. Rocks are a key by deep water but we have been also catching our Smallies also in the wood.

Walleye action continues to be good as we are catching legal fish using 1/8 oz and 1/4 oz weed less jig’s tipped with minnows, crawlers and leeches in the wood. Another presentation we had success with is spinner rigs and crawlers. With September just around the corner I expect the Walleye fishing to get better as they will start staging in there fall areas.

If you want to have some Great fun, the Bluegill action continues to be Excellent on the Stevens Point Flowage. Fish any wood or downed tree’s in the water with a slip bobber rig along with Worms, night crawlers and small leeches, but remember to take only enough for a fish fry and release the rest for another day. Another great way to introduce a young fisherperson to fishing because the Slab Gill action is HOT. Don’t be surprised to catch other Game fish in the wood, from Bass,Walleye,Northerns, Catfish and even Muskies.

If you see me on the water or boat launch, feel free to stop and say HI for a daily fishing report, till then Good Fishing and practice Catch, Release and Photo.

Kenny Wallock can be reached at (715-321-0038) or check out his website www.kennywallocksguiding.com

Aug 4th Fished Friday with Glen Gast. Glen has his own boat, but decided this year that he needed a little help on spots and techniques. He booked a June trip in the Spring and an August Summer outing for yesterday. He's also going out with me again in October for some Fall fishing tips and tactics. Friday was a sunny day, but we got lucky with a west wind changing to N/W and once more to N/E.
Smallmouth Bass was what we were targeting fishing in 27 to 37 fow. Carolina Rigs were working well along with dead sticking producing equally as well. We managed to boat 23 smallies and had our share of break offs. Anchoring was the way to go for us. Glen has been an excellent pupil and has improved on his fishing skills this year. Looking forward to hooking up again with him in October.

August 5th Fished today with a father and son team Ron and Jeff Ocherlund along with their friend Frank Zummo. We were out from 5:15 am till 12:30 pm. Even though we weren’t targeting pike it was hard to get the message across to the pike. Every spot we fished the pike seemed to show up and put a temporary halt the the smallie action. Normally they cruse in and raise a little havoc and cruse on down the road with the smallie action returning to normal. Today they were hungry and decided to pick on us. Several of today's pike were ripped up pretty good from prior hooking and we also saw 3 others swimming the surface having lost the ability to stay submerged.

We did very well on the smallies today using the same tactics as yesterday's approach. Two of our spots today were completely dead, but we were able to land on our feet working other spots. Lost count on the smallies today, but I'm sure were in the mid 20's

REMEMBER: "Knowledge is the key to successful fishing."

See you on the water, Lee Borgersen