First off, I think that we need a Madison chain of lakes forum. Second, a report and mistake. I went out on Mendota on Mon the 21st and caught a couple of smallies right away. One 18″ and the other 16″. I’m thinking, this is going to be an awesome night of fishing.
Heres where the night went wrong. I saw some minnows getting chased to the surface, so I thought I’d throw over a topwater to see if I could find out if it was smallies or white bass. Well, I set down my St. croix avid with the shimano stradic that I’d been using to fish a tube in 15ft of water. I cast the topwater out, and the next thing I know, a smallie grabs the tube hanging barely in the water and pulls the rod and reel overboard. I wasn’t quick enough to grab it, and man was I feeling down. So, I decided to put a jig on with a treble hook rigged up like a trailer, and after many casts and weeds and hours, I ended up getting my set up back. Sweet! By then, it was late and I went in, so I didn’t even fish anymore, but at least I don’t have to drop a bunch of bills on replacing a rod and reel.
I used to live in LaX and fish the river all of the time, so it is taking some learning to get used to fishing the lakes around Madison compared to the river. That and learning how to manuver around all of the pleasure cruisers here on the weekends. 
