Yellow Lake

Heading up to Yellow Lake up in Burnett County this weekend w/ some buddies. Just wonderin’ how/if the fish have been biting and if there’s anything that’s working best. Prolly gonna try for some panfish, northerns, and some walleye if possible. Any help would be great, thanks.
-KingCabelas

Beautiful country. I hit Big Sand in Burnett Co., first week of August each year. I’ll call the bait shop we use–he guides and fishes Yellow a lot and see if I can get a report for ya!—Best of luck

–Whitey

I fish Yellow at least once a year. I don’t try for the walleyes so I’m no good to you there. Panfish and northern? Oh yeah…… just throw bucktails in natural colors and you’ll find northern all over the place. If you’re in a boat that will let you under the bridge at Yello Lodge, go into Little Yellow and loop around to the river. Follow the river casting both banks and mix it up. Have a plastic, a spinnerbait (inline works too), and a top water ready to go. My numbers are either all on one presentation or pretty consistant between the 3 if a strong bite is on. Docks, breaks, eddies, weedlines….. the bass and northern in there will keep you on your toes!

When you come to a backwater pond, pick a bay, any bay, and toss out the worm on a bobber. Crappies, perch, and sunnies are to be found back in there. There’s alot of water going clear back to the dam and the fish are typically scattered throughout so you won’t run out of opportunities. You can burn a whole day on the current!

Well, good luck and let us know how it went when you get back! I’m thinking of heading up that way over the 4th so any tips you can give me would be greatly appreciated!

I fish yellow every year. I am heading up the 2nd week of July. Yellow is one of the very best Musky lakes in the state. They have huge numbers of suckers and ciscos. You would be well served to float a couple suckers in the bays on Yellow or on the humps. You have a realistic shot at a 40 pound musky or even larger have been taken. Walleyes are best after dark on Yellow. lit slip bobbers on the humps is best, weed lines are a close second.

we were considering a trip in a few weeks, does anyone know of any public campgrounds on the lake?

I also would be very interested in knowing if there are any campgrounds on or very close to yellow lake!! Anybody have any info?

Thanks for all the info. I forgot about that river..but now I remember goin in there and catchin’ fish, thanx. Heading up Friday after work…will get in some night fishin’, then all day Saturday…we’ll see if I can’t catch me some fish! I’ll try and get a report up when I get back. Does anyone know about some bass tournament up there this weekend? A buddy I’m going with said there was one up there this weekend just wonderin’ if he’s yankin’ my chain or what. Thanks again.
-KingCabelas.

I haven’t heard anything personally but maybe the bait shops up there would be wise to the local activities? There’s a sport/bait shop in Danbury that would likely know what’s going on. I know big boats can’t get under that bridge and the river can get hard on bigger boats quite readily and unexpectantly so I don’t think a tourney would change things in there too much…….. unless everyone’s running little boats!

Not many fish were bitin’ this weekend up there on Yellow. Out Friday night and all we caught was a small walleye. Saturday wasn’t any better. Couple small ‘eyes, few tiny perch, and some rock bass. Not even the panfish were biting. We tried everything we could think of. Weather wasn’t all that cooperative either, so maybe that had something to do with it. There was a small bass tournament up there this weekend, and after talking to a couple of the guys in the tourny, the bass weren’t biting very well either. Oh well…just one of those weekends I guess.
-KingCabelas

What areas were you fishing KC? The only “tough bite” I’ve ever experienced up there was after a big storm and the water was like chocolate milk. Granted, sometimes you have to really experiment to find what will work that day, but once discovered, it’s like the fishery just comes to you. Let me know what you tried and where, maybe I can help you with your next venture up there. I’ll be heading up for a day next week…. most likely.

I have a club tournament on Yellow Lake tommorrow (Sunday the 11th. I prefished Friday the 2nd and Monday the 5th and was impressed with the bass bite – actually thought about throwing away my Fishing Hot Spots map after prefishing because I thought the smallmouth bite was great and they make samllmouth sound unavailable – hmmm.
Anyways the Flambeau Bassmasters will be out there (24 or so members of the club) on Sunday from 5:30 am to 1:30 pm – I will let you guys know how we did!

Well, the tournament on Sunday was mighty wet fro the fisherman – we took off @ 5:30 am and of course it was drizzling at 5:29 – I was boat # 7 and my partner couldn’t make it so I was alone. Out of the 6 boats in front of me, 5 made the run up the river as I did – by the time I got to my destination (much of the river is no wake) it was 5:50 and raining in buckets!! By 6:10 the thunder and lightning started and a tree got hit about 50′ to the north of me – of course it scared the bejeevers out of me. The pattern I was on in prefishing was swimming jigs to pads and wood. I made the decision before the tournament started that I was going to live and die with that pattern and in that spot – my prefishing told me that the fish were moving on and off cover all day.
My first fish came at 7am and I was catching a fish every now and again until 11am and then never got bit through 1:30 (the weigh in).
I was on a big fish pattern so I only caught a couple short fish. I had 2 heart breakers – 1 was a 5lb class fish that I let wrap me up in the pads and did not immediately charge the pads to get him – my bad – heartache # 2 was a 3 lb fish, the last one I caught for the day, that I foul hooked through the stomache – I landed the fish (a great fight when they come in sideways), and immediately released the fish – it by the way had a clean mouth (had not been hooked before).
So I only weighed 4 fish to the tune of 10.10 lbs, which netted me a 6th place finish. First was 14.01 anchored by a 5.45 LM that was big bass for the tourney. Second place was 11.1 and 3rd through fifth were all in the 10 lb range. First through 5th were 5 bass limits, I had 4 and 7th had 4 bass – there were approximately 10 5 fish limits.
All in all, no regrets – a fun day on the water and learned a little too. After a 12 year retirement from tournaments I am starting to get the hang of it again but I have a ways to go. Out of 4 club tournaments this year I have had 4.42 lbs, 12.21 lbs, 9.82 lbs, and 10.10 lbs and am in 4th place in the standings.
Next up is pools 4 and 5 August 7th and 8th and I need to start my homework and prefishing so I can finish strong!

Well, I’ve known for a long time that river area holds great bass! Nice to hear you were on ’em but sad to hear it didn’t come together for you. That lightning woulda left a streak in my skivvies….. good thing I wasn’t there! Were you working the first backwater area or did you go deeper? Anyone go clear to the big stumpfield? I’ve had pleasure boaters in pontoons come past there but any time I’ve fished the stumps, I’ve been all alone. Tricky getting around in there!

Did that storm turn the channels to mud? I’ve seen that happen too but not with every storm. Depends on the rain I guess.

Congrats on a nice finish and good luck on the Mississippi!

Hey Kid,
I was working the first backwater area. Boat # 1 ran all the way to the dam and caught 10.75 lbs (5 bass) in the slop. 2 other boats went in the stump field with about the same results.
The channel became stained but not muddy. I did however add rattles. First, second, and third places came off the main lake.

I’m heading up there in the morning but I think I’m going to chase toothy critters. I’ll likely head to the river area if things don’t go well on the main lake in the early part of the day. I just came off some nice northern pike action and it’s got the blood boiling for some more. I’ll let you know how it goes!

Went up to Yellow yesterday and had one of the slowest days I’ve ever experienced…….. but that’ll happen focusing on muskies! 3 pike and 1 smallmouth is all I had for action but I learned a lot about the lake. I was about 15 minutes too late to one spot as a 30lber was caught and released right in my trolling path! That was the only ‘ski I’m aware of on the day.

I did check Little Yellow and the river up to the S curve and the water seems quite stained yet. The weedlines were hard to impossible to see and that’s abnormal. I did toss for some bass while cruising the channel but had no takers in the “usual” places. At the first backwater, the bass were really thumping frogs in the slop. You could site the area of a bullfrog doing it’s “boing” sound and shortly after see a bass pop the spot. Couldn’t tell if they got ’em every time but it always quieted that frog! I was tempted to play along but had other things on the brain to tend to.

On a side note, if you’re a carpenter looking for work, there must be a lot to do up there along this lake!!! All I heard for the better part of the day was circular saws and hammers! The middle of the big lake was about the only place you could find refuge for the ears.