Kentuck Lake – Eagle River Area, WI
Multi-species Bass, Walleye, Musky
Water temp 67.5 degrees
8 to16 fow
This was first opportunity to fish Kentuck, and unfortunately, it was going to be very tough. The radar was lined up with a front passing through and a number of storms in its path. Kentuck has a reputation of a solid Musky population, a smallie factory, and until recent spearing activities, a good population of walleyes.
I dropped in Saturday at 5:30 am and went to the deep weed edge on the first point I came across. I quickly identified a pattern on the large mouth bass. With the abundance of deep thick weeds, I alternated casting a moderate depth diving crank and swimming a 1/2oz swim jig. In both cases, the LM would in a sluggish manor nip the bait as it pulled off the weeds.
I also drop-shot a Berkly Gulp Leech with some success. Like the crank and swim jig, the bass would nip the bait and I had a number of misses on the leech..
I duplicated this pattern on the next couple stops as I made my exploration around the lake. I got onto a scattered walleye bite and caught 7 eyes that were all 17 to 19” long. Kentuck as a limit of 2 of which only 1 can be over 14”. The eyes were all caught on cranks ticking the weeds.
I made a pass along a suggested shoreline and hit a number of logs and docks. I caught a few smallies, but was not able to identify a “hot” bait. My best sign of aggression came from pitching a twin tail grub to shoreline structure. I had a number of smallies rush out from under a dock and then just watch my bait. It didn’t matter how aggressive I shook the bait or if I just let it sit. I had one smallie about maybe 3# sit for 4 minutes staring at a grub while I just let it sit there. The moment it moved, it slowly backed away and returned to a log it was on. Many would nip the extreme tips of the grub and never inhale them, just try to swim off with it hanging out of their mouth.
I made a return trip past a number of structure point with a Mann’s minus one with a little better success. Again, there were very few hard hits. Most fish I caught were just by the tail end hook in the very tip of their mouth.
I pulled off the lake at 10:00 to return back to the cabin and prepare for having a boat full of people for the remainder of the day. After some rain and a threat of thunder storms, we held off until evening. The walleye bite never developed for us in the area I had caught them in the morning. We caught a combined dozen bass with the same pattern I used in the morning and 1 guy using leeches on a slip bobber.
The highlight of the day for me was a musky I caught at 9:30pm. 23lbs on the scale. I didn’t have a long enough bump board and it was longer than my 42” rod locker lid. I got it on a digital scale as fast as we could and got back into the water. About 5 or so minutes of recovery, and an awesome sight of watching it swim off into the darkness from the transom light. Caught on #5 fire-tiger rattle trap.
Sunday, I was called away to care for a relative of mine that is my hero in life. He is 98, and of greatly failing health. I had to abandon everyone and lend a hand since I was in the vacinity. Time well spent, as I listened for hours the great stories of fishing, hunting, and trapping of his 90 plus years of experience.
