This last weekend I headed up to my buddy Lee’s (lester) place in Hayward, WI. Both of us have been fishing a lot on Mille Lacs this winter, so the plan was to hit a few of the Hayward area lakes and see if we could find a hot bite. On Friday we only fished a few hours, but we ended up catching a few Jumbo perch before the sun sank and the temp dropped making hole hopping not so fun. On Saturday Lee took me on a road trip over the river and through the woods to chase some Crappies. Upon hitting the lake we could see a couple groups of houses, but we decided first to hit a waypoint Lee had marked out in the middle of nowhere. We punched 15-20 holes and started searching. In the 3rd or 4th hole we found a huge school of fish and decided to set up the shack. Lee went to set some tip ups on the break and by the time he got back I had 2 or 3 fish in the bucket. We both proceeded to 
the fish for a half hour. I was using a small forage minnow with no bait and Lee went with a small jig and some waxies. Just as if someone had flipped a switch, the screens went blank. It was time to go find the school again. After a few holes, Lee found the school again and started piling them up on the ice. I checked every hole before I gave in and drilled one 10 feet away so I could get in on the action too. We had a blast catching and releasing fish from 6” all the way up to 13”. After a couple hours, we packed up the gear and headed to another lake to try catch a walleye bite as the sun was going down. It didn’t pan out, but it was still a great day of fishing. Later we heard the bite was tough out there 
, so I guess it pays to keep away from the crowd. Thanks for the guiding Lee!
Here are some pictures from the trip including Lee’s son who got in on the hot crappie bite.
