Goose Island “GTG”

Today’s fishing was not so great, but the company was awesome. My dad and I headed down to stoddard to see if anyone was still out. Sure enough, there were about 6-7 guys out about a half mile out. My dad didn’t want to walk that far in the rain, and we weren’t sure about ice either so we went back to goose island. As we pulled up to the spot, i saw a big sticker on the back of a truck that said “Indepthangling.com” on it, and below it said “AmWatson.” We got out on the ice and found Wats and Dodgeboy just getting set up. First thing we did was set out a whole bunch of tip ups, because dodgeboy wanted a few snakes to pickle. he had one flag right away that stole his bait, and it wasn’t much more than 20 minutes later when i had a flag. This one i managed to bring a nice mid 20’s ” northern through the hole. This wasn’t an indication of things to come for me however. Dodgeboy caught a small northern that he threw back, but my flags were flying rather consistently. The problem was simply getting them to go. I had one flag that wats said jumped up in the air when the fish hit. When i walked up to that one, i found all my line stripped off, and it had broken the knot on the spool After this, we were joined by another IDA member, “lacrosse rookie” next i had a flag and i went up to it and it started slowly moving, but with some good power to it. i slowly pulled on the line to make sure he was ready to get the hook set, and then the line just snapped before i could even set the hook i had one more flag that took off, and i set the hook and fought him for about 3 seconds and he got off. I had a couple more that picked up the bait and dropped it as well. All in all, it was great to get to talk to a few people who really had a passion for the outdoors. I mean seriously, all they talked about the whole time was fishing, hunting, boats or anything that involved the outdoors. It was really awesome!hopefully we can do it again sometime guys. they are still out there now, so hopefully they get a nice slimer on a tip up before they leave.

Goose Island would be a great place for a spring or summer GTG

Nice job guys Wish i could have made it today

Hey Cade, for us guys and gals who have never been there how about telling us about Stoddard and Goose Island. Where are these places at, what kind of body of water are they, is there deep enough water to fish from boats ok, hows the ramps etc.??
Thanks, Bill

J_Ericks-

Don’t worry, after the cold snap we are supposed to get next week, im sure there will be more time for us all to meet up on the ice. Wats and i were talking about possibly having a real gtg type thing for the lacrosse area so dont worry.

Bill-

Oh man where should i start. Theres so many sloughs, meanders, oxbows, ect. in these areas it’s not even funny. Ill start with goose island located in the very south of lacrosse, and the county for that matter. It is just off Highway 35. Goose island is mainly known as a campground, but there is plenty of access for boats and fishing. I can think of about 5 different spots where a guy can put a boat in. 3 of them are known as great landings. There is a north landing on the northern end of the island, a main landing, and a south landing which is known as Hunter’s point landing. This is my stomping ground in the summer for shore fishing, and you can’t beat some of the sloughs in this area. Sure there is some deep water around, like anywhere, but i love it for its awesome panfishing and especially bass fishing in the shallower water. Another great thing about goose is that there are a bunch of playgrounds and shelters scattered around the park for kids and adults to just hang out. There are many walking trails, and i know that i still have not found all of the hidden ponds that are back in goose island yet. I usually find a couple each year. For a shore angler, spring and fall is best if you want to get on great action with out having to go far from the truck. summer time can be tough from shore because most of the sloughs and stuff that have shore access are slopped in. Overall, i would give the park a 10 on a scale of 1-10. It really is a great place to be. The ice fishing in here can be fair at times as well. Just like all other spots, it can be slow, but when its on, there is usually good crappie and gill action in the shallows.

Now for the info on stoddard. First of all, i have to say that stoddard is one of the best fisheries I have found in my 8 or so years of fishing in my life. I have never had better days ice fishing than the early ice days that i have experienced at stoddard. Taking 10 or even 11″ bluegills out of there is not uncommon, although i am still on the hunt for that true 10″er for this year. there is a lot of different stuff to fish out there. there are places that top 12′ of water, and others barely hit 2 feet. If you hit it at the right time, fish can be caught anywhere at stoddard. Fishing pressure is a growing problem, but it is a big area so this can be avoided with a little “footwork.” The culprit to stoddard’s fertile fishing habitat is the army corps of engineers project from a few years back. From what i have heard, stoddard used to be a waste land, very shallow and sandy, basically a silted in mud hole. Now, due to the many man made rock islands that have been put in at stoddard, channels have formed, and deeper water is present. more than half of this area gets slopped in during the summer, but can still be fished by dudes like slopbass or some of the very sharp panfisherman that inhabit the area. There is one landing which is in town, and it is very nice i would have to say. there is a nice dock and everything. The only thing i would say is to dredge the area near the landing, because the landing gets very weeded in as well, which can be a huge hassel once you remove your boat from the water . One more great thing the army corps put in when they did their project was that they put in a huge rock wall that extends about 300 yards out into the water. At the end of this rock wall, there is a little cut, and on the other side there is another L shaped rock wall. Some people refer to this as “the box” because the area is literally boxed in by these islands to protect the vegetation from washing out, and keeping it nice and deep. There can be great bass fishing near this cut, along the edge of the drop off that is formed behind the cut. Beneath the cut, there is a big hole that has been known to actually hold a few nice walleyes, which i have caught before. Too bad this doesn’t freeze well in the winter, i would be out there right now with a jiggin’ rap. One more thing i would like to add about the rock wall, is that one hot bite we have found in late summer/early fall, is casting bait sized ‘gills about as far out as we can on the north side of the wall. there is a big weed bed to the right and then an open part just above the cut i mentioned earlier. we were trying to find some flatheads one year when we discovered this. We didn’t catch any flats, but instead, we had numerous runs and ended up catching many 3-4 pound bass. Most of these fish were actually smallmouth but i did catch a huge, fat largemouth there one time. We went back again several times that year and found the same bite, remaining consistant. I tell you, it was a blast. Sorry this post is so long, but to anybody that needs this sort of info, i can be a huge help. I’m not like most people who get to travel all over the area and fish all types of areas, i can only fish as far as my dad and my boat will take me there for i know these areas very very well. If anybody needs any more information that i could have missed, let me know and i will help ya out!

Sounds like a fun day! i second the idea of a GTG in the la crosse area. i hope to get out on the ice again soon!

Thanks Cade. I hear alot about these areas from your fishing and was talking to a guy at the Rochester Sport and Boat show last weekend who fishes Stoddard for ice fishing some so I though I’d ask you some questions about those areas. Thanks.
Thanks, Bill

Cade,

You are seriously “The Man”!!! What a great post. It was nice meeting up with you this weekend and I look forward to learning more from you in the future. I also would love to see a GTG in the area. I think we would have a great draw of people. Ted

hey man, sorry the fish weren’t cooperating while we were there. Ill let you know when we can get a hot bite again. One thing to look forward to is some good tip up action coming soon. I need to get some braid on my tip ups though. Not sure if you saw all the break offs i had but it was bad. I was embarassed to say the least.

thats what i tried to tell max last year when he just had mono on there! but you just never lear . i have never had a break off on a tip up but i use 25 pound tip up line Tip up line

Yep. mono makes it tough to land those toothy critters The braided line Switchback linked is good stuff

yep as soon as i can get some more money, i will be getting some good tip up line. I am really really broke right now so i can’t afford anything. If i would have had braid, that would have been a pretty good day of tip up fishin’ i would think. I had 2 break offs and 1 that got off all thanks to my line. thats 3 more i could have caught and i think at least one of those was a very good sized northern. oh well, can’t cry over spilled milk. Catch you guys next time

Goose Island fun in the spring too!!!!