December Milwaukee Browns

After cancelling out on a couple trips in the past week or two due to unfavorable weather, finally made it out for the Brown-fix. With a small craft advisory in place thru the morning, the forecast of calming winds coupled with the fact that we’d be staying inside the harbor, we decided to venture out anyway, and sure glad we did. Had to forego the “A” spots due to the winds still beating in at noon, but found some active fish in the first two “B” spots we tried, and pretty much stayed there till venturing out to the gaps an hour before dark, when things calmed down nicely. Ended up boating about a dozen browns, most in the 3 to 5 lb. class, but lost at least as many, with a couple monsters in the mix. Kept a few for the smoker. Pitched away the whole afternoon, with 5-inch gulp jerk shads being the winning ticket.
Water temps in upper 30’s/low 40’s, so there’s still some time to get out there in open water before she hardens up, but the tub’s going into storage this weekend.

Lived in this area my entire life, and never fished them. Woods and Waters had a show there this weekend, and being it is just 20 minutes away, and I have all the gear (little light but doable) I think I will give it a try if the wind stays out of the west. Do you launch right down by the Bradford beach landing?

Thanks for posting!

We launched at McKinley marina, which still has docks in. When that freezes over, you can launch at the National avenue launch in the river,right by the Hoan bridge, which doesn’t freeze up until winter has really set it.
As for gear, we use spinning tackle with 12 lb test, so don’t need anything real beefy for this bite. The show you saw was out in open water beyond the breakwall, off the Filtration Plant to the north of Bradford Beach. You can try out there, but you can generally come across a good bite within the harbor at this time of the year, where there’s usually a place to hide from the wind. Good luck if you go.
By the way, I would think that you would have a similar bite right there in Racine Harbor. Ever give that a try?

Never….. I just figured if inside the walls where I may be more comfortable, there’s a lot more area inside there in Milwaukee. I have never hooked into a fish like that… and been fishing all my life. Has to be fun on regular gear. That, or driving to Fremont for a last walleye bite on Sunday, oh the choices.

Thanks again!

Saw the favorable forecast, so kept the boat out of storage for another few days, to hit the Big Pond on Monday. With temps hitting the balmy 40’s, who woulda thunk it was Dec. 12? Had a guest drive in from Dubuque on Sunday,so that we could really take advantage of the weather for a whole day, and hopefully enjoy a good bite too boot. He had only read about this bite, and saw it on TV, so we were not light on enthusiasm as we launched at McKinley just after sun-up,and we were not dissappointed!
We started out in the harbor for three hours pitching Gulp and soaking shiners from a tied position along the wall, and wasn’t long before the three of us started nailing the browns. Most were the cookie cutter 3 to 5 pounders, with some occasional bigger fish mixed in. With calm winds, we decided to move out of the harbor to troll for a couple hours, and again, got into some fish quickly in 50 fow, using boards with 2 and 3 color lead, a couple dipseys, anda 5 color flat line, with spoons and J-plugs at the business end. All produced.
After our fun out there, we agreed that it was time to get back into the harbor for some more hand-to-hand tussles with the acrobatic trout, so back we went trying a few spots with the spinning gear, ending up back at the wall for the last hour of daylight.
All in all, we estimated that we boated about 40 to 45 trout, with the three largest at 11 to 14 lbs, and at least a couple dozen that came unbuttoned before the net, a very good and satisfying day by any measure. And of course, we had our share of snagged shad which also cause some serious rod-bending and put the gear and forearms to the test.We each took some of the smaller browns home for holiday smoking. Our only regret was that we couldn’t do it again on Tuesday. And regretably, the Yarcraft is getting stored tonight, so that might be it for the year, unless Ma Nature really cooperates, and I get inclined to try the 14ft.winter boat out there on a calm day….will see. Stranger things have happened.

Good stuff Z!!!

Mark