No, not about a new football or baseball team moving into SE WI, but a report about the exellent Brown trout fishing we enjoy here in the Milwaukee area. With cruddy weather in the forecast again for Thursday and Friday, a buddy and I were able to adjust our schedules and get the priorities straight, and head for the Big Pond on Wednesday afternoon. With temps in the 40’s, and light winds out of the SW, it made for the perfect conditions you hope for when planning March trips to these waters. We left the trolling equipment at home, and were geared up with our walleye rods, shiners, fatheads, skein, and Gulp plastics.
We launched at National avenue at about 1:30 with several trailers parked, planning on fishing up to dark. Immediately tied up to the wall, threw out a rod with split shot, hook and shiner, and it wasn’t even 5 minutes when Gene landed the first of about 25 fish we eventually boated. But the action was by no means fast and furious, and there was no clear bait of choice on this day, although the Gulp and shiners held the edge. With a lull in the action from about 3 to 5pm, it seemed like a slow day, and there were no big fish caught, with the cookie cutters of the day being in the 3 to 5 lb. range, and 4 in the 10 to 12 lb. range, all Browns, except for one nice 10 lb. Steelie.
It was also a good day for the trollers. We were able to watch a couple small boats making their passes in front of us, approx. 100 yards out, seeing the downriggers pop and guys jumping out of their seats to race to the rods, and hearing the drag scream while the bigger fish had their way for the first few minutes.
But fishing with the lighter gear is a nice change of pace, and after a flurry of action after 5pm, we called it quits before 7 and headed back in, with one gut-hooked steelie for the smoker. Rest released. As a good captain does, I got Gene in the spot-on-the-spot on this day 
, and he got the bigger fish of the day. With no major warm-up forecast for the near-term, water temps should stay cool (40 degrees yesterday), and the in-harbor bite should be decent for a while yet.
