I’m gunna ask a probably dumb question.Are most of the fish taken in the lake or the river?I ask because I’m trying to learn the lake but often the wind limits me to Little Wissota or the river (14′ boat).
If you read the day 1 and day 2 stories on the FOM site, you’ll see that some guys were focused on certain areas and some were running and gunning all over the system. Some fish were certainly caught in the river. I’d say that 80% or more of my smallie fishing is done up in the river. Rocks = smallies. 
Following Jason’s reports the last few years has lead me to explore the river and I have been rewarded quite well, last year around the first big cool off trolling cranks I found a pack of feeding smally’s in the river and had a blast. My view is more in the river, but that is a big lake out there…..I do catch alot of walley/ crappie in the lake but this is generally anchoring around cribs and pitching or slip bobbing to them….
I don’t have a lot time…to fish and have found Jason Halfen’s reports to be so valuable, I might even call the reports priceless..pardon the pun! I would only fish the main lake and had ok success, after reading and putting Jason’s techniques to use I realy saw an increase in size and quatity of both smb and walleye’s…Thanks again Jason
I don’t want anyone to feel slighted so I’m responding to myself,thanx to all who replied.
I’ll keep peckin away at it,it’s a lot of water with about any structure you can want.Add the river(s) and it’s almost overwhelming.
Jeff, drop me a line if you want to shorten the learning curve just a bit. There’s still lots of fishing left in this season!
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Thanks again Jason
You are most welcome!
I’m glad that you guys are albe to take something positive away from all of those reports. We don’t have a fishery like the Mississippi or Mille Lacs, but I think we’re blessed to have what we DO have…a great multispecies, action-oriented fishery.
Another thing I like about the Chippewa in general is the clean water.I know it’s called stained,but very little green guck or floating rafts of weeds which are so prevelant in some of the other waters.
The COLOR of the eyes is unique,sooooo bronze,they are amazing.
I fished in the FOM tournament and my inpressions of the system was that it had very few quality smallmouth and I couldn’t find a largemouth. The Chippawa river had TONS of boats fishing. one area had 20 boats in a 100 yard stretch. It was like fishing below the Red Wing dam in the spring…just crazy. I spent the entire tournament fishing the main lake.
On day one me and my partner doubled up on the our first casts with 2 lbs and then he lost one on his next cast. Later in the day I lost one on a spinnerbait that was pushing 5 lbs. Other than that we saw nothing that was over 14 inches. Some little 8 to 10 inchers. The second day was just miserable and we zeroed and we only caught tiny smallies and several muskies and even walleye but the bass were none existant.
I was really excited coming into the tournament as people on this site were saying how good the lake is supposed to be. But I was very dissappointed after fishing the lake. The lake was dirty with nasty algea all over and the lake couldn’t hold up to the pressure of a two day tournament. Day 2 results were pretty pathetic for almost everyone. Which tells me there just isn’t a lot of quality fish to replenish areas. It took 26 lbs to win and only 12.67 to cash a check. That is unbelievable.
I spent 4 days fishing the system and didn’t see a single largemouth. We fished docks, breaks, cribs, trees, from little wissota up to the jim falls area. And we only really only saw small smallmouth. Where are all the quality fish at? Are all the largemouth up the Yellow? I have read in recent weeks about alot of walleye guys catching smallies using live bait. Are there many bass guys fishing the lake?
The lake really left a bad impression on many of the guys fishing the lake and I heard alot of guys say that if there was another tournament there they wouldn’t come. It was a big let down for me as well.
Does the lake just not have many fish or what? At the meeting the night before they had a DNR guy talk and when he said the lake was much improved the whole room looked at eachother and kinda giggled like everyone was saying “how bad was this lake”.
On the bright side, everyone in the town and around the lake was very kind and they really seemed happy to be hosting a big tournament. We don’t get this at most places we fish. So thanks for all the nice people who tried to make the stay as pleasant as possible. I wish more towns would figure out how much bringing in tournaments can help the economy.
Eric Ahlstrom
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The lake really left a bad impression on many of the guys fishing the lake and I heard alot of guys say that if there was another tournament there they wouldn’t come. It was a big let down for me as well.
I’m genuinely sorry you had a poor experience on Wissota Eric.
Wissota is a tricky drink of water. It is not the sort of place where a person can pull up and immediately start whacking a bunch of fish. It has taken me ten years of fishing out there to finally get comfortable enough to start guiding…it has taken that long for me to come to understand the lake’s seasonal patterns, forage issues, etc. And I certainly don’t understand them all, but I am comfortable enough to ask guests to pay for the opportunity to fish with and learn from me.
I view the tournament results to be entirely consistent with the size structure of the smallies in the lake. Good numbers of fish in the 2-2.5 lb class, limited numbers above that weight.
Where are the largies? Good question…I do not target them and as a result, I have caught exactly none in the past 3 seasons. But I don’t fish typical LMB cover. There were plenty of LMB caught in our Wissota fishing league this summer. In fact, some of the guys caught gills and LMB almost every night all summer.
Is Wissota a good choice for a tournament of this caliber? Tough to say. As a tournament walleye fisherman, I appreciate the challenge of learning new bodies of water and putting together a program that will work there during tournament time. I like those “difficult” events moreso than the shootouts where EVERYONE brings in a big limit and the winners are decided by an inch or a pound here or there, or by dead fish penalties.
The FOM results demonstrate that Wissota is in fact a challenging body of water, which should not exclude it as a tournament or recreational fishing destination. It IS a place, however, where everyone, including me, must get out of our comfort zone and extend ourselves and our techniques if we hope to meet with success.
Feel free to PM me if you’d like to talk about Wissota further!
Sorry to hear you were disappointed Eric. Myself who used to live in the Eau Claire area got to hear all the whinning when the Bassmasters Elite 50 fished that lake a couple years ago also, (here we go again). Watching them prefish, and fish during the tournament it was no suprise to me to see why they (tournament anglers) would say they hated this lake, due to presentations they used. Like Jason said adapting to a new body of water (Wissota is a tough body of water) is tough and changing techniques from what typically people are used to is the key when learning the lake and fishing it sucessfully. I’d feel very confident having fished the lake for about two years (not this past year though) that given the information I learned over the years on this lake that I could catch a limit of bass (either LG or SM). Seeing these so called anglers that are suppose to be the best anglers struggle 
, and then complain about the lake makes people upset and gets old. But I enjoy seeing results and/or watching tournaments fished on this body of water, and hope to fish in some eventually, but feel all the negative talk from anglers about the lake could prevent future tournaments on this body of water. Was the guy who caught 26 lbs complaining? Maybe its just bass fisherman in general? Should have tried fishing for walleyes and you would’ve had to try to keep them darn smallies off your line. 
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Thanks 2ks! I hope to make my way up there this afternoon.
I fished the Fom up there and I had a great time I didn’t when Caught a nice LM and 3 quality sm bass on second day and everybody that I met from Wisc. was extremly nice. 2K i WISHED THAT i COULD HAVE MET YOU, YOU WAS PROBABLEY NICE ALSO,God bless you all and safe fishing- Carl McClain,Caught a 15 lb Pike also during Tourn, They loved My Ohio bait Caught 4 Pike And 1 Muskie that sxcared me to death when it tried to eat my Huge spook.
Again sorry if you are disapointed in our lake
I will have to agree with the others that have posted, I feel there is a time in any Competition, if you are going to keep competing you need to step it up or you will get board with what it is that you are competing in. I feel that this is exactly what the FOM needs to do when you have a chance to win the big purse ($25,000) that you need to earn it; this was not a local event it was a regional event and if one makes it to the finals that lake should be tougher yet. I believe if you are a fisherman that truly deserves the 1st place prize you should not win because you got lucky and caught a full bag like 90 other boats but you got lucky and had .02 oz more than 2nd That is luck not skill.
The 1st, 2nd and 3rd place teams both brought in nice bags both days I believe that they earned it.
Its not easy at the top if it was they would call it catching not fishing.
2K’S
I’m not much into the tournament fishing for bass and all, but I have caught my fair share of smallies on Wissota. But the only time I’ve caught them is using live bait! I have caught a few LGM on top water but no smallies. But as far as tournaments go (bass anyway) you are not allowed to use live bait correct?
First off I wouldn’t have been as dissapppointed if I didn’t have such high expectations. Second, it is very different to learn a lake over several years compared to several days. That is what is amazing about the top pros. They have to travel all over the country and fish water they have never seen and be able to dissect lakes very quickly. I am sure local guys could compete against the top pros on their home lake. I know if they came up to Grand Rapids I could hold my own. But there is no way the local guys could do what the pros do all over the country. They are at that level for a reason and they are incredible walleye pros do the same thing.
Now, the walleye guys that are talking, do you fish for bass on artificials or only live bait. I had a school of 3 pounders out on the dam that I had up several times and if I was able to use live bait it would have made things much easier.
I do really enjoy fishing new lakes and Wissota was not like any lake I had fished before. So from that perspective it was a great experience and I did really learn alot. I will probably go back at some point just to learn how that system works a little better. I only had 2 days to prefish. Which is just a small snapshot in time and it is hard to get a feeling for how the lake responds to different conditions. I found it facinating that I didn’t see any panfish up shallow.
One other point is that half the field was from Wisconsin. First place was from Wisconsin and was the Wisconsin state champion and clearly knew the lake. the second place team was Karen Savik who is an FLW pro and a good angler. Then the 3rd place team was from Wisconsin as well. And the day one leaders (also from Wisconsin) went from 16 lbs on day one to 0 on day two.
It was a unique lake and one that I would like to try again but it was far short from the amazing fishing I had heard about. Maybe it was just because it was so different from other lakes. I don’t know.
One other question is, are there a couple poor year classes? We noticed that most the fish we caught were 14-16 or 8-10 inches. I was supprised to see that gap in there as most the time there is a size limit there are tons of fish just below the min size.
Eric Ahlstrom
Third place is from around here. I am not cutting on anyone here and live bait I am sure works better. (I have had situations where it has not with all this salted plastic bait out now) I am just saying that as you go up the ranks this is what separates the men from the boys and if you are the men you do not want to be on a lake that everyone brings in a full bag and you get beat out buy the lucky boys.
Come back fish some more, learn it, if you need company let me know, this lake might be the best learning experience of your career just enough to step it up.
2K’S
Eric..I’ve found that the larger more quality smb I’ve caught were fooled by finesse type presentations.If you remember KVD won the E50 event coaxing the larger smb w/finesse techniques.Wissota is a great river/lake to fish!
Larry Nixon said most lakes that have northerns and musky’s the smb act more defensively and feed using cover differently than in most impoundments. The cream rises to the top as you said in your last statement.
Tight lines!
Eric
durring the fom event the fish were in a transition period as all of our fish from the 2weeks before that we won with,33+lbs had moved and we had to go too other spots we had found. The team that won was from Oshkosh and had only the 2 days of practice to find their fish ,I feel the fish were migrating up the river which made it tougher
good fishn Stan
I definitally have lots to still learn. I just turned 26 and am just finishing off my first masters. So I have time still. I have only fished 3 tournaments outside mn and the more I fish outside of the state of Minnesota the more I realize how spoiled we are in this state. The pros aren’t lying when they say we have the best fishing in the country. I used go to all the BASS universities in the twin cities and all the pros would say that we can catch more fish in MN in 3 months then they can all year long in other places. I didn’t really believe that until I went down to Table Rock lake.
With that being said, I was on fish for day one and could easily have come in with 13 -14 lbs on day one and simply blew it. We dropped 3 big fish at the side of the boat. There was no room for error in that tournament.
The second day we spent a ton of time on the main lake dam throughing 4 inch shaky worms, tubes, and drop shots with no luck. There was one spot with a school on it and I just couldn’t get them going.
It is a different mentality. In Mn we have no problem catching a limit. The tricky part is catching a 4 lb ave which it commonly takes to win. It seems like on lakes like Wissota and Table Rock you just want a limit and you fish for just that limit instead of targeting big fish.
I have done very well fishing tournaments in MN especially on smallmouth but really want to expand out to other part of the country. So Wissota could be a good place to learn and practice for tougher conditions but make no mistake about it. Fishing MN is still a ton more fun.
Maybe someone can explain this one to me. Most the time in MN in lakes with alot of Muskies like Mille Lacs, and Leech the muskies will push all the bass up really shallow. But out on Wissota that doesn’t seem to be the case. We saw and caught plenty of muskies. Prefishing we flipped all sorts of shallow docks and trees and saw nothing but tiny smallies and pike. Have the bass been pushed out deep? The shallows were mostly just lifeless.
Eric Ahlstrom
I steared away from the river just because there were SO many guys up there and I didn’t want to play bumper boats up there. So I focused on the main lake. The fish don’t all leave the lake do they? there is deep water right there for them and I saw lots of minnows. Why would they leave?
Eric
Eric,
The first thing I will say is that MN fisheries are *different* from WI fisheries. No arguement there. One fishery being more fun than another is in the eye of the beholder.
All of the FOM competitors who left so dissatisfied need a bit of perspective that others on this thread have tried to offer. Wissota has been pounded FLAT by bass guys since late August, with the Bass federation tournament, the FOM event, 100s of guys pre-fishing, and of course the locals, like myself, Kevin and others, who know that the smallie bite really gets silly good in late summer. How many white spinnerbaits and craw pattern tubes do you think the Wissota bass have seen during the past 6 weeks?
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One other question is, are there a couple poor year classes? We noticed that most the fish we caught were 14-16 or 8-10 inches. I was supprised to see that gap in there as most the time there is a size limit there are tons of fish just below the min size
I certainly don’t percieve this to be the case. In our fishing league this summer, I’d day that much of our smallie catch on some evenings was in the 12-14″ class. That abundant size class fell victim to a month of solid pressure. The little 8-10″ guys always gotta eat!
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Have the bass been pushed out deep? The shallows were mostly just lifeless.
Time for some more perspective. What happened to the weather Wednesday, Thursday and Friday? Major storms, rain and wind early. Then high blue skies and much less wind. What does this mean? Big late-summer cold front. What does the textbook say about these conditions? Bury in weeds or go deep. There are next to no weeds in the shallows in the big lake. Heck, there are very few shallow areas in the big lake to begin with. Even the panfish were gone from the shallows? Of course they were, they got blown deeper by the cold front. Were some bass still shallow? Probably. Were some caught fom the shallows on Saturday? Maybe. But under those kind of weather conditions after sustained, heavy fishing pressure, I’d be looking deeper for quality fish too.
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