Wissota’s largest bass to date

Because of the current happenings on the lake and the talk on IDA I thought I would ask you people what your largest SMB and largest LMB on the lake was or even one you have heard of. What points I think would be nice to share would be,

When the fish was caught? year, time of year.

Where the fish was caught? small lake, main lake, yellow river, the river between the main lake and Jim Falls Hydro.

Maybe how it was caught?

This I think would be good info for people to see to better understand this water.

I beleve that this lake has good potential but it has been called the Dead Sea by many even locals that have fished it for years, a lot of people will even drive around it to go to another lake to fish, other people say there is special ways to fish it and not many people know those secrets. Maybe that is why Jason Halfen and others have the success with Guiding that they have had because there might be special ways of fishing it. I know Jason has techniques to geting the wissota fish to respond to also Jason Sullivan has talked of different thing that he has been trying recently, seems that he along with Jason Halfen in the last few months have realy tryed to think outside the box.

I thought I would throw this out there and see what happens, I feel this is a learning site for the most part and a good one at that, I am not asking people to reveal there deepest secrets to wissota fish that has been past down in the family for generations, just some insite and maybe some new angles to share with the other IDAers out there that has worked for you. Maybe we can talk about the eye’s and the cats too.

Well I will leve this open for you people.

2K’S

This should be a fun conversation!

The largest bass I have seen was a 21+” SMB caught from shore below the Jim Falls Hydro. One of my students caught it on a tube bait this summer.

The largest bass I have had in my boat (so far ) was this one that flirted with 18″, caught by a client’s son Dylan, dragging a crawler half up in the river. We have had a number of fish between 17 and 18″ but nothing bigger, yet.

I will get this started.

LMB not much, about a 13″ main lake slip bobber, hook minnow, on the main lake 12′ FOW

SMB 21+ 3.3 LBS up on the river, Brown swim jig and a brown creacher soft plastic trailer on the bottom of 15 FOW, 2007 July.

Eye 2007 feb. under the ice tip up with a hook minnow 21″ didn’t get a weight, up on the river.

Cat 2007 may 29″ green 1/16 oz jig and leech on the main lake,

I guess the K-man and I are just going to have to trade stories until everybody else hops on board.

These are some of the quality eyes (23″+) we popped in the early-middle part of the season. These are primarily from the river, and fell to a jig and bait combos fished through relatively shallow water (10 fow or less).

Big walleyes are tough to come by (for me) from mid-July until fall. We should start seeing some quality fish hitting the net in the very near future.

Hi guys thanks K-man for starting this thread, I haven’t been onthe water for a month..ouch!
My best smb at wissota 18″ @ 4lbs. came on berkley gulp minnow worm watermellon color last month August..up river near one of those famous prop eaters..large boulder..1 fow!

As of yet I haven’t caught a bass on Wissota!I got into a bunch of main lake walleyes with the largest at 15″.I caught a perch that was within a couple inches of that.
I fished Little Wissota when the wind blew me in there…skunked…
I fished upstream of the bridge and up the river to a resort (Conoco or Exxon sign ??).All I caught was a couple small eyes,but there were two guys near me that had HUGE crappies..

Up river towards Holcomb I’ve caught smallies but nothin big.

My partner caught a 18 inch sm while prefishing

I have caught a few SM in the 20″ range in the past years, only a handfull of 19″s this year though. I pretty much stick to the main lake and chippewa river sections. Ive caught them all times of the year on several different baits, jigs, tubes, jerkbaits, grubs, etc, and depths ranging from 1 to 15 feet, just depends on the day…

This is an interesting post I just signed up,in practice before the BASS event I caught a solid 4lb sm then durring the fom event my son caught a walleye at 28″-29″ & a couple of muskies the biggest 38″, we didn’t stop to get an exact mesurement as that wastes time this is an interesting lake

This is starting to work out nice, It would be nice to have more posts, but it is going well for now. I think this will work to everyone’s advantage in the end whether you are wondering if a theory you are using on the water has merit or you are just looking for some new ideas to expand the box in you are hesitant to give out info, I do not believe that information given here is going to give up all the secrets and make everyone else the best fisherman in the nation at your expense I think that there is a lot more to fishing than the bait or the presentation it is the combo and the feel for things that just didn’t feel right, o there is a fish kind of thing. Well you know what I mean, right. Maybe time on the water best explains it.

Well here is why I am posting right now this is what I am seeing so far; by all means correct me if I am wrong.

Sounds like everyone is catching there fish from 1 to 15 fow which seams right, maybe but what about what Jason was just saying about the cold fronts coming in and the fish ether going deep or in to thick weeds maybe a person next time out wants to think outside the box and go deep for a change? Or just try it.

Now this seems interesting. It is being said at least my interpolation is that there are a lot of big fish being caught on soft plastic and non live bait which does not seam right at least from what I have been told over the years. Also stan7 son caught a 28 to 29” eye on plastic I am assuming during the FOM

The fish… Bigefish had an 18” SMB at 4# I witnessed a 21” SMB at 3.3. A football and a non football.

Keep it up guys lots of feedback lets make this a good learning experience for all.

Sully where are you

2K’S

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Sully where are you

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I didn’t know this post was open to an ‘eye angler.

I really don’t keep good record of my bass.

The only thing I can add is that I followed around the E-50 anglers and learned a good share from them. That is what’s neat about having tournaments visit us. They take a fresh approach to dissecting the water.

I would take a week off of work to observe a pro walleye tournament visit our water.

Great thread 2K, good chatter going.

Sully

the walleye came on a little crank bait in 4-5’fow the musky came on a tube in 10-12’fow

managed to get out tonite. My son caught his personal best smb 17.75″ and 3.5 lb. was taken up river w/ strong current on a bfishn tackle 1/8oz h2o prescision jig head w/ my special chartreuse glow color on jig head 4″ pearl curly tail grub. Fun part was 6lb trilene sensation..that line is strong and light action rod..I like to keep things exciting w/ light tackle! I caught a 17″ smb and hand full of the average sized smb wissota has to offer and 1 bonus walleye 14″ all fish were caught on plastics and one big musky blow up on buzz bait as the mooon was rising pics will come soon there in camera still!
Eric

Well done Eric! Light tackle smallie fishing sure beats horsing them in with telephone poles.

I’m headed out with guests soon. Hope to be able to provide a walleye update this evening if the weather doesn’t chase us off