After a long week’s absence, I had a chance to get back onto the backyard gem for the afternoon. I started by checking the main-lake crankbait bite that has been the staple of my trips since early June. Well, that didn’t last too long. Two shakers and a magnum leadcore tangle led me back to the moving waters of the Chippewa River that typically host my mid-late summer visits.
Tim and I found a variety of fish snapping up in the river. Most came to the boat on live bait presentations, although a couple, including the unusual green fish shown in the first picture, came on catalpa orange/chartreuese tail paddletails from B-Fish-N Tackle. I haven’t caught a largemouth on Wissota in several years, so this 16″ fish was quite a surprise. Walleyes were active in the flow, and we ended the afternoon with a total of 14, with the majority of those fish in the 15-17″ class. No “overs” today but decent action nevertheless. Crawler halves and leeches fished dead slow on 1/16 oz jigs did the damage.
Channel cats were a constant presence in some of the deeper stretches adjacent to the shallow mid-river structure we were targeting. The largest of the several we tangled with today was the 24 incher shown in the second pic. After getting my thumb chewed up pretty well by a 10 pound channel last week, I went out and grabbed a Lindy Fish Handling Glove, and used the glove to handle the cats we landed today. I’m definitely impressed with not only the protection that this glove affords the hand, but also with the ability to get a good, firm grip on the fish through the “SuperFabric”. If you have kids or a spouse who don’t like to handle fish because of teeth/spines/scales/slime, or are weary of your own hands being turned into hamburger by teeth, fins, or gill plates, then do yourself a favor and grab at least one of these gloves. All I need now is a right handed glove to match the lefty I picked up today.
