Bucketmouth1,

What are you fishing for?

I have fished the Manitowish Chain for 20 years. Some
muskies, some walleyes, some panfish, some largemouth, and
my main quest smallmouth bass. The chain is a tough
fish in July due to all of the boat traffic, so early
is best for daylight fishing. We hit the water about
5:30am, and do fairly well. If you fish walleyes, you
can get them is daylight, by fishing slip bobbers, floated
into weed edges. I won’t give spots, but there is one
patch of weeds, in a busy part of one lake, that will
produce nice walleyes in the middle of the day, unless
some silly jet skier runs over them. For panfish, I
use to take the kids fishing in Fawn, and Stone. We caught
enough for a fish fry, before the kids got bored.

For largemouth look for weeds, and use finesse baits fished
weedless. For muskies, I would fish at night, with a
Hawg Wobbler, or some other top water bait. For smallmouth,
no clues from me. You will have to figure them out on your
own. We catch some pigs, on a number of the chain
lakes. They are out there. I will be on the chain
in August, and Sept., so I won’t add to the pressure the
smallies will see.

Big Bass Bane

Guys,

I fished as a substitute in the Big Bucks Bass team
championship T out on Wissota last September, that was about
a 90 boat event. For 6600 acres Wissota fishes SMALL. The
deep center of the lake takes up a lot of that 6600 acres,
so the shallow water bass guys got clustered up pretty bad.
Especially on the known smallmouth spots like the Chippewa
River, the Yellow River, grass points, and grass flats. In
our tournament, ALL of my spots were covered by other boats,
given our 80 something takeoff place. It was one of the
toughest tournaments I have ever fished on Wissota, and I
live 1 mile from it, and I have fished a few out there.
That is all I can say with 130 boats, is Good Luck!

Big Bass Bane

When Berkley stopped making the 6″ Flip’tail, I panicked!
I bought every Black, Green Pumpkin, Blue Fleck, and Tequila
Sunrise I could find anywhere, at any price. Now I see
that Berkley came out with a new version. As soon as I find
some I will give them a try, but for now, I have a few
stashed away in the tackle shop.

Big Bass Bane

I fished a small team format bass tournament on the chain
last weekend, and we caught walleyes on crankbaits, in the
middle of the day, and northerns in a number of places one
would expect northerns to be. The walleyes on the other
hand were acting like bass. They weren’t far from the slop!
For the day we caught about 50 bass, and at least 15 were
over 14″. Our best fish was 3.9 lbs. We talked to a couple
of pontoons throwing bobbers in all directions, and the word
was the panfish were biting, but were running small, in most
places.

So I would have to say, yup just about everything is biting,
on Chetek…Finding them is the trick

Big Bass Bane

Why yes I do swim jigs deep. I was tipped off to some
deep timber, once by a walleye troller using lead core
line. He said he was having a tough time keeping big
largemouth off his lead core line offerings, when he
went over this pile of logs, in 30′ of water. HMMM!
I tried Carolina rigs, DD-22’s, and slow rolled heavy
spinnerbaits, with no takers. Then I tied on a 3/4 oz
bullet bass jig, much like a Brovarney swim jig, except
it was from my “tackle dungeon”. It was a “bluegill”
pattern, dressed with a 5″ Kalin grub, also in bluegill.
I swam it over the deep logs a few times, and had a couple
of suspicious bumps, but no really decent hits. On the
last cast, I got the jig retrieved to a point that I
was going to crank in, and started ripping it towards the
surface. It stopped abruptly, when it pinned to the mouth
of a solid 4 lb fish. Lights went on! I got the first
fish bumped, and released(I was practicing ),
and started swimming the jig again. Whenever I would
bump a log, I would rip it towards the surface. I
put 2 more decent fish in the boat, and then moved off
the spot. During the last tournament, on that lake, I was
only able to take one decent fish off that spot, but the
same technique and jig did that.

So yes you may want to pick up a couple of heavy swimming
jigs, and rather than just swimming them, when they
bump deep cover, or hang up on veggies, give them a
quick spin on the reel handle, to rip them and hang on.

Big Bass Bane

I do focus on the species of crayfish, in a system, and

what phase they are in(soft shell, new shell, ready to

molt old shell, etc). For the native nothern crayfish,

something in green pumpkin, with Blue Flake, is good for

all phases except soft shell. In shoft shell, Yamamoto’s

brown smoke is killer. If the system is infested with

exotic Rusty Crayfish, watermelon/red flake, or green

pumpkin red flake, or green pumpkin, accented with a orange

Spike-it pen, usually gets me through all of their phases.

If the Rusty’s are really faded, sometimes a blonde pumpkin,

with copper flake clearly gets attacked more than my typical

offerings.

I am not sure what Black/Blue flake is suppose to look

like, but it doesn’t match anything I find in northern

Wisconsin Lakes. I don’t fish that color combination very

often, because I don’t find it as effective as other

colors mentioned. But that might also be because a

bunch of bass guys fish it Now on the river,

there I do fish it, but I believe it is a better contrast,

in dirty water. Kind of in the same set with June Bug,

and Black Neon(black red flake).

Big Bass Bane

P.S. I emphatically agree with Blue on the flake color

being important.

JC,

Hmmmm! What color was that _____ you were throwing last
Friday night? And there was some whining about it
being the last one, when a toothy critter ate it
My white chatterbait worked

White is over rated? And here I was about to order a few
of those ______s.

Did you ever find out if they are still available?

Big Bass Bane

P.S. I have been working on that September issue, and
given it ends up at that spot close to my home, I
will have some excellent info to work with

So how much is JC’s honeyhole worth to all you other
smallie chasers? I think this is kind of like Duke
selling the Bush family receipe for baked beans

I believe he showed it to me last weekend… The
fish of course weren’t there, but it sure shouted of
Fall smallies. I really need to bring my iFinder with me
next time JC takes me out on Pool 9!

Big Bass Bane

P.S. I have a complete loss of memory, when I fish with
Jeremy. I want to continue fishing with JC

I have had that problem, too. Hit something that should
have dinged, or bent the prop, and the whole tip is sheared
off instead. This happened on a couple of 25 to 30 hp
OMC motors. As I recall the OMC original props never
broke off chunks, unless I hammered rocks. The Michigan
Wheel props I have used, did loose tips, where I thought
that should not have happened. In your case, it sounds
like there was some metalurgy issues, or someone put a
rock in that wood you hit

Big Bass Bane

Tom, for some, age chasing waistline, is a loosing race for
age

Happy Birthday, with hopes for many more.

Big Bass Bane

JC,

I will send you mail next week. I am leaving to take a
10 year old fishing, in eastern Wisconsin, this afternoon,
and won’t get a chance to talk this out with my schedule
setter On my calendar, this looks good, but I
am not sure it is good on “Her” calendar.

Later
Big Bass Bane

JC! Is no secret safe? I was just thrilled

to tell every one that the fish were coming on a C-rigged

Sammy, and for the very skeptical I was going to say, “All

right it was a C-rigged Horny Toad”. Now you shined the

light of day on my c-rigged Sweet Beaver…Who comes up with

these names!!!

So got any open dates after the fourth? We can take my

boat this time.

Big Bass Bane

Those are shot glasses where I come from. We just strap
1/4 barrels to our backs, and hang the hose off our caps!

I got drunk for the first time, at the tender age of 3,
and puked on my parent’s bed, where they put me to sleep it
off. It was at my cousin’s confirmation party, where I
asked my mother(raised with German as the household
language), if I could have some beer. She held up two
fingers, spaced about 3/4 of an inch apart, and said,
“you can have this much”. Being the resourceful son
I was, I went to the first uncle maning the pump on
the half barrel, and said, “My mother said I could have
this much”, and my uncle laughed, and squirted a little
beer in a cup. I waited until there was a new uncle
manning the beer barrel, and repeated my claim of my
mother’s permission, and that uncle squirted some
beer in a cup. I have a bunch of uncles
When my mother was told that her young son was looking
kind of wobbly, she found me, and asked me how much
beer I had, and I held up two fingers, and said, “I
only had this much”. A couple of my uncles were watching,
and one said, “Yah, I gave him a squirt”, and then another
said the same thing, and another, and another. At that
point, I left the party, and was taken home…

Oh by the way, CHEESEHEADS ROCK!

Big Bass Bane

From my former life as a musky buster, the baby Suick, the
Mepps Musky Killer, and Mouldy’s Topper Stopper, have all
taken some of my largest bass, both smallies, and green
bass. I still have my musky tackle, although it may be
sold soon at my wife’s garage sale. I should probably
rescue a few choice “bass” baits from that that lumber
and hardware pile, before she sells them off. It could
come in handy when looking for a kicker fish, in some
future tournament.

As for the top 10 “manufactured” bass baits, the Jitterbug
should be near the top somewhere. I know it has fallen
out of fashion with the new high energy bass crowd, but
that slow plop plop waking bait has accounted for a few
tons of bass. The Senko tops my list, and if we are talking
history here, the #11 Floating Rapala has to be on that
list somewhere, too.

Big Bass Bane

It isn’t just the Miss, that is having a banner year on
smallies. Last night, in my “after-work” club, we hauled
24 smallies out of a 40 foot long by 5 foot wide, by 2 feet
deep eddy, with my 5 biggest weighing between 23 and 24 lbs.
We were fishing the next “pool” up the Chippewa River, from
Lake Wissota, and NSP was pulling a lot of water, which
shut down most of the river to lazy fat smallmouth. My
partner was marveling all night that if we could have
looked down in the water, that is all we would have seen
was fat smallie backs. The sad news was I finished second
place to a guy that was bed fishing on a “trophy” smallie
lake north of Chippewa Falls. He was sight fishing, and
probably would have beat me by a couple of pounds. We are a
paper tournament format, scoring by lengths, so weight wise
it may have been closer, than the paper score showed. But
the bottom line is there are numerous BIG smallies being
fooled in several different eco-systems, around western
Wisconsin, too.

I have got to get a digital camera for the boat!

Big Bass Bane

I had some on order from a supplier in KY, for a few months,
and called yesterday, and cancelled that part of the order.
I fished an after work T, last week, and remembered late
last year a musky ate my last secret color Bandit 100 series
crankbait, so since I needed some replacements, and this
place had them, I subbed out the Chatterbaits, with the
Gambler knockoffs, and added those replacement Bandits to
the order, to kill two birds with one stone. I should have
the Bandits,this weekend, for searching for bedded smallies,
and I should have something that looks like a Chatterbait,
to see what all the buzz is about. I expect it will end up
in the rummage sale pile sooner or later, but I just had
to try one

Big Bass Bane

John,

I think Zoom has something called a Speed worm, or something
like that, which is close to what you describe. I have some
somewhere, in my “worm dump”. As described, it is a 5″
Senko style worm, with a fair sized paddle tail. I bought
them with the intention of just pinching off the paddle
tail, and fishing them as a Senko. Since then the
Senko knock-offs have flooded the market, and I don’t
need a cheap second source for Senkos. The colors I
have are for clear water fishing, and I probably will
use them from pitching into coontail flats. I don’t
know if Zoom still makes them, but it may be worth a
visit to the Zoom website.

Big Bass Bane

I can’t speak to putting one on a swimming jig, but the 5″
versions, rigged on a Pro Spider Slider jig, and fished
like a slow swimming jig, works well on inland lakes,
off deep weed lines. If I fish stained water, like the
river, I would probably opt for a Sweet Beaver, with the
tail split, on a swimming jig, before I would rig a
big reaper. I hand pour some white pearl Beaver clones,
for the express purpose of swimming on jigs, in dirty
water.

Big Bass Bane

What do you mean there are no fish in Target? By late
summer, the place is crawling with hawg green bass

Oh was that a secret?

I saw a guy run the closing dam, getting in there, with
a jack plate up high. I wouldn’t make that run, but
he did. He also layed that big boat down on a sand bar,
coming out of a back pocket, and we got to watch him
abuse his 225, for about an hour, throwing roosters of
mud and sand, moving it an inch or two at a time, getting
off said sand bar. It was pretty entertaining, while
we were “not” catching fish in Target Lake.

Big Bass Bane

I fished with Riverfan a few years back, and I stayed
neck and neck with his “Secret” Rogue, with my LC Pointer.
He warned me that I would donate my $15 jeckbait to a
toothy critter, and it took almost the whole day for that
prediction to come true. Are LC baits worth the money?
I guess if you think you catch more fish, with them, it
does. Somedays I believe they get bit the most, and other
days, something else does, and that something else usually
has a smaller price tag. As for loosing eyes, and
maring the finish, if one is slapping the bait on the
water, to clear it of debris, my expectations would be
at the very least, the finish would be scared. I would
be more concerned about effecting the action, with that
kind of treatment. I don’t slap baits on the water,
whether it is $3 bargain bin Bandit, or a $15 LC, for a
variety of reasons. I guess the only benefit I can see
to that practice, is some feel the splash “Calls” fish.
I am skeptical.

Good Luck with the Lucky Craft complaint. I will be waiting
to hear their response.

Big Bass Bane

I have spent more than a few hours driving a JD 440, and
have ripped out a few old wire fence lines…Your Dad is
getting a deal, if the job gets done right When
my son’s work off the money they owe me, I have to stay
on them, to get the work done well, and to get the tools
cleaned up and put away. You were probably raised better
than my two sons It sounds like you have struck
a good deal. Enjoy the new gear.

Big Bass Bane

I use to be a walleye guy, then I moved south, and I was
a bass guy, and then I moved back north, and I was a walleye
guy, and then I got bored, and turned back into a bass guy.

I never noticed that one or the other types of fishers,
is more secretive than the other. They both lie
Seriously, if I was forced to choose the most secretive,
by my experience, it is wallaye guys…At least it was
that way over on the Winnebago system. I agree that
one is more likely to get good information, from both types,
face to face, or PM to PM, or e-mail to e-mail, than to
expect to get it posted on a public forum. Fish do get
conditioned, so there is a price to be paid for giving
out too much info on techniques, and places. I am a lot
freer with technique info than I am with places info.

I think the best source of info, is to go fishing with
as many experienced fishers, that you can, and then get
one’s butt on the water, and PRACTICE, PRACTICE, and
PRACTICE some more.

Big Bass Bane

I hope they left the “Smallie Beavers” on the pegs
About the only one that might find that name offensive,
is a male Beaver

So now I suppose PETA is going to start screaming
about the “Ugly Otter”, and how that makes Otters
“feel” depressed.

I have something for all of those overly sensitive types

If Gander caves to this, I’ll take my business to someplace
that has a backbone. Incidentally, I already have a good
supply of “SWEET BEAVERS”, of the soft plastic type…Don’t
waste your money on the California #420 color.

Big Bass Bane

TheoNugget,

I prefer braid, over fluor, for two reasons. First, the line
diameter is smaller, so the crankbait can dig deeper,
due to less drag on the line. Second, braids have less
stretch than fluor, expecially after fluor starts to absorb
water. I really like fluor for jigs, and plastics, but for
crankbaits, I much prefer braids. Like I said in the previous
post, this topic is very subjective, so test out these choices,
and learn what works best for you.

Big Bass Bane

P.S. To the Falcon Rods, versus the “God” like St. Croix
rods , I have spent some time fishing in Texas,
where Falcon rods are very popular. Good rods, but
to my fingers, St. Croix Avids kick their butt. I do have
one AllStar, that is a non collapsing 7’6″ MH rod, that I
use for pitching into veggie beds, that is an awesome
rod for that purpose. Like I said, one has to try all the
different offerings in fishing tackle, to find the stuff that
fits your preferences best. Falcon rods are hard to find,
to do comparissions, this far north.

I am a St. Croix guy, too. But I took a bit different tact. I
have a 7′ ML action Premier, which is a slower action
rod, than the Avid series. And it is about half the price.
I tried the lower gear ratio reel, in a Curado 201B5, but my
arms got tired, cranking fast once the crankbait got out of the
sweet spot, and I wanted to get it in to re-cast. So I went back
to the 6.2:1 Curado 201B, and just cranked slower when
the bait was in the sweet spot. I have the reel spooled with
15 lb Moss Green Power Pro, for when that sneakly little
bass swallows the crankbait, at the far end of the cast, so
I can stick it. The soft rod absorbs the shock of runs at the
boat. Once I switched to this combo, my crankbait
fishing got more bites(got deeper with small diameter
line), stuck more(low stretch line), and lost less(soft
action rod).

Crankbait rods/rigs are very subjective. I tried a few
friend’s fiberglass rods, and I felt like I was fishing with
a heavy noodle. And I could not feel the fish nipping, and
bumping the bait, which tells one that the offering is
not quite right. I also had a friend that had a faster
rod, set up with stretchy line, and I felt like I was fishing
with a rubber band, and I dropped many of the fish I
felt I should have hooked up on. So, I finally ended up
with this combo. My suggestion it to try to find a few
different friends with “crankbait” rods, and start to learn
what your crankbait rod should be.

Big Bass Bane

I fish both lakes, and rivers(Chippewa and Mississippi), and
there are a lot more similarities, than differences, once
one digs below the surface. Current focuses forage, and
fish. Add cover, and structure, and things really are not
that different. Lakes have current, caused by wind, or
inlet, and outlet, streams, and the fish can feel it.
We fishers can’t really see it, but the wind, and a good
bottom map, help me see the eddies, and current breaks,
in lakes. The problem is as the wind direction changes,
so do the eddies, and current breaks. So studying
lake currents can be a real challenge, but can often
pay huge dividends. So many times I see guys running
to less windy spots on the lake. BAD PLAN. I can’t count
the number of hog smallies that I have set the hook on,
while pitching in 3′ waves. I run to where the current
focuses forage, and ultimately fish, whether it be the
river, or a lake, or a flowage. A rocky reef on a lake,
that comes within two feet of the surface, is just about
the same as a closing/wing dam, on the Big Muddy, when
the wind blows into it. About the only thing I consider
very different about lakes versus river, and flowages, is
rapidly rising, or falling, water. Learning what that does to
river fish, will be mostly useless on lakes. It can be handy
on flowages. So the short answer, IMHO, is rivers, and
lakes, don’t fish that differently, as long as you always
think about what the “current” is doing to the forage,
and ultimately, to the bass.

Big Bass Bane

Heck, using Chompers in my boat has caused friction
with my partner when he was down wind.

As for wondering how I stand the smell putting Chompers
in PLano boxes, I use the “sealed” versions for the stuff
that smells like a dead Italian

Big Bass Bane

I don’t mind talking about technique, and even giving
general information about cover and structure, fish are
using during the seasonal periods. I don’t often talk about
presentation specifics like lure type, and color. I firmly
believe fish are easily conditioned to bait types, and
colors. There is much scientific, and empherical, data
to support this belief. So I don’t say things like I am
catching good fish on deep weed lines, with 5″ watermelon
red flake Senkos, deadsticked. I might say something
like I am fishing sticks on weed lines, slow. I don’t want the
fish to be seeing my specific presentation, so I just don’t
talk about those details. Even when I am on fish, I don’t
work the same combinations through the fish, more than
a time or two. I make sublte changes like a different
color, a different size, or a different weight, to overcome
lure conditioning. So you won’t hear me saying, I am
taking good smallies off closing dams, with a 100 series
Bandit, in yellow brown back, cranking it with the current.
What you might hear from me, I am taking some decent
brown fish off wingdams, with shallow crankbaits. As one can
see, this is really not that useful of information, when it
is sanitized like this. I expect other fishermen do the
same, so I have learned to just not ask.

I do appreciate those that are looking for good info on these
these types of forums, and occasionally there is good info
to be had, but I have learned mountains of good info, from
time on the water, either with my own experiments, or
with quality fishermen. Jeremy, in two short fishing
trips, taught me more about river fishing, that I could
have ever learned reading forums. I did learn a ton on
my own, fishing 5 different trips, in preperation for the
2000 Wis BASS Fed. state tournament on Pools 7-9, but
in all of those 5 trips, I only probably learn about half
as much as I learned fishing with JC, in two trips. So,
my advice about learning is, Young Man get your butt
on the water, and start fishing. If you can talk an experience
fisher into fishing with you, you can expect to significantly
shorten your learning curve. Nothing cements fishing
knowledge like a 4 lb bass going airborne.

Big Bass Bane

I put everything, including Berkley, and Chompers, in
Plano 3600 and 3700 storage boxes. I do keep the bags
of “extras” in my tackle storage area, in my shop, in big flat
Rubbermaid storage containers. I think the containers are for
under bed storage. When I hit the road, for a tournament,
I just load these big Storage containers, in the truck,
along with supplies to make jigs, spinnerbaits, and
buzzbaits, just in case my boat supply takes a hit, during
pre-fishing, or tournament fishing. After every fishing
trip, I can just pull out the couple 3600/3700s I was
pulling plastics from, walk them up to my tackle storage
area, reload the Plano boxes, and return them to my
soft tackle bags. Then I mark down what I am running
low on, in my tackle bench stock, and when I get a decent
amount to order, I usually head out on the web, and start
ordering replacements. I do watch for “on sale” stuff,
and local tackle outlets, and buy up any stock I can
find below the usual market price. This system is
kind of like a business supply chain

I may have taken organization a bit too far, but I hate
searching for tackle when I am fishing, or doing my
pre-tournament tackle selecting. I want to be able
to reach for something, find it, and never miss a lick on
the trolling motor, or with the fishin’ stick. As for
keeping plastics in their original bags, about the only
one I do that for, is Berkley Gulp. I bought a few bags
of that to try a year or so ago, and they are still sitting in
a side pocket of one of my tackle bags. I have caught
fish on them, but that dried up turd that ends up on my
hook, when I forget to remove them, keeps me from
fishing this stuff much.

Big Bass Bane

I think from Wissota, I would say KVD is steady in
tough conditions, and Mike Ike can pile them into
the livewell when he gets on a roll, in tough conditions.
So I would have to go with a coin toss between KVD,
and Mike Ike. If Mike gets into a zone, and builds up
a good weight, and Steady KVD can’t catch him,
then Mike Ike wins. If KVD doesn’t fall off the pace,
his consistency will carry him through.

Big Bass Bane