I have seen what mossboss and riverfan are talking about. I was fishing a club T on pool 10 a few years ago right in the middle of a strong mayfly hatch. My partner and I caught 50 or so largemouth in about 5 hours. This was only my partners 3rd tournament and did not have the most accurate casting ability. We were fishing the upstream side of a very small island (10 yards across) and an outside bend of a narrow running slough both with overhanging bushes. We pulled up to the island and were fishing firetiger crankbaits. My partners first cast went into the bushes on the Island. Getting his bait back dropped a ton of mayflies into the water and the gills went nuts followed by the bass attacking the gills. I caught 2 keepers and a few shorts and my partner caught a bunch of shorts all on cranks right at the shore line. This took us about an hour to fish it out. We moved up to the outside bend (only a few hundred yard up from the island) and I caught one short and my partner again ended up in the bushes. Again a ton of mayflies ended up dropping in the water and with the clear water I could see the gills hanging around the shoreline sucking down the mayflies. every once in a while there was a bass slashing up and grabbing a gill. I finished out my limit in about 10 casts and my partner caught a bunch of shorts. I don’t know what the deal was, but all he could catch was shorts. I was done fishing at about 8:00am and then I just played guide for the rest of the day. I tied on a slop frog and would occasionally cast into the bushes to shake down some mayflies and get the feeding frenzy started again. My partner ended up with about 30 shorts for the day and no keepers. I had my limit early and only caught about a dozen shorts. After I had my limit I offered my rod and bait and he did fish it for a few hours with no keepers to show. Anyways, I had good luck getting the mayflies to drop in the water, which brought up the gills, and then the bass. Good luck and tight lines. Jeff Wolfe

Blue Fleck,

Thanks for clearing that up, I thought that was the case. Just hoped there might be a way around it since people talk about culling during tournaments. But, it doesn’t look like it. Good luck and tight lines.

Jeff Wolfe

Reel Guy,

So you’re saying that the ‘no culling’ rule in not a law anymore? I’m thought it was still in the WI DNR fishing reg’s book. I could be mistaken and would love for this to be the case. I can understand the rule, but not for tournament fishing, because all of your fished are returned, alive.

Jeff Wolfe

I am not posting this to ruffle any feathers, but…. Doesn’t WI have a ‘no culling’ law? I know that our club is told, by our tournament director, that there is no culling on WI waters. Is this true, or is there a way around the ‘no culling’ law on the Mississippi? Maybe by fishing with an Iowa license? I would love to know. Thanks. Jeff Wolfe

I am a huge fan of the P-Line Flouroclear. I started off trying Berkley Vanish on southern Lake Michigan for smallies and hated the stuff. Broke off a ton of fish on the hookset. 2 years ago, I found the Flouroclear and what a difference over the Vanish. Great strength, abrasion resistance, and almost invisible underwater. I have 15, 12 or 20 on most of my baitcasting gear and 10 or 12 on my spinning rods. I found that with the underwater clarity I can go up in lb. test without worrying about the fish seeing the line. I have no rods with mono other that the Flouroclear. The only rods that don’t have it are my heavy duty rigs with Berkley Fireline. Try it and you will be suprised with the results. The only drawback is that the line is almost as invisible above the water as it is below. Watching your line is a little tougher than with other lines. Good luck and tight lines. Jeff Wolfe