I used to use it a lot. I would fillet the side of a chub and cut the fillet in long thin strips. I would then hook it on the end. Use very small split shot for the best results.

When the fish are active I like to fish Rembrandts. During tough bites I like the Northland Tapeworm plastics.

Len, I’m with you. Looking at some of the other proposals it looks like fishing in Wisconsin could become very complicated if many of the proposals are enacted. Looks like a good way to discourage people from fishing. What a shame.

Spent the last two nights fishing by the light of my lantern again.

This last week I’ve noticed that the shallow bay that we have been catching lots of crappies and bluegills in has suddenly turned into a tough bite, especially for bluegills. We (my son and I) decided the first night we would fish an adjacent current area for bluegills first and the entrance to the backwater with minnows for crappies later. We had no luck in the bluegill area and set up for crappies at the entrance of the bay. We also whiffed on the crappies although I did manage to catch three gills while my son was hole hopping. WHile leaving the ice I checked out the bluegill spot one more time and was able to ice a nice one.

I think that when you fish at night being quiet is very important. The four fish I caught were when we were seperated and the noise was minimal. I couldn’t help but think we could have caught more fish if we would have been more quiet.

The second night I fished alone and decided to focus on the current area for bluegills. THe water is a little deeper (5 foot). I started with a tungsten jig with a scented plastic. I had several bumps but could not hook up. I decided to add a waxworm to the plastic and the fish cooperated immediately. Usually at night the fish normally bite really light, not this night. In the two an a half years I have been fishing at night this was probaly the most aggressive they have ever been. After two hours of fishing (darn batteries went dead in my lantern) went home with nine for the pan and released the rest.

What I learned! 1.Staying quiet seems to be a must. THe second night I kept noice to a minimum. 2. THe scented plastic/waxworm combo really seemed to trip their trigger. I did try a plain jig with waxworm at one time with limited success. 3. There was a time when I didn’t get a bite with the waxworm/plastic combo for awhile. I checked the waxworm and realized I put a brown dead one on in the night. Seems like fresh wax worms are also important also.

One of these nights I’m going to really try to figure out the crappies. I got an idea where they might be.

Tom, thanks for the indepth reply. I am only fishing 3 to 4 feet of water. I fish the entire water column but most of my fish have come on the bottom. I never considered that maybe I was to early for the crappies but your post has me thinking that I should try starting at Midnight a couple of times and see what happens. Thanks for the input.

TJ, check out Gallus slough on Lake Wisconsin. My son used to fish it when he lived up there and did pretty good on the gills. A short drive from Baraboo and resembles the shallow water fishing from the backwaters of the Mississippi that you used to fish.

I have to agree with Len. My biggest trout have always come in places with natural cover. My experiences with the rip rapped streams seems to be a great place for little trout, not so much for the bigger trout.

I think there is a place for some stream rehabilitation but they always seem to overdo it. And no, I don’t have a degree in fisheries, just 40 years of experience in fishing SW WI trout streams.

Len, I agree with you. Wisconsin trout regulations have catered to the C&R crowd to the detriment of the other trout fishers. There’s way to many trout fisherman out there that act like it’s a crime to keep a fish.

Sometimes I wonder who hurts the resource more. THe guy who catches three fish and takes them home. Or the guy who hooks and lands thirty or more trout and releases them thinking that every one of them is going to live. I personally don’t have a problem with either way of fishing. I just don’t like it when people percieve there is only one way to fish trout.

Good luck with the meetings.

Nice fish!!

Dave, I had the same idea. On Saturday the bite was pretty tough. We tried for crappies and gills with very little success. I hope you tried again Sunday. The fish were very cooperative today.

I like to use both size 10 and 12. Mostly pink and red. I’ve always had better luck fishing them with the lightest line possible. A trick that alot of the “old timers” use is to tie your line directly to the purist without the snap hook. Then slide the knot to the side of the eyelet so the purist hangs more horizontal. Imparts a different action that sometimes triggers bites when traditional methods don’t work.

I think the drag is way overrated on these poles. They are primarily designed for panfish in shallow water. The spools on these rods don’t hold a massive amount of line so letting a fish take out alot of line really isn’t an option. The other problem is the spool is so small that reeling a fish in is also problematic. THe best drag on these poles is an educated right arm (or left arm for us lefties), alot of nice bass have been caught on these rods knowing when to give ground during their runs. First and last ice are a bit of a challenge though when the fish have more hops.

I don’t think that the bags themselves are as bad a problem as the process whereby you wait for ten minutes to weigh your fish. All tournaments should strive to reduce mortality any way they can. You could provide weigh bags that you have to use to limit the people in line or provide oxygenated tanks for the people in line or any other ideas to help prevent mortality.

If clubs don’t even try to limit mortality they really should do what the author implies and just make it a catch and kill tournament so the resource isn’t wasted.

How bout the blue.

Len, a few years back I had an ongoing discussion with the fish manager in our area about the stocking of the “wild strain” trout. Supposedly these trout normally don’t get much bigger than 17 or 18 inches. As someone who used to fish for size and not numbers I was very disapointed in the change.

There still are some 20″ plus fish being caught but most of them from what I’ve seen and heard have been brood rainbows. There are still a few bigger browns too but I don’t know if there released broods or some of the old strain that have survived or reproduced.

The most disapointing result I’ve seen is the low numbers of the 15 to 19 inch fish that used to be so prevalent in our streams. Maybe I just haven’t figured out how to catch the bigger “wild” trout.

Dutchboy, two years ago I visited a web site where you can get proposals to handle your credit card transactions. ( I can’t remember the site but a google search will probaly reveal it and several others). After entering your information within two weeks you should have all kinds of proposals to look at. Look carefully, there are all kinds of hidden fees that pop up when you read the fine print. We were able to take our cost of using credit cards from just over 3% down to a little over 2% after going through the process. I would be especially careful about the outfits who come to your store with their presentation, in our town alot of business’s switched to a different company after their presentation and literally got hosed. THey had to rent their machine at a very substantial cost.

Many of the proposals you will receive will include free use of a machine, especially if your going to be doing high volumns.

Starting to sound like I shouldn’t have thrown them away after this weekends fishing. Agreed on the chigger craws, they’ve been very good for me.

Well said Len. Could you provide an email link so others could contact her as well. I had a discussion with our area biologist a few years back and his take was the days of nightcrawlers are long gone. It really does seem that trout management is being directed to appease a certain group. Thanks

Herb, did you happen to notice if the bolts that hold the blades on the auger extend well past the blades. Some of the hand augers have had this issue. Also, check to see where the blades were made at, some of the blades that were made in China were quite frankly “junk”. SM is pretty good at standing behind the blades and will get some made in Sweden blades coming back at ya.

Congrats on the good finish. I fished the Grant County 4-man and had a terrible day. Had a good week leading up to it but with the rising water and the north wind the bite went south. My flat bottom took a beating and my nerves weren’t much better. Alot of people struggled Sunday but there were a few who did real good.

Big congrats to Boods, Bucketmouth, and Dan Tessman for their first place finish. Although their secret weapon was that ringer they had for their 4th partner.

I also don’t have a problem with tip-up fisherman keeping their limit, I just hope that they eat them and not waste them.

In regards to tournaments I just think more emphasis should be placed on fish survival so these “bass kills” are a rare occurance. Fish that end up as “floaters” are wasted which I believe is worse than tipup fisherman keeping fish.

I think Cade hit it right on the head. I believe most tourney fisherman do a great job in keeping their fish in good shape. It seems once they get to the weigh-ins everything seems to go south. Eliminating long lines at the weigh scale would probaly solve alot of the problems. Having a limit of fish sit in a bag for 10 minutes while waiting for your chance to weigh can’t be a good thing.

I disagree with release boats though, if your weighin is on the channel or on a running slough I think they ought to be released immediately after weighing into that slough. I don’t like the idea of putting all fish into a release boat. Seems like a good way to spread LMBV, and also subjects the fish to more stress. I think Cade is right about a release boat being needed in backwater tournaments though unless they know that there is plenty of Oxygen in that backwater.

One or two days after the BFL.

yes there was, I’m not sure exactly what caused it though.

I might be fishing it. My son is going to be using my boat so I’m looking for a boater partner now. I was kicking around the idea of using my dads little 12 footer just for kicks but I don’t think I could fish 8 hours in that without getting wet!

hey crawdaddy, that sounds like an awesome bass rig!! I have a 16 foot flat with a 25hp on it. I put a deck on front and love fishing out of it. I would recommend a flat though that has a wide front end. It might not handle the waves quite as well but it will be alot more stable while fishing out of the front.

He might be a little over the top but some of the recommendations are spot on. Playing a fish to exhaustion that your planning to release and then doing a prolonged picture taking session sounds to me like a surefire way to kill a fish.

I put some fireline on a customers spincast reel a few years ago. He reported that it would not cast very far at all. I’ve never tried since then though. I would think that the rougher line would be hard on the pickup pin.

THe fish I’ve been catching have been in super shallow water. Most of the fish have been up in the back of the bays. With the water starting to fall and the rest of the river catching up with the temperature in the back end I also look for the fish to move soon.

I’d say about a 4. So far no real big fish but the numbers for the most part have been there. I do think the fish are harder to pattern this year because of the significant water temperature changes.