Breezy Opener in Wisconsin

Well I kicked off the Wisconsin opener on Big McKenzie. The morning brought high winds out of the East to South East. I’m guessing in the 20 mph range. This made boat control a challenge on a lake I have never fished before. The water temps were right around 50 degrees. With minimal luck early in the day, we opted to hit a smaller more protected lake in the afternoon. This proved to be a good decision as you can see by the photo of my Uncle and a 13.25" crappie. I shared the day with my Uncle Floyd and my two cousins Scott & Mike!

The lake we opted to hit was Boner Lake on the border of Burnett County. We hid behind points out of the wind, that led into warmer bays. The bays we found were about 56 degrees. This is where we found the monster slab crappies. We also caught our share of medium to small bass. Here is my uncle Floyd with a nice 16 1/4" largie.

What we found is the bass and crappie became more active when the wind died or if you could find a bay out of the strong wind. We caught these fish in 4 to 7 feet of water. They seemed to only bite on a slip bobber presentation. We tried casting spinners and etc, but green jigs with a crappie minnow under the slip bobber seemed to be the only thing they wanted. Maybe perhaps cause of the cold front that has plagued us these last few weeks, has caused these fish to prefer a s.l.o.w.e.r. presentation. About 50% of these fish were taken on a still bobber. The other half were taken on a very slow retrieve. We caught a bunch of these slab crappies. Most of these crappies ranged from 10" to 13.5". With my cousin Scott taking top honors with an absolute mammoth 15" slab. The last pic is Scott and I with a few of the slabs we ended up keeping for the dinner table. I will try to get the photo from Scott of the 15" crappie.

It was good to get back fishing in one of the areas I grew up fishing. The Webb Lake / Danbury area has many great lakes for all species of fish. I suggest getting out onto these lakes and get into the action. Good luck and I hope to see you on the water! Only 4 more days until MN opener.