Lake Wisconsin Fishing Report 6/24 and 6/25

Saturday, 6-24-06

Dan Miller shared some of his hard earned Lake Wisconsin walleye, sauger and crappie fishing knowledge with me today. We went out in my boat and spent the day trolling crank baits. He had been tapping into a pretty good crappie and walleye bite and was willing to share his tactics with me.

Dan is not a client, but rather a die-hard walleye fisherman who spends a considerable amount of time fishing in tournaments around the country. He spent time fishing the RCL national walleye trail as a co-angler (now the FLW) but at the present, fishes as a pro on the FLW walleye league trail in Wisconsin.

We’ve been communicating with each other more and more over the past year or two. It started out as a couple of guys hollering back and forth between boats while fishing, then sending some emails, moving up to actually calling one another on the telephone and finally graduating to sharing a boat together on Saturday.

I had shared some walleye fishing information with Dan earlier this year just prior to a local tournament which he was fishing in. That information didn’t really pan out for him. None the less, he was good enough to return the favor, and his crank bait trolling technique worked out quite well.

We went out in my boat and trolled jointed shad raps, rip shads and jointed grappler shads in 10-14′ of water. Big crappies that averaged 11-14" long were the most common catch of the day. We caught about 15 of them but also pulled in two walleyes, (16" and 17-1/4") and one hell of a nice looking sauger. (22-1/2" long) I kept 12 crappies and one perch. All the walleyes and saugers were released.

Surface water temperatures have climbed to 76 degrees in the main lake, but it probably won’t stay there for long with the cooler weather that is suppose to be rolling in over the next couple of days.

I had a great time fishing with you today Dan. You sure are an easy guy to share a boat with! Thank you very much for sharing your fishing wisdom. It is and will be very much appreciated by both me and many of my clients. I definitely owe you one.

Sunday, 6-25-06

The Keefer family joined me for a morning of trolling for crappies, walleyes and saugers. Nick and Jeff fished with me earlier this year and this time they decided to share the fun with Danette.

We had planned on fishing for a full day, but decided to cut it short at 1:00pm due to bad weather. Danette and Nick both saw lightning, which was followed a few seconds later by some loud thunder. We all immediately decided it had been a pretty good day already and the rest of the fish could wait for another time.

We trolled Ripshads, jointed shad raps and grappler shads again today and the fish liked what we were showing them. Danette caught her first ever legal size walleye, sauger and crappie. Plus she released her first ever slot sized fish. A very nice 20" sauger. Nick had a quick release of a nice keeper size walleye right behind the boat but still landed several real nice crappie and Jeff also caught some nice crappie, plus one that measured a shade under 15" long which he decided to have mounted.

In all, they caught four walleyes/saugers and 13 crappies that averaged between 11-14" long. Not a bad morning for the end of June.

All fish came from water between 10-14′ deep. Surface temperatures were a little cooler today, running around 74 degrees.

Jeff and Nick fished with me earlier this year and caught some very nice crappies on that trip. And just like the last time, I enjoyed fishing with this family a great deal.

It’s always refreshing to see a family enjoying themselves and their time together catching fish. At the end of a trip like this, I’m left with the realization that this is exactly why I love being a fishing guide. It allows me to have a major impact on the number of smiles on the face’s of each person in the boat. And at the end of the day, if there was a lot of smiling going on, the feeling I drive home with is pretty hard to beat.

For that I want to thank the Keefer family.

Thank you very much!

Good luck and good fishing. Hope you all have a great 4th of July!

Boog