Spent the morning chasing crappies with Chuck Hulburt and Gary Maki then trying our hand at walleye fishing during the middle of the day before returning to crappies again later in the afternoon. Gary had heard about the great trip Chuck and his wife Billy had fishing crappies with me last fall and both of them were hoping for something similar today.
The weather wasn’t to bad today. Kind of nice to finally get a half way decent day.
Early morning temperatures started out a little chilly and the wind blew fairly hard from the northeast for about and hour before settling down to a very fishable, breezy day.
Surface water temps were running right around 64-65 degrees in most of the places we fished.
Most of our crappie came from water 8′ deep or less today and a few came out of water less than 3′ deep. Minnows were far and away the best bait for us today. About the only thing we caught on the waxworms was some nice bluegills.
The day started out pretty good. The guys put a couple of pretty nice crappies in the boat at the very first spot we stopped at. After the early morning hours had passed though, things got a little tougher. We hit several more spots and caught only a few more crappies along the way. The biggest of the morning ran 14-1/2" long.
Around noon or so, we shifted gears and started trolling night crawlers and large fathead minnows behind bottom bouncers for walleyes. That went pretty slow for the first hour or so also with only a few sheapshead showing up on the fathead lines. Usually the sheepies like the crawlers but they never touched them today.
We finally started to connect with a few walleyes and saugers at the third spot we stopped to check. Most were smaller than 15" but they did catch one that measured up at 17 inches.
At about 3:30pm, we switched back over to crappie fishing and that went slow at first also until we noticed another fisherman skirting the shoreline & casting into some very shallow water. They caught several small bass along the way and one pretty nice crappie. When they decided to leave, we pulled up and moved right up into that very shallow water. The guys set bobbers about 1-1/2′ above the minnow and cast right up into the shallow water. It didn’t take long before Gary’s bobber went down. Several more fish came in from that shallow water including one crappie that measured up at 15-1/4" long which Gary is planning on having mounted.
Nice fish Gary and congratulations on your biggest crappie to date.
Last fall Chuck caught his biggest crappie ever and now this spring his fishing buddy Gary caught his biggest from the same lake! I’m betting these guys are gonna come back and fish here more often in the future.
It was fun to spend the day fishing with the two of you Chuck & Gary! Take care and hopefully, we’ll see you again this year.
Boog
Good GAWD!!!!!
How far did you say that drive was from the Twin Cities????
Chris,
I think it’s about 4 hours.
Better wait until late summer/early fall if your after these big crappies. You can get them in the summer, but it sure is easier to catch them in spring and early fall.
Come on over Chris. I would love to trade a trips with you. Lets work something out!
Boog
Joel, I gotta take you up on that!!!
Man, every time you post those huge specs I get the willies!
Man those are nice! Heck, it is about that long of a drive to Upper Red Lake!
I have a sister that lives in Reedsburg by the Dells, any idea how far from there? I could kill two birds with one stone!
Reedsburg is only about 1/2 hour away. They were in the same conference as Sauk when I was in High School. (man, that was a few years ago already)
It’s and easy drive to the lake from there Tuck!
Hmmmmm….I think I see a plan developing.
My Sis is a teacher in Reedsburg. I have two nephews in school there as well. One graduates this year, so I will be down for a grad party at some point as well!
Look forward to seeing you!
Very nice Joel! I think I get to go fishing Friday!
Last year from early June to the middle of June we caught quite a few of these big crappies mixed in with the walleyes while trolling crankbaits through the stump fields.
Some days we caught more crappies than walleyes.
do you ever run across any bass out there trolling through the stump fields?
Nope! Can’t ever remember catching a bass out there.
great post Joel, I always look forward to reading your report and seeing pics of those lake wis slabs
given the timber loving nature of the LMB, don’t you think its odd at least some of them don’t seek refuge out there in the heat of the summer?
Who knows? There might be some out there.
Remember, I don’t target bass at all. I don’t mind catching them but we’re not going to actually attempt to catch one on purpose.
I’ll leave that up to you bass guys!
Boog
Wow! Me thinks I will spend $50 again on a Wisconsin license after all this year and come on over. Fantastic job on your catch.
Nice Slabs..
Very nice Slabs indeed Joel…they make mine up here look like minnows.
I’ll have to get down that way this fall to take up some of that action. 
Thanks guys. We’re very lucky to have such big, beautiful crappies here in Lake Wisconsin.
I’ll put this out there for IDA Staff members only. I will trade a day of fishing on Lake Wisconsin with any IDA staff that will return the favor.
At best, I can only do two traded trips/year and you will have to declare fairly early or otherwise the best dates will fill up with clients. Right now, I still have some very good fall dates available. (September is usually very good)
Boog