Lake Wissota: The Smilemaker!

Lake Wissota’s smallmouth bass are on fire, and they have helped to give the lake a new nickname: the smilemaker!

I had two short trips over the weekend in pursuit of a late-summer mixed bag of walleyes and smallmouth bass. This is the time of year on Lake Wissota when I rarely catch big numbers of both species….rather, we get lots of smallies and a few eyes, or the opposite. This weekend, smallies ruled the roost.

Friday afternoon I was joined by Kevin Merbeth and his kids Morgan (10) and Dylan (6). Kevin and his family are new to the Lake Wissota area, and are starting to piece the Lake Wissota fishing puzzle together. With only a few hours in hand, we ran to a couple of areas in the Chippewa River that have been consistent producers for me over the past several weeks. At our second stop, we finally connected with Dylan’s first walleye ever, a typical Wissota slot fish….way to go buddy! Our recipe was simple: pitch 1/16 oz jigs with crawler halves to mid-river holes and rocks.

Dylan and his big sister Morgan were excellent fisher-kids. They both handled the gear with confidence, and only needed a few gentle reminders to set hooks before reeling in fish. During the course of our short trip, we landed only a few walleyes, but the smallies made up for the lack of eye action. Here’s a picture of Morgan with a typical smallie for the afternoon, 12-13" long and just dark as can be. Our big fish for the trip, shown in the first picture, was a fish that Dylan caught and later released. Check out the smile on that young man’s face! That 17"+ smallie was as long as Dylan is wide! Thanks for fishing with me Kevin, Morgan, and Dylan….I’m looking forward to getting into some more walleye and bass action during our next trip together.

I also fished on Sunday afternoon for a few hours. The trip started as a guide trip, but the steady wind-driven rain conviced my client and I to reschedule for a later date. As I was loading up, I saw my friend Kevin Krumenauer motoring up in his Crestliner (I know, I know….two Kevins in one weekend). Kevin had been out for several hours and had little to show for his efforts. So, I invited Kevin to hop in for a few hours to go chase that mixed bag that was a little elusive on Friday.

On Sunday afternoon, we found the Wissota eyes to be slightly more agreeable. We had 4 or 5 fish in the slot, with the big fish at 17.5, and a good number of eaters as well. However, on this day, just as on Friday, the smallier were on a tear. During low flow times, we enjoyed very good numbers of smaller smallies, but when the Jim Falls dam opened up to let some water through, the bigger kids came out to play. Pitching crawlers or leeches to shoreline current seams was the ticket for us during this time. Here is Kevin holding a 17+" fish that had a recent run-in with something BIG with a LOT of teeth. By Kevin’s estimation, we were both in the high-teens for numbers of fish by the end of a weather-abbreviated afternoon. Thanks for fishing with me Kevin…I’ll see you Tuesday for the last night of the Lake Wissota fishing league.

The recent rains and cloudy weather have cooled surface temps on the Lake and river by nearly 10 degrees. This should help put our smallies and walleyes in an eating mood for longer time periods, rather than restricting feeding windows to low light periods. If you’re looking for a place to get a line stretched, come join us on Lake Wissota, the Smilemaker!