Most of my time this late summer has been spent in the field with my four legged friends. it was time to get back on the water.
This time of year, you will find that a variety of presentations will put a variety of species in the boat. I started off the morning tossing jigs close to deep water. Not a real fast or aggressive bite but some whitebass action to bend the pole. I wanted to cover a few presentations so I switched to trolling cranks. This time of year I like to switch over to lager profile cranks. A few trolling passes yielded more whitbass and a few smaliies plus a couple of pike.
Threeways and bait was my next choice. A few bites and a few missed fish finished out the morning.
At noon I headed for the boat landing to meet up with Sully. He was kind enough to leave his Wissota bite to spend the afternoon on menomin. We decided to start the afternoon off tossing jigs. 1/4 ounce jigs tipped with minnows or crawlers kept us interested in working the area for a few hours. We found all the fish in 9 fow close to drop offs. Walleyes, whites, crappies, all seemed to be holding in the same area. When the jig action slowed, we opted to do some cranking.
The crank bite also was good enough to hold our interest for a few hours. Lots of whitebass, pike,and eyes. trolling bigger cranks in 9 to 11 fow proved to be the best. Reef Runners and #7 glass Raps trolled at 2mph were or best option.
When the sun was getting low in the sky, we decided to go back for some more jigging. The sundown bite didn’t happen for us. Sully popped a few more crappies and we decided to call it a day.
Sully popped the best fish of the day trolling, a 24″ that nailed a Reef Runner.
A variety of species can be taken using a variety of presentations. Get out and enjoy and we will see you on the water. Thanks for the day of fishing Sully.
Nice report Don. Great seeing you back on the water [Jason too]. Bet it felt good being back in the saddle so to speak on water.
Are you back on water to stay or going to be mostly hunting this fall?
Thanks, Bill
Thanks Bill, your right on the money- it felt real good to be back on the water. I hadn’t fished with Sully since last year in Mich. it was great to have him in the boat.
.
I am going to try and split my time between hunting and fishing this fall. Hope to see you down on the river. We will have to get together and jig up them sauger
Thanx,I am just home and debating,Tainter,Menomin or Wissota.I love Fall, slow trolling and listening to the World Champion Green Bay Packers put a whuppin on somebody
I think I’ll compromise and fish Tainter AND Menomin,that way I don’t have to feel guilty about not getting to Wissota.
Thanx for the motivation….I’m hookin up!
Work those 9 to 11ft depths
.
will do and thanx!
DON ,DID YOU FIND MY MARK ON THOSE 24″ WALLEYES??? GREAT REPORT,LOOKS LIKE I SHOULD HAVE STAYED HOME AND FISHED INSTEAD OF HEADING TO PEPIN
Well done guys.
Don, thanks for the hospitality.
It was a treat to spend the day with you!
Sully
Caught her right by your marker
.
I didn’t make it to Tainter,I’m just getting in from Menomin.Jigs and rigging = skunked.
.Then as I was basking in the post game glory….WHAM..thought I had a fish crib…I started with 80′ out,and by the time the run was over there was over 130’out.I got the fish to within 30′ of the boat the line went slack and nothin 
.
Trolling on the other hand was weird.I didn’t get 200′ from the landing and two lines were bobbing away.One had a noen green 5/8 oz walleye diver,the other a blue silver #9 minnow rap.The ugly green one had a 24″ northern tagging along,the rap had a 16″ white bass.I crisscrossed that lake and channel for several hours dragging every crank I own…nothin but weeds and a orange ball of some sort
I went back to all walleye divers,then it happened.Just as Favre and the World Champion Greenbay Packers were putting the finishing touches on the unChargers….wham..30″northern.I returned him and was just letting line out…wham ..the rear rod started convulsing,walleye 14″
I fished till dark and put no other fish in the boat.
Good report Don,
From all the sources I get, Menomin has been a hot bite for all species this summer and fall. With all the walleyes being caught this past summer, I am hoping for a good pitching bite once the water temp. drops below 55.
Jeremy
yep, it drops into the 50’s its time to concentrate on jigging. The temp this weekend peaked at 65. Still plenty warm enough for that trolling bite.
This is the third year where the perch are no shows. Seems that the numbers are on the decline.
What are your thoughts?
Winter pressure taking its toll?
that could be part of it but we used to get some dandy perch in the fall up until a few years ago. Maybe the good walleye population is keeping the numbers down.
I haven’t caught any big perch this year fishing gills, some years we catch some big ones, but never in any numbers. Ice fishing I catch a lot of little guys.
Don,
You should have a better idea on the perch numbers than most since you’d be covering water pulling 3-ways and livebait.
Any idea what the current water temp is?
Jeremy
Had a water temp of 62 Saturday, peaked at 65. Don’t put those cranks up quite yet
.
If weather cooperates, hope to get my little girl out there one last time. With her, trolling is the ticket unless we go after some gills-which by reliable sources have been on a real tear over the past 3 weeks.
Jeremy
Sully did well jigging up crappies, things are looking good!
There is a fella that fishes out of a red kayak,rod holders,electronics the whole shot.He was into perch both Sat and Sunday,he releases em all the largest was 14″
Glad to see you back on the water Don
Thanks Vandy, I will be down following you around soon
.
I’ll bring lunch.
Haven’t forget about you bud, I am heading west this weekend. We will get out soon, its about time to go down and harrass those river guys!
I am shooting for Friday afternoon to harrass some walleyes, hoping Don’s trolling pattern still holds–I may have to harrass some gillers too. Come on Friday!!!!!!
Jeremy
UH-OH