The Last 3 weeks have been fantastic for big Browns in fact this has been my best season for giant browns. In the last 2weeks we’ve boated 11 browns over 17 lbs!
Well finally got a day off to catch up on some fishing reports now that we have a blizzard! The bite has been very good for the past 2 weeks with some very big browns being caught by my clients. Cranks skein, spawn, minnows, and gulp have been working the best for us. Trolling has also been good along with casting and float fishing.
Also ice is on it’s way and I’ll be ice fishing for the next but I’ll be ut in the boat for a while yet here in Milwaukee!
Eric Haataja
Here’s a few pics of some huge browns from the past 2 weeks. Time to get ready to catch them through the ice now!
Those are some huge trout, great job!
So what kind of gear is needed to fish these beasts through the ice…Rods, lb test, and tackle?
I’m interested too. Depth? Current or Harbor?
Eric,
WOW, Great looking Trout…
Jack
Wow, those are some awesome fish Eric!
As far as tackle pretty much your standard walleye tackle is what I use. Tip ups, tip downs, slammers, jigging spoons, swimming jigs,plastics, minnows, skein, spawn, etc… 8-10 lb test in jigging poles with a good drag system for fighting these fish. thanks for the positive feedback!
Uhhh, we need an IDO TV show dedicated to both the open water and ice fishing out there!!!
Where is the suggestion box around here?? Thanks for sharing once again.
The open water show focusing on those monster kings was filmed back in September and will air in march 2009. Thanks for having us out, Eric. That trips was a complete blast!
We’re scheduled with Eric to film these browns through the ice in January so you’ll be seeing more of exactly what you’re looking for with these BIG fish!
James, are you making DVDs of your TV shows for us to buy or are they just available to view from your website? How about past seasons? I have your first 1 or 2 ever made..including your autograph on a special one and want some more…please.
Thanks
Howdy Frank!
I’m going to offer two sets of DVDs this season. One for the ice shows (6 original episodes on 2 DVDs) and one for the open water shows (8 original episodes on 2 DVDs). The ice show DVDs will be made available late January with the open water materials available some time late March.
Awesome James, thanks!! I’ll keep my eye on IDO for word from you when they are available.
Eric,
Awesome fish and congrats on the In-Fisherman feature. Quality draws quality!
john
Eric:
I had a friend down there during the Thanksgiving week. He and a friend wanted to troll the whole time, so that’s what they did. They had some small and large successes. They did all right down at Oak Creek, but had there best success around the Milwaukee harbor. They actually did not get the browns to bite very well at all, but they went just outside the wall and got into a great bite one day on the lakers and some nice sized ones to boot. He was disappointed to find out they were not available to keep, but it was his best fishing so he stuck with it and caught them up to and some above the 20# range. I am hoping to get back down with him winter more than once and will pm you either here or on your site for ice conditions for launching a boat!!! As always great fish and pictures, that one brown’s kype is spectacular!!!
Mark
HOLY CRAP!!!!
Awesome Report Eric
Those are some absolute TANKS
That’s the tricky thing about the browns sometimes, at that particular time the fish were really congregated and that week was the best week I had this past fall for numbers of big fish. The week during thanksgiving and after were spectacular. How far out did he go for the lake trout?
Was out today and fishing was awesome! clients landed 40 -50 fish on spinning tackle casting jigs lots of fun for them. Gotta go do some work, change some line on spools, and get ready for tomorrow.
Good Fsihing!
Eric Haataja
Eric you have a real special thing going down there…Awesome job!
Out today in the boat and clients landed 30-40 browns and a few steelhead. All on spinning tackle which makes it a blast! using gulp and jigs mostly. Brrrr it was cold out there today with a high of 16 degree’s… I did not bother taking pics. Most of our fish were 4-12 lbs with one being close to 15 lbs. All released
Looking forward to this warm up this weekend!
Awesome fish
Eric:
From what I understand, he was just outside the wall trolling along it. He was fishing out of a black & silver 20′ Lund and there were two guys in the boat. He also must have been fairly close as he was losing spoons on occasion.
He said looking at your pics of the iron wall that he went by there and lots of fish were on the graph, but none would bite.
In fact he asked yesterday if I wanted to go tomorrow, but I think with the storm coming in and I have one more day of work that needs to get done before the weekend ends.
Mark
Thanks I love fishing for the lakers as well but the season is closed now, but you’ll get browns mixed in with them. Best of luck if you make it out.
I was out yesterday and the bite was again solid we landed about25 fish. Browns, steelhead, a pike and a few nice walleyes. If I can get them on the stand up tackle spinning or bait caster that’s the way i prefer to chase them. These fish are a blast to catch but in my opinion the Browns taste horrible, very fishy fishy taste to them. ASteelies out of the harbor are alright. The fish you get in the summer or early fall taste much better, again that’s just my opinion when it comes to eating these fish!
One last thing if you fish spawn and want to release your fish try using a drop shot rig with spawn, very few fish swallow the spawn. Or gulp with a jig.
Got to see another sureal moment today watching a client hook and catch a giant today jigging gulp! a 25lber! Just blows me away how unreel it is down here for these giants! I will say this….Mannn it was cold…but the fish bit like crazy! Steelies, browns….lots of fun! A few pics and time to hit the rack! 5 A.M come quickly!
Simply unbelievable. Man, you are living the dream!
Wow, I wish I would of done some of that when I lived down there, might be time to road trip and spend a few days by ma’s house
Those are some awesome fish, and it was nice to see you in In-Fisherman. Looking forward to March and the IDO show…. 
Awesome fish. Man that would be a blast. I’ld love to do it some time. Is this the best time for them all year?
Typically I start fishing for them from November through the 1st week of April or late March. Now it’s both open water and ice fishing depending on what the clients want to do. I spend about 30-40 days each spring up in Green Bay guiding for Big walleyes up there in April. You could fish them through April into May but they start to spread out a bit more.
This cold snap is locking up a bunch of the harbor now so I may be icefishing???? We’ll see the ice here in the harbor comes and goes quickly…
Here’s a few more pics from this past week.
You mentioned fishing for trout through the ice. Are you getting this same quality of fish through the ice?
I cannot imagine pulling a 15LBS plus brown through a hole in the ice.
Lenny:
He does catch those fish through the ice…
Eric:
If I didn’t have family in town, I would probably be down there this weekend. That buddy that was down there is going to be down there this weekend though early next week. How’s the landing where you put in??? I know Mike and Rich from Racine are going to working on the Bender landing this weekend also.
Mark
I’m looking forward to seeing the show. James great work on your shows. I have only seen a couple of them. are you doing many ice shows in minn. this winter?