NE Wisconsin multi-species Part Two – Bass

The post spawn smallie bite on North East Wisconsin Lakes has definitely began. Success will come easily to those that invest the time to do some searching and narrow your water column to the most productive spots.

Over the last week, I invested time on a number of lakes including stained and clear water. The spawn has nearly completed on the largest clear water lakes, and the stained water lakes are in full swing of early summer patterns.

With the arm twisting from fellow IDO’r Mark Benson, I took on a couple new bodies of water that I had given consideration to in the past, but over looked. Mark and a few other contacts had all indicated the smallies have very recently left their beds, and moved on to summer patterns.

With limited time and the threat of storms everyday, I needed to invest my time very wisely. My preperation for each lake was actually quite simple to narrow the amount of water I needed to cover. Before heading out, I spent some time sitting in my boat studying the lake chip in my H/Bird 1197. Smallies spawning habits will consistantly put them on rocky flats with a mixed gravel/sand/rock with quick access to deep water. After locating what I felt was a reasonable amount of areas to target, it was time to run and gun.

Knowing the fish have just left their beds, my focus was on spots that offered “ambush” feeding areas in 6′ to 30′ FOW. To cover this range, I had the following gear rigged up:
* Quantum PT Superlite 7′ Spinning rods and 8# Cajun red cast rigged for drop shot.
* Quantum PT Superlite 7′ Casting rods and 10# Cajun Red and Clear Cast for cranks and football jigs
* Rattle traps, Lee Sisson cedar, and X-Raps were my best producing cranks.
*B-Fish-N Gold cracker paddle tails
* Culprit/RipTide Ultimate minnows, Mullets, and Tassel Tails
* Chompers skirted grubs

Able to join me was an acquaintance’s daughter, Bethany, from Colorado (who never bass fished before). Not only did she get a crash course in bass fishing….she got a work out!

For each of our spots, we focused on dissecting the the water column from shallow to deep. We started with cranks fan casted across the tops of the points, then the sides, and finally plastics from deep to shallow.

An early observation on all the lakes we hit, was a count of the beds we saw on these points/flats. I discovered this related to the quantity of fish we caught on each point. If we only saw 3 or 4 large beds from mature fish, we usually only caught 2 or 3 mature bass. Areas that had a more concentration of beds, had better concentrations of bass.

Throughout the week, the locations were very consistent. As the weather changed so dramatically from day-to-day and in some cases, hour-to-hour – the fish would move up and down vertically in the water column.

In summary, if your heading up to the north woods for the long needed get-away, pack a some simple bass gear, spend some time identifying prime locations, and pay attention to details. You’ll have some of the best smallmouth fishing WI has to offer.

To end this part, a special thank you to Bethany. Anyone that can get in a boat with me for 8 to 12 hours at a time while I’m seriously fishing is a real sport. She learned a lot, probably more than I realized. She left me with this great memory that I wanted to share. Most kids catching a bass well over 5# would need to keep it to show Mom & Dad. She asked me how old I thought this fish was, then she asked if I would email her all the pictures. Bethany, KUDOS to you for understanding how delicate these lakes are and the importance of CPR. This massive toad was 5#10oz on the scale and a fish worthy of going on her wall. Instead, a replica is being considered by her dad! If you look close in the bottom left corner, this pig is just under the surface.