Fishing Report 8-22-14

Greetings,

Water levels vary from system to system, but weed growth is still very heavy, Water temps are in the low to mid 70's.

Panfish have slowed down over the last two weeks. Crappie and bluegill continue to bite along weedlines or suspended out over deep water, as well as in mid-depth weeds, but keepers have been hard to come by unless you're working deeper fish. Plastics tipped with live bait, tail hooked minnows and leafworms fished vertically or with slip bobbers will produce. Evenings have been better, as is typical for this time of year. (School Section, Lower Geneessee, Lower Nashotah, Forest and Golden)

Largemouth continue to run late summer patterns. Fish are feeding in short spurts throughout the day. On the hot sunny days, look for them around docks or slop, or out deep in 12-15 FOW. On the cooler cloudy days, look for active fish in sand/rock or rock/weed transitions in 4-8 feet. Topwater bite will be good, especially early in the morning. (Silver, Moose, Ashippun, Okauchee, Nagawicka, Garvin)

Smallmouth fishing has been spotty. If you can find some active fish, you can do well, but making that connection can be a tough nut to crack, especially on the hot days with little or no wind (like today). Look for fish around the edges of the shallow structure like rock bars or sand/rock transition areas. The fish will be deeper than you think they should be in most cases. Jigworms, grubs, minnowbaits and small white crankbaits can be dynamite, but don't skip the tubes and lipless crankbaits. On tough days, live bait rigging, especially with large shiners can save a day on the water.(Oconomowoc, Lac Labelle, Nagawicka, Pine and North)

Pike fishing has been slow, but steady. Lots of undersized fish are being caught in the shallow and mid-depth areas. I'd consider moving out deeper and using live bait on a slip sinker rig, trying to connect with active fish in 18-22 or 22-25 feet of water. (Okauchee, Nagawicka, North, School Section, Pretty and Kessus)

Walleye fishing has been entirely inconsistent lately. People still fishing at night are reporting some success off the deeper sand flat areas, but a few decent fish are being caught out of the shallow weeds very early in the morning using rapalas or similar minnow baits.  (North, Nagawicka, Pine and Oconomowoc.)

Musky are getting more active, but anglers are still reporting lots of lazy follows. Gliders, bulldogs and cow-girls have all produced limited action in the past week, but most of the fish are mid-30's to low 40 inch fish. Topwater is working just before the sun gets up and just after it goes down. As the water begins to cool, the action will pick up considerably. (Pewaukee, North, Okauchee, Lac Labelle Oconomowoc)

Good Luck,
CT

Paul Smith's Column (8-17-14)

Paul Smith has a column in today's Journal-Sentinel on the DNR's new panfish research and proposal. There's some significant changes within the plan, especially if you are someone who has been targeting keeper sized panfish for a fair amount of time.

Panfish limits were fairly open when I was a kid. 50 Fish per guy-per day with just about any panfish or perch species counting towards the 50. I can remember going out with groups of guys and filling coolers of fish at night when I was a kid...(I especially remember having to clean those fish in the middle of the night)

The DNR has resources relevant to this discussion here and with research data here. It's probably worth your time to take a look if you regularly target panfish for the table.

The local informational meeting will be held from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m on Thursday, September 4, at the Waukesha DNR Service Center, Room 151, 141 NW Barstow Road.

Update from the water 8-17-14

Ended up being a good week for my first week back in action.

Fished Okauchee on Wednesday.

Hit the water about 9am. Tried to fish some isolated rock piles looking for bass foraging for craws...caught one decent fish and a pair of snakes for the trouble.
Switched gears a bit, started fishing tight and deep in cover and went on a couple hour shooting spree...had a dozen+ mixed LM and SM..some on both sides of legal, but with three real quality fish mixed in. Also broke off a small musky.
Caught a couple more closer to the launch on the way back. Not rock-em/sock-em robots or anything, but a decent midday run.





Fished Oconomowoc Thursday for Musky.

Struck out, but had five follows between 1-8pm. Fish were using transition areas with bait fish nearby. Pulled a nice one up to the boat mid-afternoon on a mini-dawg, but just couldn't get the fish to commit on the figure eight. Looked to be a mid-40's in about 8 FOW.

Saw a couple of smaller fish after that, but about 4:45 we saw some gar feeding near where we were fishing. A big fish followed in a glider we worked through the area where the gar were busting minnows on the surface. Fish was high 40's, had it right up to the boat, but again a fairly lazy follow.

Fished Oconomowoc Friday for Bass.

Worked hard using one of my proven patterns. Started with a topwater approach and caught a couple of nice fish right away, but then made an adjustment and stayed on a quality bite for the rest of the morning. Slow and steady wins the race. Ended with a nice batch of LM + SM with multiple fish over 20."

Fished Lake X Saturday.

Lake X is my secret project lake right now. As usual, Lake X is a special underfished place, with just solid fishing for numbers and size of multiple gamefish. Yesterday was no different...30+ bass (14-19") and six pike (24-34") in just over three hours of fishing.

Good Luck Out There.

Cheers,
CT