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More content is on the way. I'm doing some off line technical stuff. Stay tuned. You can keep up with fishing reports at the baitshop blog.

Last week's trips

Update Coming Soon....

Silver Lake

A beautiful Monday on the water. Took Gary and his son Hale out on Silver for a few hours midday.

Caught a couple legal bass plus a bunch of shorts out of shallow water. It seems that there is some bigger fish in the mix this year.

Caught a batch of nice gills out of about 15 feet of water along the west shore.

Wouldn't be a bad idea to hit them at night or first thing in the morning rather than the heat of the day.

CT

IMTT

Saturday was tough bite. Only two fish were caught.


Congrats to Dennis on a nice 48" fish to take the tournament.


CT

IMTT

Fishing the IMTT tommorrow. Out for practice today, caught a nice northern and saw one musky right where I was told he would be.

My new partner for the IMTT is Ben Keung, a local musky guide. I hope we score tommorrow. Taking the 50 inch fish pot would be pretty nice.

Wish us luck,
CT

Golden Lake

I hit Golden for a couple of hours this morning in the rain. The wind was blowing down the length of the lake and it was tough to make a good presentation on the weedlines.

Ended up catching ten bass throwing a jigworm around. 6 shorts and the 4 legals were 15.5, 15, 16, and 17+.

I think Golden is near peak time for gills right now, and you should consider heading down there before next week.

CT

Silver Lake

Managed to break free for a few hours today and took the boat over to Silver Lake. Bob from the Journal Sentinel ended up joining me about half way through.

It was a little slow for Silver Lake. I caught eleven before Bob showed up at 10am, most working a carolina rig with a french fry. After Bob showed up we switched to wacky worms, and I ended up with 27 more bass ranging from about 8-16 inches before we pulled out at 12:30. I lost one really nice fish (3lbs+) as well. Over the course of the day I managed 5 that were "legals." Bob caught a handful of "Silver Lake Shorts while he was there."

The bluegills are moving up to spawn. It should be primetime by the middle of next week.

Working at the shop Saturday and Sunday. I may try to get out Sunday night depending on the weather, but I'll be out a couple days next week. I'm planning on hitting Oconomowoc and Golden for sure.


Good Luck Out There,
CT

The post spawn blues....

Two trips...and oh the short fish.

Fished the shop's big bass league tuesday night and guided wendesday morning, caught 2 shorts and I lost a nice fish Tuesday. Wednesday was windy and rainy, and caught a mixed bag of large and smallmouth with most fish being undersize as well.

They're still biting, but you have to work for bigger fish.

CT

The season is now open

I'm back from my research excursion and I'm ready to fish. Reports will be more frequent both here and on the baitshop blog.

Trips start this week.

I have a few openings in June I'd like to fill right away. Father's day is coming up....

CT

Here's a couple from Monday's trip. Biggest of the day was 22"

New article

Went out with Bob from the Journal Sentinel Monday for an article. It should run in Sunday's outdoor section.

Posting will be light this week as I'll be in Washington D.C working on my dissertation research.

Full scale guiding and reports begin next week.

Cheers
CT

Spring Special

I'm going to offer an early season special.

Book a trip now or buy a gift certificate for one at Musky Mikes and I'll guide a full day for the half day price on Okauchee, Oconomowoc or Silver lakes.

Makes a great Mother's or Father's Day Gift.

Offer expires May 28th.

CT

Opening day

This says it all....

Opening day tactics...

Looks like good weather for the opener. Ray and I are talking about hitting it early.

I'm going to rig up four rods. My baitcasters will have a jig/chunk trailer (Jaw Jerker with Zoom trailer) and a florida rigged plastic lizard.

I'll have my special wacky rig with a Chompers salty sinker on one spinning rod, and on shorter skipping setup I'll have a texas rigged french fry, weigtless as a throw back lure.

I can't wait to start probing the rocky and sandy staging areas for pre-spawners. I hope the weather stays stable the rest of the week.

CT

Happy Birthday...

..to me.

I used to have a tradition where I would drop everything and go fishing on my birthday. Last year I broke the string (there was alot of lightning, and I don't do lightning, I had a bad experience once.)

Looks like I'll be missing another year today. I have to give a presentation in my seminar at Madison this afternoon and the weather looks like rain.

Oh well, the opener is just days away....

We have muskies...

The Wolf River has Sturgeon.

Check out this excellent video from jsonline.com

www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=596476

CT

The week ahead

Scouting tommorrow, for another trip with Bob Reipenhoff on Friday.

Thinking about heading up to Lazy Lake on Saturday Morning for a few hours.

I'll be in the shop Saturday afternoon if you want to come by and chat.

CT

Crappies are hot!

The crappie bite is on, and the bluegills won't be far behind.

Call me or stop by the shop.

CT

White Bass!

The dogwoods are a little behind, but the recent run of stable weather has brought that annual spring bounty that is the white bass run.

Fish are being caught between the Jefferson Dam and the river mouth, although it seems like they might be running a bit small yet from the reports I've been getting. They'll move through an area in schools so action can be fast and furious when you are on them.

Look for little shelves along the river channel that white bass can push bait up onto, they like to school up and pin baitfish in for the feeding frenzy. Spinners, twister tails and jig and minnow combos are usually the best bet.

If you're going to run a river rig setup, here's a sneaky tip. Run your leader out a ways as if it were a worm harness, but use a smaller gold willowleaf blade put it just above the hook, with maybe four beads between the hook and the blade. Willowleafs have more flash, and it drives the whitebass crazy.

Drop me a line if you need some tips. I'll be out this weekend and a couple days next week.

It's back on!

The weather has passed through and the bite appears to be coming around. It is still a bit cool outside, but the later afternoons will give up some fish.

I worked at the shop earlier today and there were several groups headed out. Favorable reports were in from Okauchee (shallow bays), Nagawicka (Channels) and Labelle (Channels).

Waxies, fatheads or rosies on a small red or gold hook seem to be outperforming plastics right now.

If you need some tips, call the shop or drop me a line.

Cheers
CT