Opening Weekend

[Medford Fisher]

Well, the opener finally arrived...and what a slowwwww opener it was. I didn't expect to move too many fish with all the unstable weather/wind coming into the weekend; but I expected better results than what we got.
My fishing partner and I planned on fishing the WMT event on LVD yesterday and we'd never been on the lake before so we planned to prefish it for three and a half days during the week. Well, we really liked the lake; but we did not have much action at all. On Thursday, I caught a 35.5" musky on a small bucktail. Other than that, we had two follows about that size between three days and about 20 pike. After that, we decided it would be best to save the money for another upcoming tournament.

For the northern WI opener, we headed to the Three Lakes Chain (another new lake for us) where I had a small follow and besides that, we only caught one small pike.Today (Sunday), we fished another lake which we've never fished before. Brought the crappie poles today in case it was as dead as the past week. Saw one decent mid-30's cruising the shallows that didn't want anything to do with a bait; and then had one in the upper-30o's right around our boat for a good 15 minutes and then saw it swimming with a crappie sideways in it's mouth. Followed it around from a distance to watch it. From the initial "catch" to swallow, it was a good 20-30 minutes. Very interesting to see. I caught some of it on film, but I'm not able to upload it to the web yet. Should make for some interesting footage.

We tried super shallow, shallow weeds, mid-weeds, deep weedlines, islands, breaks, points....everything we could think of with baits of all different sizes and types....just no luck

How about everyone else??? Did the opener treat you guys better than us? On Friday, there were lots of boats pre-fishing for the WMT, but we didn't see one fish caught at all throught the morning/day. If anyone knows the results or # of fish caught, please post it. We're very curious to find out.
Thanks Jason for the smallie footage. Going out on the river is overlooked by all of us and should be a top choice for any type of fishing. Also, thanks for all the help/advice Jason. The camera, lens, etc. are all in Medford waiting for me to pick up.

Good luck to everyone, Jake Bucki

[Jason Sloan]

Thanks for the report Jake, looking forward to more of 'em from you throughout the 09 season!

Muskies: I'll let Mark give a report on here. He and Clay took 2nd at the Desert during the Saturday WMT with a 43+ inch fish. We had a few low 40" fish chasing hooked walleyes. The ski's aren't quite ready yet, but look for that to change with the rain and warmer nights forcasted for this week.

For the last 15 years I've seen some of the Northwood's largest summer muskies come in June, so any time on the water right now is good. GO BIG!!! Big Dawgs, Cranks, Suicks, Cowgirls, throw that stuff and hold on! Don't think spring small baits, think fall big baits and you might get a real tank in the next few weeks.

Walleyes: Great daytime bite going on right now. Lots of fish stacked between 3-12 feet of water relating to steep shorelines and wood. Fished 2 different lakes and had similar results on each. 1/16 oz. jigs tipped with minnows, crawlers or leeches produced bites. Lots of 14-19 inch walleyes on clear water mid-day. We are approaching the 'summer peak' period as defined by the old In-Fisherman calender, which means weed growth beginning to blossom/fish starting to binge due to water temps and calorie needs to recoup from spawning. Baitfish starting to stage off of shorelines with crappies/gills still shallow meaning fish can be anywhere. Reports of big walleyes taken over deep water from reliable sources. The big ones will be taken right now with large chubs fished off of deeper rocks, cranks suspended off of structure at dark. With mud flat insect hatches immenent look for crawler presentations and cranks to only get better. Best time of the year coming up for rowtrolling muskies/walleyes over the next month.

Big female smallmouth staging closer to spawning areas with the random fish on beds already. Jointed Shad Raps best right now, with tube jigs and mimic minnows doing great worked slow over located fish.

Tip: Bring the big three (minnows/leeches/crawlers) when targeting walleyes. Fish keying on all three and any given day or time of day/spot could produce better on any one.

Sorry for limited muskie info, but we're filming multi-species this year and right now is the best time of the summer for walleyes and bass. Don't fret, we'll have PLENTY of muskie information on the way for you in the coming weeks, MUSKIES ARE IN OUR BLOOD!!!

For a unique and educational fishing experience, don't forget to consider Badfish Guide Service during your Northwoods vacation. We cater to novices, families, and salty veterans the likes of Sig Hansen.

Thanks for stopping by, see you on the water!

JS