Heading up this Friday from Cincy

[randyincincinnati]

Hey everyone. We are coming back up this Friday from Cincinnati. We'll be staying on Lake Bastine again. We had some good luck last year. We came primarily for Smallies but ended up with lots of Walleye. Any hot spots this year so far for Smallies? Not that we are at all against catching Walleye but I'd like to catch some nice Smallies too for the fight. Any tips or anything you can give us would be much appreciate. We fished for years over in the Eagle River area so this body of water is completely new to us. We have a week under our belt of the Flowage so far. Thanks for everything and we're super excited to make another trip up to this beautiful body of water.

[randyincincinnati]

No tips guys? Most of our guys that go up use leaches and bobbers. They aren't big on artificials but we have a few guys who use artificials. So any good spots for bass that you can help us out with would be great.

[micropterus dolomieu]

We were up there last week and the smallies were getting started with bedding. We used wacky rigged Trick Worms with no weight and #9 floating Rapalas. We caught plenty of fish up to 3.5 lbs with only about 10 dinks, if even that many. Lots of fish in the 2.5 to 3 lb range. We targeted obvious spawning areas, seeking out rocky shorelines, reefs and any other shallow structure we could find that appeared to have a gravel or rocky bottom. We fished mainly east of Big Island, except for one particular honey hole we found last year that again turned out to be quite productive. There was a huge mayfly hatch going on and some of the fish that had already moved up into shallow water were giving themselves away by rolling on the mayflies.

I also want to give a big thanks to the 3 gentlemen near the south end of the lake that helped us get our bearings after we (my dad) motored past the dam and missed our turn. Once we were on the correct path, we ended up running out of gas about 10 minutes from camp. A local resident on his way back home was kind enough to give us a tow. A big thanks goes out to those 2 guys as well....they helped make our trip a good one yet again.

[RKuepker]

I've been on TFF every year for 1 week only but usually a little later. Goin up this sat. For about 9 years. Last time the water was down bout 5 foot. I imagine with it up there will be a lot more shore wood in the water. And rock as well. I usually fish musky. Where u staying on Bastine ? I'll be there 20-27th. Good luck.

[sadclownwp]

I to will be on lake bastine the 20th-27th. I'm staying at cry of the loon

[randyincincinnati]

Ill be staying all the way in the back of bastine at tom mcmahon's cabin. Its quite a large cabin. Can't miss it.
Thanks for the tips. Wouldn't want to pm me with the location of that "honey hole" of yours would ya micropterus?? Lol

[micropterus dolomieu]

Thanks for the tips.You're quite welcome.

BTW, the water was down 2 feet according to the property manager where we stayed...unless they've gotten a ton of rain since last Friday.

[micropterus dolomieu]

Wouldn't want to pm me with the location of that "honey hole" of yours would ya micropterus?? LolSorry but I don't give up my honey holes, however check your PM for some info you might find useful.

[Mark Benson]

randy in cincy:

Check the spots you found to be good last year. If they are producing, start trying other spots like them. If they are not producing, start trying different spots. Before you know it, we will be asking you for spots...

Mark

[beelzebob]

I have been having luck on larger fish using big spinnerbaits, small bucktails, and big topwaters. Best time is evening, best place is big shallow rock with wood. Crank that big stuff and hang on.

[BlueRanger]

Micropterus, you were seeing the tail end of the bedding period, not the beginning. The first beds appeared on May 21 and most of the males were on beds by the end of Memorial Day weekend. Any fish that are still on beds are males protecting their fry.

I try to fish the TFF every weekend in May, but for at least the last 9 years I've also been taking a vacation the third week of the month so I can spend 10 straight days fishing nothing but smallmouth before musky season starts. I've hit the peak of the shallow bite sometime during that week in every year except 2008, which was a very cold spring. This year, I was up from the 14th-24th. I didn't have time to post a report sooner, so here's how it went. I hit the water Friday morning and found water temperatures nearing 60 degrees, but after the temperature dipped below freezing the next couple nights, the water cooled into the lower 50s. Most of the fish were still deep and not very aggressive, and with very strong winds most days making it difficult to fish finesse tactics effectively, I had to work very hard to scrounge up 15-20 fish a day by targeting what I call "resident fish", the ones that stay on prime shallow structure throughout most of the season. These tend to be found on isolated stumps and boulders on shorelines that drop off quickly to deeper water. In contrast, while you can find smallies spawning almost everywhere in the TFF, most of the areas with the highest nest densities are along shorelines with a more gradual slope, and are at least somewhat removed from the deep channels and basins. These areas probably provide better cover and foraging opportunites for the fry once they hatch. On the positive side, it tends to be the bigger fish that stake out the prime shoreline cover and stay there all summer, and most of the fish I did find were in the 17-19" range. Jeff Roth came out with me the morning of the 19th, and he probably picked the worst day of the whole week. We spent 3 hours hiding from brutal 30 mph winds behind the islands in and around Baraboo. Don Pemble and his clients were walleye fishing on some deep structure nearby, and I think they were the only other people we saw on the water all morning. We only managed 6 or 7 smallies and a 24" musky. Baraboo tends to produce a smaller average size than most of the other areas I fish, but I did boat one beautiful 19.5" smallie from a spot that I probably never would have tried if it hadn't been so windy.

On the other hand, the cold weather during the first half of the week kept the walleyes active, and I went out several evenings and picked up quick limits and released a number of extras and some bonus smallies throwing a perch X-Rap in gradually sloping transition areas between deep channels and shallow boulders or weed flats.

Things turned around on the 20th. We had a very hot, sunny day and the water warmed into the low 60s by late afternoon. It held at around 60 overnight, and a few beds appeared the next morning. A day later they were everywhere. The 22nd-23rd were just fantastic, and the 24th wasn't much worse - they were hitting everything and I didn't even bother trying to keep count. Saturday and Sunday I actually got tired of unhooking smallies and broke out the musky gear in the afternoons. I saw a couple fish in the low 40s, but didn't have any hookups.

I headed home Sunday night to avoid the holiday traffic, and by the time I came back up Thursday night (May 28), the male bass were in egg-guarding mode, so I left them alone and spent most of the weekend walleye and musky fishing. The water had clouded up quite a bit, making it hard to see follows, but I did see a couple and caught quite a few walleyes and bass in the evenings casting a 1/8 oz. Northland Whistler jig with a 3" Gulp! minnow into shallow boulders along one of the channels. The Whistler was just something old I happened to dig out of the tackle box, and it turned out to be a very effective combination. And it was a blast catching some bass on my light jig rod with 4 lb. line.

Took a break the last couple weekends to give my yard some attention before the musky action starts to heat up.

I posted a few new photos from May in my online album.

[George]

Great pictures Blue! Love the loon on the nest. And the boat looks great. Sure doesn't look 10 years old!

[BlueRanger]

I try to wash it every time it comes out of the water, then throw on a quick coat of good 3M marine wax before the next time it comes out of the garage to protect the gelcoat from UV damage. It has a few small areas that have discolored slightly, but overall it does look great for its age.