Fishing Report 06-10-10:

Rain!  That wonderful manna from heaven has given us new life and new hopes of salvaging our dry withered lakes, rivers, and land!  We received almost 1.5 inches of life nourishing water from the heavens this past week and are hopeful we may get even more in the next day or two!  While one to three inches of rain may only be a drop in the bucket of what we really need, it has greatly increased our surface watweers in the short term.  It has been speculated we would need another 6 inches of rainfall just to make up for the defecit we face for this year alone - not counting the 30 to 70 inches we are still needing from past years!  Our long term ground water situation is still very dire and until that is replenished, we are still in dire straights for a complete recovery from this devestating drought - but every little bit of rain helps lower the effects in some way and we’ll take all we can get!

Walleye fishing is still very good, with nice sized fish being taken from a variety of locations.  Whether you like to fish them in the weeds or in open waters over rocks or wood, the Walleye action is excellent.  We are just a week or so away from the Hex Hatch - you know, the one that supposdly turns the Walleyes into non-eating lumps of clay.  Well that may be the bait fishermans take on it anyway, but as fly anglers, we relish the opportunity to catch them on flies, on top and way down under the water.  I have seen a few of them on the surface in the past few days, I think we are still a good week away from the major hatch, but they will be here soon!  I’m quite sure the nymphs are stirring from the mud bottoms and making their way toward shallower areas in anticipation of emergence.   Get on those 6 to 12 foot deep mud flats and start dredging - the Walleyes are there and more will be showing up every day!   Many Walleyes and larger Perch are taking up positions on the 12′ to 15′ mud flats feeding on Hex Nymphs, now is the time for your 10’ sink-tip lines and Olive Tongue Depressors or an Olive Wooly Bugger with the tail pinched to about 3/8 of an inch will get you into lots of fish throughout the day - especially early in the morning and the late afternoons when the nymphs are most active.  Our recent rainfall has stirred up the waters making the fish more comfortable in shallower areas - especially during the daylight hours, and right now we have plenty of daylight, it begins to get light around 4 am and it doesn’t get dark until about 9 pm!

Northern Pike action has picked up considerably this past week with a bit more water and much cooler temperatures.  These “water wolves” are making their persence known in many weed flats and emerging weed lines throughout the shallow water areas of most lakes and rivers.  A brightly colored fly has worked very well for me when stripped at a moderate pace through the weed tops and edges.  A Red/Yellow or Chartreuse/White Deceiver has been a favorite of these voracious attackers in recent days.  My largest this week was a hefty 36 incher that took a Chartreuse/Orange Edgewater Diver as it emerged from a weed bed near a large deadfall, as the fly cleared the cover this fish just crushed it and then darted back toward the safety of the branches - I never let him get there.  My new Hardy-Greys 8 weight Platinum XD rod put the brakes on him in a heartbeat, this powerful rod has the guts to stick and turn any Pike or bass in the area - I really like this rod!

Muskie action has been fantastic, both in the lakes and in the area rivers.  Perch colored 4 to 6 inch flies have been the ticket in the lakes with the river fish going after mostly sucker colored flies in the same size range.  TS Crushers and Craft Fur Minnows have been the most productive flies this year, accounting for almost all of the 39 fish we have boated.  

We had a great show put on for us in the Flambeau river earlier this week as we floated her for Smallmouth Bass.  The water was exceptionally clear as we rounded a bend and shot our way through a good class two rapids to the pool below, the ride was fairly smooth in my 14’ pontoon raft.  When we cleared the rocks at the base of the pool, we started casting Clouser style crayfish patterns with no success.  We switched to a minnow colored pattern and the angler in the back seat, (Jim), immediately got a nice little 15 inch bronzeback on.  Almost as fast as you could see it, a Musky of about 47 inches blasted through the clear water and attacked the Smallie.  I immediately instructed Jim to drop his rod tip and lighten up on the tension to see what would happen next.  Within seconds another smaller Musky of about 40 inches was right there trying to take the fish from the larger Muskies mouth!  Jim was going nuts, here he had one Smallmouth Bass and two Muskies on his line at the same time - what a thrill!  I handed Ted, my front seat angler a Muskie rod rigged with a fly and instructed him to cast at the three fish.  Jim is from idaho and had no idea how Muskies act, so he was quite puzzeled by my instructions, but he did as he was told, within seconds the smaller fish was chasing his fly.  Had Ted known how to entice a hot Muskie I’m sure he would have hooked it up, but things were happening so fast that I didn’t have enough time to explain to him how to move the fly.  The fish darted up after the fly and Ted stopped moving it, (a big mistake when a Muskie is on the attack),  the fish made one more pass at the fly then saw the boat and spooked away - all the while Jim still has this big one tightly clampd down on his Smallie! It took a good ten minutes more of rowing around as we let the fish swallow his bass and the we slowly put some pressure on her.  Just as the fish was getting up in the water column and getting near the boat it lurched forward and spit his Smallie out.  Jim was lifting the bass toward him and the big girl came back and hammered it again right at the boat, I still had my Boga Grip around my wrist so I made a swipe at the fish and got her in the lower jaw - she nearly tore my arm off with all the thrashing and jumping, it’s a good thing a Boga rotates!  The fish threw the Boga and the bass came flying out in the excitment, it was toast, but we were able to get Jim’s fly back, and I’m sure an Eagle or Otter picked up that battered Smallie before the day was out, what a great thrill!  Ted from Idaho has a whole new appreciation for Muskies now - he plans on a return trip in October.

Needless to say, the river Bass fishing is excellent, especially topwater - the fish are eagerly taking medium sized poppers with gusto!  It really doesn’t matter that much on the color as long as the size is right - at least for this past week.  We caught plenty of bass on Chartreuse, Orange, Olive or Yellow poppers all with a size 6 hook, but the most productive by far was a small Bunny Tail Diver in either Black or Olive.  Be sure to heavily coat the head with paste fly floatant before you get the fly wet, it will last much longer before getting waterlogged!

In the lakes, just about any shallow bay with lilly pads or pencil weeds is holding Largemouth Bass, we have been using a 9 foot, 2X leader on a 9’, 7 or 8 weight rod.  Longer casts are producing more and larger fish, the shallow water lets the fish see much farther and it takes a stealthy approach and a 40 foot or longer cast to get the bigger fish.  Our “Fly Fishing Small Woodland Lakes Class” this past week was a great success with many “Bucket Mouths” caught tight in the cover.  Once hooked, you must keep your rod tip as high as possible to make sure the Bass does not tangle you hopelessly in the pads, these acrobatic fighters were a hoot to catch on top water flies, (a Balck #6 Diver was best), as they just exploded in the middle of just about any small opening where the fly landed.

Smallmouth Bass are just as eager to take on top, the correct presentation is much more important since these fish tend to be farther away from weed or pad cover.  Dragonflies and smaller divers have been working best in the lakes, along with Tongue Depressors and Olive/White Double Bunnies.

The smaller “Bog Type” lakes throughout the area which have excellent bass and panfish fisheries are much farther along than the larger, more popular lakes, most of these fisheries have settled down into a typical summer pattern already.  The action on these types of lakes has remained very good for the past week, in spite of the weather.

U.P.  fishing conditions have caught up with, and in some cases passed Wisconsin’s,  Muskie and Northern Pike activity has picked up considerably in the past week.  Walleyes are in the weeds and deeper drop offs during the day and moving up onto the rock bars and points in the evenings. In Bond Falls Flowage the fish are beginning to stage on the deeper drop off points and moving up onto shallow flats in the evenings.  Smallmouth Bass are beginning to migrate and many fish are holding in the log jams along deeper banks. A word of warning here, the Flowage is very low on water and navigating it can be very difficult, take your time with that outboard and you will be rewarded with some excellent fishing!   Lake Gogebic is still seeing some great Walleye and Perch fishing throughout the lake with a lot of big Smallmouth Bass now being caught on the east shore on topwater Divers and medium sized poppers.  Bluegills are off their beds and taking small bugs from the surface - get your fly rod out this is some of the best pan fishing of the season!  Stateline and Langford Lakes are hot for hand sized ‘Gills on the surface and some huge Northern Pike!

 As the daytime temperatures slowly increase the topwater fishing activity will continue to pick up, the shallow water fishing is still peaking!

TROUT:

I still don’t recommend trout fishing, even though we have gotten a good amount of rainfall and cooler temperatures recently, the fish are still suffering from quite a bit of stress and these water levels are only temporary.  Quite soon we will once again be in low water conditions which will stress our already low trout populations.

Sylvania:  

Smallmouth Bass fishing in the shallow water is very good, the Bass are well past the peak of their spawning activities and some are scattering into deeper water - especially with the cooler water temps of recent times.  Bluegills are off their beds in Long, Helen, Cory and West Bear Lakes, taking a variety of flies, especially small Black Wooly Worms and chartreuse Cat’s Whiskers.  Clark Lake has the largest Smallmouth and Largemouth Bass of the tract - most of these fish are now taking mostly sub-surface baits, but I expect that to change as we enter a calmer weather period with much warmer temperatures.  During the day Dragonflies are all over the place and the fish are looking up at them!  The Hex Hatch is getting close, a Hex Nymph pr Olive Tongue Depressor will catch the most fish right now, with poppers doing best in the evening hours.  The larger female Bass are in deeper water foraging  throughout the deeper rock bars and drop-off areas. 

The water is cooler this week, the fish are responding to it with increased surface activity, angling opportunities are still very good!  Warmer air and water temperatures will bring the fish into shallow water and make them look up this weekend!

- MORE NEXT WEEK -

Bill Sherer’s We Tie It Fly Shop

5570 County Rd. M

P.O. Box 516

Boulder Jct., WI 54512-0516

715-385-0171

www.wetieit.com

wetieit@wetieit.com