Last Week Smallie Report (6/13)

Sorry for not making this report more timelier. My place in Minocqua doesn't have internet so I've gotta do this from home where there actually is internet. It's late but no big deal.

I fished on Monday 6/13. Launched from the falls at 6:45am and did my nature cruise all the way down to Four Mile and beyond. From 7:30am until 9am we had our best action and then it all turned off like a switch. My friend and I mainly covered the channel areas (rocks, stumps, bars, drop-offs). I figured the spawn was already over and the bite would be tailing off; This was highly evident with the thousands of little bass fry we saw swimming in the shallows.

One of the bars we fished held 11 smallies for us, a staggering amount I thought. We caught 17 total. We worked different areas just like that but the fish were fewer in number. Besides, other areas we tried were the deepest shorelines I knew of, rock drop-offs, mid-lake channel edges, and even some stumps - although I very rarely find my bass relating to stumps for some reason as it's always rocks rocks and more rocks. Another thing to make note of is that everything caught came from 8 to 12 ft water.

Hot bait of the morning was a 5 inch Chompers twin tail grub, a typical hula grub style that was rigged on a 1/4 oz. Owner weighted worm hook. Use the dark colors to contrast with water clarity and match the hatch with the craw color.

A total of 16 fish were caught on this by my friend and I. The one other came on an X-Rap 8, but was the runt of the morning. I thought I was about to have a record type of day in terms of number of fish but once 10am came it all stopped. Fish weren't biting and they couldn't be found shallow or deep. Did some exploring and tried several different things to make them bite but nothing was happening. We pulled out at 1pm. I messaged Bill (Blue Ranger) my results and we both were hoping that I'd eventually hit 50 for the day, but that was far fetched.

Water temperature was 66-68. Boat traffic very light but still a few boats out despite being a Monday. No signs of mayfly activity.

I wanted to get out to the Baraboo/Sweeny area and even possibly Merkle during the afternoon but with the fish shutting down like the way they did I figured this would have been a waste of time. Rather than lake hop our way back to Minocqua and fish a few places in the Manitowish area I should have headed up the road for the afternoon and tried the Gile Flowage for the first time. I might do that next time in a few weeks.

My bass fishing for the year is starting to tail off. Next try on the flowage will probably be for muskies.

Below are some photos. Sizes not all that great but the action was awesome while it lasted.

http://fishing-headquarters.com/gall...001/june10.jpg

http://fishing-headquarters.com/gall...001/june13.jpg

http://fishing-headquarters.com/gall...001/june14.jpg

http://fishing-headquarters.com/gall...001/june15.jpg

http://fishing-headquarters.com/gall...001/june16.jpg

http://fishing-headquarters.com/gall...001/june18.jpg

http://fishing-headquarters.com/gall...001/june19.jpg