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I am new to the site, and new to fishing in Madison. I am originally from Michigan and have spent a lot of time salmon fishing on Lake Michigan, and walleye fishing on Green Bay. I have been following the reports on here and will start contributing my findings. I am going out Sunday a.m. to try some small mouth fishing. Any thoughts on areas and tactics? Any responses will be greatly appreciated.
I'll be in the blue and gray Lund Tyee with the full windshield
Mendota has a great smallie population. Lauch in Warner Bay, and try off of Maple Bluff and Governors Island. Just like everyplace else.....when they're hungry, they will bite on anything. Live bait or artificial.
Thanks for the reply! Is there a fee at Warner? I have a state park pass for Gov Nelson. I talk to the park ranger and she said as long as I have the annual pass I can launch there any time of the day, even if the park isn't open.
There is a daily launch fee of $8 if you dont have a Dane county (Madison Lakes) launch sticker/permit.
Sounds like the launch at Gov. Nelson is your best bet in the near term until you get the sticker.
Good luck out there!
Go to points or mid-lake humps in the 16-19 foot range. Drop a leach to the bottom on a #4 hook and a few split shots, real up 1 turn, and wait for your pole to bend over. With a 2nd rod, use a slip bobber and try different depths (8-14 feet) until you find them. If you don't get a bite in 10-15 minutes move. Normally if the fish are there, you will have a bite within minutes of setting up. Also, you can try off the bottom with 1/2 night crawler, but you will also catch Rock Bass/Redeye that hang out in the same spots as the smallies.
Welcome to Madison and enjoy your time on the water.
Rex
Well the first I did after fishing was go out and get a topo map of Mendota. Tried using the fish finder to locate humps and bars. Seems like everytime I came across one it was weeds and not rocks. Previous experience with smallies is that they prefer rocky bottoms. Saw several boats in the same general areas around Gov Island. I am assuming that is where I should of been fishing. I wanted to do a little exploring (marking bars on GPS), and didn't want to tick anybody off by cruising through prime fishing areas. I'll take a mid day to do that. All in all it was a good day on the water. Had the in-laws in town so it was nice to get out by myself. Managed only a few white bass and 1 largemouth.
Recently, I've found Smallies on deep water rocks (I know because I can feel them with the anchor) in 16-20' of water, but soon I will be finding them relating to weed edges in 16' of water. I don't understand it exactly, but I think it has to do with spawning, and then food at the weed edges. They also seem to move from shallower water 12-16 very early am to deeper water 16-20 later in the day. I just have several spots on Mendota and keep moving until I find them. It definitely gets my blood pumping when the rod bends in half, or the slip bobber disappears into the deep. I've actually caught some of the biggest fish late morning up 'til around noon; haven't really fished must later than that.
Hope you hook into a Mendota monster. There are some real trophies in there.
Rex