Flambeau River Reports

[sfreeman]

Howdy,

I'm going to be heading up to our cabin (west of Fifield on 70) Looking to see if anyone has had any luck on the river. It seems to be slow this year for smallies. I've tried putting in where the 6 mile tavern used without any luck. I've also done a float from 9 mile going west and haven't found the smallies like in past years. Has the differing water levels slowed them down? Also, I've never found crappie on the river. Just wondering if there are any out there! Drop a reply or feel free to email directly for tips and tricks.

[John Carlson]

Everything that we are finding is super shallow and right tight to the shore or cover. We had musky league on Smith monday and there were a lot of smallies caught on musky surface baits. I think with the darker water and more of it this year it really has changed where the fish are. Your float trip from 9 mile is kinda wierd usually that is a really good smallie area, I have had those days even on the Flambeau where we only pull a couple of fish in the boat so maybe it was just one of those days. When did you last try it? There was one of the biggest mayfly hatches that I have ever seen on the flowages so maybe that had something to do with it.

[sfreeman]

Thanks for the reply. The last time I was up there was July 10. My buddy and I walked the river starting about 1 mile west of 9 mile tavern. We were able to land 2 in about 2 hours of walking the river. We are thinking of trying out Mason / Evergreen this weekend for some walleye action. I heard you can easily get to evergreen now with the elevated water.

[St Croix Kid]

I had the same luck last weekend. Johns right. The few fish we caught were tight. It was really slow. Maybe bigger lures might have worked. Going back in august. The water was unbelievably high. 9 mile creek looked like the CO river!

[boog]

My dad and I floated from Deadmans to the Oxbo on Saturday. We ended up with 4 smallmouth, one readhorse, bite off from a musky or northern, and I caught a 28" catfish. The catfish was a blast, I set the hook and it ran off 30 yards of drag before I could slow it down. I thought I had a sturgeon on, after about 10 minutes I finally got a look at it and never gave a thought that it could be a catfish. No action on musky lures - hard to fish because of all of the weeds/grass floating in the water right now. Cleaning weeds off of your lure after every cast.