I remember making a few posts of catches last year so I figured that with almost three weeks into my season right now, I should probably re-start my tradition again.

I try to fish the TFF at least once a week now. I get these benefits by being an unemployed recent college graduate

Been fishing mostly in the stretch from Turtle River inlet down to the Four Mile Creek area, and then a lot out of Fisherman's Landing in and around those islands and beyond. I'd like to make my way down to Beaver Flats and out to Blair Lake in the coming few weeks. Never been to either!

Anyways:

First outing was on May 18th. We caught too many Smallmouth Bass to keep count of. Largest up to 18" with most in the 16-17 inch range. HEALTHY year classes of these 15-16-17 inch bracket fish. Holy cow. The fish were just getting ready to spawn then, so we found them just in time. Rocks in some depth were the key focal points.

Crankbaits/ swimbaits / red tubes / Rapala X-Raps.

My previous outing was last Saturday on May 29th. Boat traffic wasn't so bad but the landings were a mess full of rigs who were waiting in lines without much organization. The fishing was slower and I attribute that to the warmer weather and high skies, but a number of fish were caught once again. At this point, the spawn was finishing up. The action was slow so it could have been attributed to the "post spawn blues".

Creature baits / jig & craw trailers / tubes / X-Raps / Chompers twintails.


Everything to this point has been on a rock and deep wood bite. Nothing much yet from the river channels or stump fields. I'm sure that will change by the middle of this month.

I am not a walleye angler by any means, so as a tradeoff for you guys - I will leave you all the Walleyes in the world as long as you leave me the rest of the Smallmouth Bass to clean up. Deal? I wouldn't mind trying for Muskies next time out either.

We'll be back out there at some point this week. Thinking Tuesday or Wednesday. If you see a red/white fiberglass Lund out of Fisherman's Landing, come say hi.

I know Blue Ranger and Mark and a few others mentioned a strong topwater bite. I'll have to give that a try. We catch a lot of fish with those on our Wisconsin River float trips. We'll see. Thanks.








the stockiest 12-incher i've ever seen in my life.