Aside from throwing spinnerbaits through the weeds, any other patterns work well for northerns on the flowage?
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Aside from throwing spinnerbaits through the weeds, any other patterns work well for northerns on the flowage?
Throwing a spinnerbait along weed lines is probably you're best bet for northerns, although a jig and crawler works well too. Most of the bays and inlets hold lots of northern but most are small.
nothing like a spinnerbait in a bay. tons of fun even if they are small,it breaks up a day.i'm sure if you take a kid he or she will have a blast.
A good "snake" spot for me that has always delivered is immediately NE of the entrance to Blair in all that shallow stumpy stuff (west of the island with the campsite on it)...
Here I go, again, harking back some 50 years ago, or so. Back then, Al Weseman owned Al's Place. It has since morphed into Fort Flambeau Condominiums. But, back then cabins were rented to folks, and campers were welcome in trailers or even tents. Everybody's money spent just as well at the bar no matter what their sleeping arrangements happened to be. Anyhow, I was walking down the road toward my own cabin when a recent arrival hailed to me. I walked over to him to learn that Al had just sold him a Junebug spinner and some mud minnows - - excellent walleye-hunting material back then. Also favored by "snakes" (northerns).Quote:
Originally Posted by ski2313
He wanted to know how to rig everything. So, I took his rod and affixed the Junebug and weight. Then I hooked on a lively mud minnow. I pointed to a floater that was nestled up against the shoreline within casting distance. I said, "What you want to do is to make a cast up close to something like that log over there."
Whereupon, I made the cast. It landed inches from the log and I began the retrieve. About two cranks later, a northern jumped onto the Junebug. I set the hook and reeled it in. I handed the rod to the guy and said, "See? There's really not much to it."
My mom was Irish, so I think I must have inherited a bit of her Irish luck. I don't know if that guy ever caught another northern, but he sure was momentarily impressed.
Musky Mauler
I love your history lessons. Please keep them coming.
Scott
M&M junebug spinners i have not heard of them in years,i used them as a kid on the flowage with a spin cast reel. every bar had them hanging behind the counter. i still think i have a few somewhere in the garage mostly red and white i may have a gold 1 or 2 .cast them off shore right around the weeds at Marry Downey's place ,The shady rest.Wow its been a long time.
Some folks might not remember the Shady Rest. Back then, it was the last bit of civilization between Donner's Bay and the dam. (Nowadays, other structures have been erected even further south.) Mary Downey (in honor of whom Downey Road is now named) had a small log-cabin bar just across the road from Al's Place. It's not there anymore. It wasn't as popular of a hangout as the bar at Al's Place, but the Kugel was just as cold and tasted just as good. Mary tended to come across just a bit on the gruff side, but she was a tender person at heart. I made it a habit to pop into her place and have a beer every now and then.
The trick with the junebug spinner was to bend down two wires in front of the spinner and hook. This allowed it to jump over most of the snags on the bottom. The thing to do was to go down into the big water past sand point and drift while casting downwind, and then retrieving toward the boat. That way, if you got snagged, the boat would drift right up to it, and you could pull it off more easily as you got on the downwind side of the snag.
Al Weseman didn't have anchors in his boats. It was way too easy for folks to snag them on stuff on the bottom and lose them. Instead, he put sand-filled one-gallon plastic milk jugs or empty chlorine jugs in his boats. These substituted as "anchors." I fashioned and kept a sharp "stump hook." It was similar to one half of the tongs used by the guy who used to deliver ice to folks back in the cay of real "ice boxes" in the kitchen. There were so many stumps and leaners that I could easily whack that stump hook into a likely fishing spot, and not worry about snagging anchors (or milk jugs) on the bottom.
Al and Millie Weseman eventually sold Al's Place and subsequently bought Gawlitta's trout farm and fishing pond. The pond is still sitting there, unused, across the road from the bar and restaurant at Spring Creek. A nice meal of fresh trout could be obtained by using the furnished cane poles and bait that looked just like rabbit food. Kids got a real kick out of catching those trout. Al died awhile back but Millie still resides close to that old trout pond. She's just as sharp and witty as ever.
Musky Mauler