Wisconsin Opener

Lake Owen Smallie

Friday night April, 30th Guy and I headed for Wisconsin for the opener. It rained most of the way up there. We made the stop in Hayward for minnows and headed for Saz's cabin at the Nam. We were up early Saturday morning and greeted with winds that would not die down all weekend. So we dumped the boats and headed for the usual spot. It did not take long to get our 2 fish limit. We moved around a bit and the fishing just died. So we loaded up and went in for lunch. In the afternoon we went to "Secret Lake". Guy and I headed to the bass spot right away. To bad it was in the windiest part of the lake. On Guy's first cast he set the hook into a dandy but it turned out to be a toothy critter about 8 lbs. we then started to catch some bass. The Sunfish R.T. Jig was the ticket. Boat control was really an issue so we only made 2 passes before we had to move. We did catch fish in our other spots, just not the quality. Sunday was more of the same with the wind. We did the "Nam" in the morning and in the afternoon we hit Lake Owen. Lake Owen is really clear and deep. we got the boats in and Guy and I just dropped the trolling motor and started fishing. Guy got it started with a largemouth on a jerk bait. I followed shortly with a smallie on a Red Eye Shad rattle bait. I caught 4 more in short order then the sun went behind the clouds and couldn't catch any more. We moved down lake and started fishing wood. Guy caught 5-6 off one tree on an R.T. jig and I caught a couple on a tube. Jimmy and Mark caught a 22" walleye. Monday was travel day so we just went to the "Nam" to finish the weekend. Got our 2 fish limit and then packed up and headed for home. It was a great trip again this year. The wind really hampered what we wanted to do but we made the most of it. Thanks again to John for opening the cabin to us. It was nice too see the crew: Saz, Dewey, Mark and Jimmy again. Can't wait for the first Saturday in May 2011 to do it again.

Outkast Pro Swim Jigs

As I have fallen behind on posting I remember that I had not posted the new colors for the Outkast Pro Swim Jig. The one on the left is Sexy Shad and the one on the right is Glitter Shad. Both colors are now available online from Outkast and if you are in the Metro area. Cabelas has them in the store. I usually put a Outkast Fat Tail Grub on as a trailer and fish it like a spinner bait. Just reel it in pumping the rod tip a few times to create an erratic motion. It is great for fishing through cabbage and over the top of coon tail. It also comes through pads with ease. I fish it on a 7' med rod with braided line so when you hook up it cuts through the weeds and you can get the fish out. If you have not tried a swim jig yet you are missing out on a new technique that puts fish in the boat. Take a look at Outkast website for all the colors and sizes: http://www.outkasttackle.com/product_pages/proswim.html and for the Fat tail Grub:
http://www.outkasttackle.com/product_pages/fatail.html. Give it a try and weigh the results. Remember to use the Outkast offer and get 10% off.

Kentucky Lake

I have been so busy that I have been letting my posts slip here. I need to take a few days and catch up on these reports. On March 30 6 of us left for Kentucky Lake. Pat P, Ken K, Guy K, Chris M, Steve and I drove the 12 hours to New Concord, KY. We stayed at the Missing Hill Resort right on the lake. Kentucky Lake is a huge body of water with tons of places to fish. We started out in the cove where the resort was located. Steve was the first to boat a Kentucky bass and I caught a gizzard shad. We were throwing a bunch of different lures just seeing what they wanted. Steve was getting bit on the Zoom lizard texas rigged and I was having success with the Zoom magnum finesse worm in Green pumpkin on a 1/8 oz Outkast Money Jig. We caught fish everywhere we stopped. We just could not get the bigger fish to bite. We basically ran that pattern all 3 days we fished. We would catch a few in the backs of coves on spinnerbaits but they were not all over it like they were the soft plastics. All in all it was a good trip. I did catch a Largemouth, Smallmouth and a Spotted bass on the trip. I think we were a week or two ahead of when the lake would have been on fire. I hope at some point to get back there it has so much potential and with the numbers of smaller fish we caught it should stay in good shape for years to come.