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.