Delavan Lake

[JeffTCG]

Caught some fair sized crappies and some nice gills, 40 in all. crappie all suspended over 15-20 feet of water only about 3 ft down. very, very light biters. Gills were everywhere on the weed edge drop offs. Took a friend for his first time crappie fishing. it took him 5 hours to get the touch. then he was off and running. there were over 50 trailers at the launch at 7am.

[Eric Haataja]

Made it out yesterday and the bite was good, clients and I caught bass, pike, and walleye. Also a good gill bite still going on that were suspended, we found a motherload of schooled up bass and had a blast catching them on rock stalker jigs in the 1/2 ounce size. Just finished up both trips right as the storms came in....... Biggest bass of the day was almost 22 inches and 5 1/2 lbs.

Eric

[Pike One]

Summer pike bite has been fantastic for the past week or so. Should stay good for another month.

Caught this 36"er on Friday.

Found some new, tall, green weeds in an area I rarely fish. Has been really consistent over there. Taller weeds seem to be holding the most fish, with steep drops close by.....flats are not producing at all.

22 feet has been the magic number, but have gotten bit up to 40 feet. Bigger the bait, the better.

[Adrift Alone]

Took a buddy along for the fun last night and he wasn't disappointed. We slammed weed edge bass for about three hours and landed about 25 or so. Water depth varied between 9 and 13, but the key was irregularities in the edge and transition points between weed types. Put those two things together and wahla. Drop shotting earlier and texas rigging later was the method. No muss, no fuss action. Smallest fish measured 15", two biggest were 19 1/2" and 20 1/2 inches respectively.

Good luck!

[blkhwkbob]

Are you detecting these weed edges and changes by sight, or going off the sonar? What are you putting on the drop shot hook?

Thanks,

Bob

[Adrift Alone]

Bob, I use both my sonar and eyes for these elements. Breifly, position your boat directly over the deep weed edge and follow it along watching the sonar for turns out and in. I usually do this exploring during slower daylight periods in the hope to return at primetime to find schooling fish. I mark these "irregularities" with my GPS. Then, once discovered, I visually inspect the area for changes or variations in weed types. If I find a turn or bump in the edge, with two or more different types of weeds, I mark it and later return (or back off and fish it right then). These two keys, assuming reasonably deep water somewhere near by will get you bit. I guarantee it!

Do your prep work and it pays off....Sometimes these bumps will be underwater points, others will be no bigger than your boat. It's the "difference in the edge" that is the key.

Now, after doing this many times, I have distinct spots to go to each time on the lake. I run spot to spot quickly checking for schools. The rest is easy.

As for the drop shot, I use Gulp Skaky Tail worms, dark colors, 5 inches. I like about 16 - 18 inches from the sinker.

Good luck your next time out and do me a favor. Please please return the biggest fish you catch to the water. I want to catch them someday too.

AA

[blkhwkbob]

Thanks so much for the great info! I keep hearing about all these fish on Delavan, and they seem to get lockjaw when I'm around! I'm going to use everything you said.

Oh, I'm strictly catch and release so I'm gonna leave plenty of big ones there for you!

Bob

[BigMusky]

Hit Delavan today and pike bite was on...ended about 6 for 13(ran out of meat) with all around 28 inchs...not gators. Bass fishing was not nearly as hot for me as AA, but I did manage about 7 bass with majority around 18 inches...again no slobs. I have never fished close enough to weeds to pick up those subtle details...I usually position boat off edge because I am dragging suckers at same time. Maybe I will have to do a bass only trip. I have a few spots that are regular producers and probably some of AA favorites!

Forgot to add some baby pike stories. I hooked into about a 13 inch bass that I was bringing to boat when I see a pike following it (28 inches)...so I gave bass some slack hoping pike would crush it, but alas the bass flopped off instantly and got away. 2nd pike story is I am fishing a texas rigged bait when I notice that thing swimming off...I set the hook and it feels big, makes a big run and then just stops, I thought it got off but then I see a 15 inch pike coming in sideway. I had hooked it in back and he only had one good run in him. I have not been so disappointed by catching a fish then maybe my first Gizzard Shad in Milwaukee Harbor.

[Fishin Dan]

Did a half day on Friday with my buddy Taylor. He doesn't get to fish much, but looked like an old pro fighting some nice largies. We didn't smack them like we have the past few weeks, but managed a handful of nice fish. Most fish came in or around the weeds from 9 feet to 18 feet of water. Tough to pattern much yesterday - picked off one or two fish everywhere we went. Finished the day with about 18 and 3 break-offs. Dragging crawlers and leeches worked best.
See you out there.
Dan

[Adrift Alone]

Fished alone yesterday with good success again. Bass are bunched up pretty good on edges adjacent to deeper weeds. No huge schools this time but good consistant action when I found "pods" of fish. Drop shotting caught 10 and texas rig took another 5. All fish between 15 and 19 1/2. Big fish scaled 4.12oz. It was a good 4 hours on the water. See previous reports for more tips on where and how. Get out there before we get into those August "meat only" days.

[Cbangler]

Made it out for a Sunday pleasure cruise with Bridget. Beautiful afternoon to bask on the boat, or in the water. Surface temps were 80 degrees, and 71 degrees 20' down. Not much fishing until evening, but then got into them pretty good. Camped on regular evening spot and got 8 bass, 3 Pike and 2 Walleyes (both Keepers). Not bad for an hour and a half. All fish on leeches, and a great way to wind down a wonderful evening.

[Pike One]

Pike fishing has been as good as I've ever seen it out there.

Sunday ended up with 18 pike...1 at 34, 2 at 33, and 1 at 32.

Monday was a mixed bag. 11 pike (no legals), 8 bass (all between 17-20), and 1 small walleye.

Could not fish with 3 poles in the boat between 2 of us. Bass were on weedline (15-16 ft) , pike were just outside of it. You could tell if it was a bass or a pike just by the subtle depth change, and the head shake. Pike hit out to 35 feet.

All fish released, and thank God for circle hooks. Dont know how long it will last, but man, what a great couple days.

[Adrift Alone]

Largemouth again cooperated yesterday aft and evening on weed edges with drop shot rigs (gulp). Also caught several on top of edge with texas rigged worm. Edge fish were around 14/15 feet and were the bigger fish, however, of 12 bass only caught two bucks. Big fish was 19 1/2, with another four fish exceeding 18 1/2. Still being eluded by the 24" girl I'm looking for, so will have to remain "in waiting" for her.

Beautiful aft and evening on the water....

AA

[Finseeker]

couple of fish from early in the month

[Finseeker]

Some nice fish from 7/5. Caught 6 bass on Topwaters from 6:00-6:30 then dragged the deep weed edge.

[Finseeker]

More pics

[Finseeker]

Pics from 7/10 and 7/16

[Finseeker]

More pics from 7/16 and 7/23

[Finseeker]

More 7/23 and 7/24 pics

[Finseeker]

More pics from 7/23 and 7/24

[Finseeker]

Had Tom, Dick, and ...... Ken out from "Sunny Nebraska" The boys went 18 for about 28 on Wednesday and 28 for 30 something on Thursday. We caught some bass on topwaters in the morning but the majority of the decent fish were on the deep weed edge and beyond dragging meat.

High skies and no wind didn't seem to slow down the bite when they are down 20 plus feet.

KUDOS TO PIKE ONE FOR SOME TOP SHELF INTEL!!!! The slide that most of these fish were caught on is officially known as the PIKE ONE RUN!

[Finseeker]

7/23 evening

[Finseeker]

7/23- Dave and Paul boated 23 game fish (Pike and Bass) few fish on crawlers and leeches but best luck was dragging meat on the "Pike One Run"

Few pannies for bonus

22 fow was the best depth.

[Finseeker]

pics from 7/25

[Finseeker]

pics 7/25

[Finseeker]

7/25 boated 16 gamefish (pike and bass) few Bass in the 20" class. Started the morning with some top water action, mostly smaller fish, moved out to the Pike One Run for a few slides and worked 18-26 fow with meat.

Finished the day with a short slide on the North East corner of the lake and popped 2 legal bass and a legal pike within 10 minutes of eachother. Those bass came in 12-16 fow on meat.

[Finseeker]

7/27 pics

[Finseeker]

Fun fished this morning for a few hours before the lake got crazy. We boated 14 pike and bass with a few big bass and no big pike. Tried topwaters this morning and only got 1 fish.

Rest of the day was spent dragging meat and trolling. Trolling produced ZERO!

22-30 fow was where the pike were and the bass were tight to the deep weeds.

Sorry for the barage of old pics but I haven't posted in a month and it was time to clean out the camera.

[Cbangler]

Late report from Friday - HOT, on all accounts!
Out with Ron Burgandy for the afternoon run. Hot Pike bite draggin meat, with a few bass mixed in. Bass were also smokin plastics on the drop shot from 16-20'. Hard to believe, but Finseekers did leave a few fish for the rest of us.

Call me crazy, but the bite always seems better for the rest of us when the Captain is away on an extended vacation. Like Steve, I would like to thank P1 for the intel on the "Pike One Run" ..

Here are a few pics...

[Cbangler]

few more - Notice the "Horse Fly" in the back round,
Stay cool San Diego....

[blkhwkbob]

As a newbie, I have to ask the dumb questions...

What is "dragging meat?"

[BigMusky]

drifting weed lines or deeper water with live bait (generally suckers when pike fishing).

[blkhwkbob]

Thanks BigMusky.

[Pike One]

Finseeker and CBangler-

Good to know you fellas had a great time at "Pike One Run." Pretty funny. Glad to help, to a point. It's not like it's MY spot or anything. I know you folks are C&R.

We did pretty well on Friday also. Ended up with close to 20 gamefish. Several pike over 30", and 3 bass over 18". Pics are still on the camera. May post 'em in a couple days.

Now that it's been hammered for the past week, I need to find a "Pike Two Run." May have found it actually, late Friday.

So Corey, let me know when I can get out to see your favorite tree. I need help drop-shotting the bass.

And Steve.....didnt get a chance to get out yesterday, but next Sunday evening is open. Friday evening is a possibility as well.

Look forward to seeing you guys out there. Hopefully I will get a couple "hot spots" out of you experts in return;)

[Finseeker]

Pike One-

Sunday night you got it, Saturday morning I have a little insiders salmon tournament and will be prepping for that Friday eve.

It is worth mentioning that 3 different fish I caught last week had busted off hooks in their throat and were still biting so I think the catch and release system is working but leads me to another topic:

I aplologize in advance for getting on a soapbox, but I hear guys all of the time bragging about caching bass and pike on light tackle. I have a friend that only fishes Geneva with 4lb test and ultralight gear. The reality is that if you are going to fish this lake, you better step up your equipment.

Overplaying fish in the heat or leaving hooks in the fishes mouth because you don't have the proper pliers, jaw spreaders etc. or even worse, busting fish after fish off because your line is too lighti s senseless and irresponsible.

In all cases, I was able to extract the old hooks and hope that everyone else takes the time to do the same when possible.

[BigMusky]

I think you are seeing pike that hit drop shot rigs....it is not practical to use 20lb test when drop shotting for bass. I have caught and lost a number of rigs due to pike while bass fishing.

[Finseeker]

Maybe, only 2 of the 3 fish this past week were bass and not pike. It is not pratical to fish 6lb line in a lake that the bass average close to 18". Especially when you are fishing the deep weed edge. Drop shot or not.

I don't fish bass on Delavan with anything less than 10lb on the deep bite and maybe 8lb in the spring

[brewcityfishr]

Hit Delavan again this morning. got there at 6:15am and had to wait a good hour in the parking lot for the thunderstorms and 40+ mph winds to pass. got on the water about 7:30 and went after gills and managed 45 between 8-9- 3/4 inchers. redworms and large leeches near the bottom in 22-30 feet of water near rock/weeds was the ticket. also had a 17-18 inch lmb but he spit the lure on the jump. all in all a good day on the water!! good fishin'

[Cbangler]

Hit the Bid D with Fishing Dan on Sunday for some intense afternoon Bass Fishing. No meat on this run, but unfortunately the Bass weren't as excited about the plastics as we were. Spent time punchin the weeds (6-12'), and drop shotting (17-20') and just never found em bunched up. We ended the day with 9 Fish, but should have boated closer to 15. Clearly some user errors with a few misses, and a few that jumped off before we could grab em by the lips. Although one of the tougher bites I have had this year, still a great afternoon - here are a few hihglights.

Corey

[Cbangler]

Very late report from last Friday.....
Had Tom from Minneapolis in the boat and the SLOW bite conitnued on the Big D. Just couldn't find em bunched up, and caught fish from 6-25FOW. 1 Here , 1 There - I think we only had 2 spots where we caught more than 1. Ended up with 11 Bass and 5 Pike. They were not at all keyed in on Minnows - Jigs (all but 1 of the Pike as well), Dropshots, and DT 6 took most of the Fish. Did catch some real good looking ladies though - here are a few.....

[noluck4eyes]

Catching up, here’s our brief summer. Leeches on split-shot rigs for gamefish and bigger bluegills. Crawlers caught a few gamefish and of course bluegills and perch. We didn’t try suckers or helgies this year as what we had worked well. Next year I want to try more drop-shotting and jigging spoons. Seems like I say that every year and then fall back on the live bait. But it’s all about confidence in technique and I need to put in the effort.

Best locations were firm bottom areas in 13-27 fow. Like so many others, we used electronics to find the baitfish, then dropped lively bait near bottom. If we had trouble finding active fish we drifted with various types of lindy rigs which was fun and relaxing.

Here are a few pics from the past six weeks or so. My buddy Teacherman makes his debut with a nice snub-nose smallie! Thanks to my bro for springing for the bait and the occasional can of frosty refreshment.

Pike One, when do we race? If my 25hp boat beats your boat I want a run named after me!

[Eric Haataja]

Back out on delavan and we found a nice pod of bass that bite really well for us up shallower that I would expect and there was still a deep bit going on so the fish seem to be bunched back up in a few spots (Bass and pike). The gills are everywhere and man there are some nice one this year out there, we just drop shotted a chunk of crawler and caught all we wanted. I did have a client land a monster largie that fought like crazy on a swim stalker jig.



Good Fishing!

[Cbangler]

Wow Captain - those were some Hogs!!!
Out with Fishing Dan for the Sunday evening run, traffic was pretty rough upon arrival, with the "deep" weed edge bite VERY slow. Started cathing some fish shallow, tight in the weeds, and located a a few "dock" piles as well. We kept trying to get the deep bite going despite what the fish were telling us (we should have listened Dan).

Ended the night with a few quality top water bites, and by the days end, we each had landed a couple Delavan pigs - Fun little trip!

[blkhwkbob]

Are those typical Delavan bass from years gone by, let's say, or do you think catch and release is really letting these fish get big? I'm freshly back into the sport, but I never knew we had that abundance of big bass in southern Wisc.

[watrfwlnut]

The size of the Bass in Delevan is the result of several things...one is a larger size limit in terms of the length of the fish...a lower bag limit numbers wise...and most of all catch and release...it works..!!! everyone that gets thrown back is another one that gets a chance to grow...thank God they dont taste like blue gills..!!! haha...

[FishinMatt]

Hit Delavan Saturday afternoon and it was tough start. Wind and boat traffic made sticking to a deep water plastic bite diffucult so we snuck into the 4 foot range and alternated b/w skipping docks and chucking spinnerbaits/chatterbaits. Contrary to what I normally look for, we actually sought out the dirtiest main lake water possible to combat the light penetration. It worked out ok as we caught a few largies in the 3lb range, a 19 1/2'' smallie, and some decent pike drifting down the south shore. Around dusk we switched over to buzzbaits and landed a 32'' and 36'' pike way up shallow which was a blast. It was a tough afternoon/evening number wise, but everything landed was nice, so I suppose we will take the trade-off.

[Adrift Alone]

Took my dad out this morning for some bass action. Did pretty good for a couple of hours (6 nice bass) on deep weed edge with drop shot shaky worms, then he saw a bluegill that I caught by mistake while fishing bass. He said "any bluegill that can eat a 5" shaky tail worm deserves more attention."

We spent the next 3 hours fishing and catching a bunch of big gills on light tackle. Had a blast! Even got him to take 10 bulls home for Mom. Great day with "the old man!"

Take your Dad fishing.....

[Eric Haataja]

Client's son had his hands full yesterday catching as many big gills as he wanted. a dozen pike and abouta dozen big bass, we fish 4 hours. This kid was true fisherman and had passion for the sport like no other kid I've ever seen. He did all the casting, baiting and catching himself which is rare for a 9 year old.

Fishing is still going strong out on delavan we boated a lot of pike and bass, along with just about as many nice gills as you want. Bass hit the drop shots with gulp, the gills hit crawler or ice fishing jigs, and pike hit spinners, and cranks along with a couple on suckers.

[Pike One]

Ok Eric-

I just gotta know. Keep getting bites on the gulp 4" minnows on dropshot , but cant hook 'em.

Can you please tell me the size or type of hook you are using, or what you would recommend for the 4" minnows?

Suckers are worthless to me out there right now, and need to change tactics before I go mad. I know where the fish are at....just need better tactics :confused:

[BigMusky]

are you sure they are not gills? The gills on that lake pound gulp drop shot rigs continuously. It takes patience to let fish swim with bait or to feel weight before setting hook

[noluck4eyes]

Pike One, the bluegills are very aggressive right now. They give a pretty good tug on gulp or larger live baits. Teacherman took me out in his boat last weekend so in return I let him catch the biggest fish. Isn't that nice of me?

[BigMusky]

went and did some bluegill fishing today and left with a three man limit. I have never been a big fish keeping guy, but want to have a fish fry. I can not believe how long it takes to clean 75 of those little buggers. That probably doubles the amount of bluegills I have kept in the last five years!! It was pretty awesome, most of them between 8-9 inches and are tall and fat. I know a lot of people like to anchor with bobbers, but we drifted 10-15fow with split shot and hook with either crawler or gulp...he hit both equally as well.

[Fishin Dan]

Recently the bite has been picking up on Delavan for bass and pike...for me anyway. This year has been completely different than last year. Can't seem to buy a bite deeper than 15 fow. If I stay in the weeds, we keep getting bit. Heavy plastics punched into the weeds produced all of my fish. Picked up 18 fish with my brother - 10 bass, 1 eye (short), and 7 pike - all less than 30 inches. Fished with my old man tonight and we ended up with 18 bass and 2 pike. Dad also had a pretty cool surface strike by a mid 30's pike, but it missed the bait. Lots of guys fishing for gills and the bite looked somewhat slow tonight. Should be back next weekend unless I get talked into Door County.
Dan

[Eric Haataja]

The bite is still going pretty good, both deep in certain spots and up in the weeds. Heavy Jigs, drop shotting gulp, and live bait has been the ticket.

[Fishin Dan]

Not sure why we tried to go to Delavan this weekend, but we did. And so did everyone else that owns a boat. Found a nice pod of fish deep on rock in about 18-20 fow using drop shot rigs. Most of my action came on the net. Corey's smallies were nice to say the least with one pushing 19 inches and one over 20 inches. May have been the last trip to Delavan this year...looking forward to Geneva smallies until winter.
Dan

[Cbangler]

Donated my boat and services for the 1st annual Finseeker's charity classic. Good time had by all, and was lucky enough to fish with a really special young fisherman. This guy was awesome and my guess is that we will see him weigh in on Saturday morning ESPN in the near future.
Tough bite to say the least, but we managed to go 8 for 11 on gamefish with a bonus bluegill. Also lost a pretty decent Pike right at Boatside.....

[Finseeker]

some pics from recent trips

[Finseeker]

Some pics from recent trips

[Finseeker]

Some more pics including pics of my son

[Finseeker]

more pics

[Finseeker]

Fishing for the last 3 weeks has been spotty at best. A good half day is scratching out 10 game fish and most of those seem to come in a few flurries and nothing consistent through the day.

Bass have been the best bet along with gills and the better bass bite for me has been shallower this year than in years past. I am not finding success dragging leeches or meat on the deep breaks as I have in the past.

Fishing over or in the weeds has been best.

[Finseeker]

pics from last week

[Eric Haataja]

Good bite on Delavan today landed 19 gamefish in about 4 hours of fishing and clients missed another 15+ fish on spinner baits, cranks, and live bait, no pic because of all the rain!!!!!

Good fishing!

[brian1785]

Location? Were you fishing deep weeds or pockets, over the tops of weeds, etc....thanks Eric!

[Eric Haataja]

Made it out to my favorite multispecie lake with clients chasing some big bass and pike. After a brutual cold front that came through I figured the fish would be burried in the weeds. So we started throwing 1/2 ounce rock stalker jigs and 1/2 swim stalker jigs in the weeds. It did not take too long, after my clients first cast and a nice 4 lber I knew the fish were going to be snapping.

I always here and read at times how horrible fishing is supposed to be after big cold fronts, and that typically the bite should be better the day before or a few hours before the storm or front pass through. Spending over 300 days on the water for the past 8 years I have noticed that some of my best days of fishing have been after we get the north or east winds and blue bird ski's. This is not always the case but looking back at some of my biggest ski's, bass, and pike and many have been taken after a major cold snap, followed with good action. So I guess my point is typically I do very well after cold fronts. I have also done well before the fronts come through as the barmetric pressure is rising, but I prefer after the front in most cases.

This lake is that it is one of the best lakes for schooling bass, so if these fish are not on the edges of the weeds or at times suspened out off the edges busting on bait they will be in the weeds, and still typically in schools. Most of the bass are following the gills, and crappies back into the weeds so we fished certain area's slowly and thouroghly which worked best for us this day.

We landed 5 bass over 18 inches 2 over 20 inches, and about a dozen bass total along with about 10 pike. So overall for cold front conditions I was pleased with how we did! Fish are starting to hit big baits, jigs, spinners, and cranks and are puttting on the feedbag.
Good Fishing!

Eric Haataja

[Eric Haataja]

few more fish... from the trip.

[Adrift Alone]

Fished Friday aft/night from 3 till 8 for bass. Worked hard for the 6 greenies. All fish 15" to 19". More than a couple of northern by mistake as well. Fished jigs and drop shot. Most fish were "in the grass" versus on the edge. Northern were extremely active. Water temps were 69 or so....

AA

[Finseeker]

Fished Monday night with clients. We boated 10 pike (3 legals) and 2 bass. We started out with Chatter Baits and caught 1 pike with 4 other follows and no takers.

Next we drifted the deep weed edge with suckers and boated 7 pike with a few additional misses and at least 2 bass misses (no sucker damage).

We then did a little bluegill work and struggled. We swithced to trolling and made 1 short pass and picked up 1 small Northern.

When the sun went down, we switched to topwaters and caught 1 bass and had a few other misses.

I will add pics when I get them from my customers.

Finseekers Guide Service
847-707-1827

[Finseeker]

Fished Friday, we boated 10 pike (1 just shy of 37") and a bunch of medium sized ones and 1 bass. Tried top waters to no avail, spinner baits to no avail and picked up a few gills on worms.

All the pike came on suckers. The quality of our pictures suffered on this fish because we were in such a hurry to get her released. She eventually took off.

[Finseeker]

Last few outings were 5 pike, 2 bass and 10 pike 2 bass. Starting to see more fish over 30".

Spinnerbaits and suckers are still working the best for me.

[noluck4eyes]

This is too good not to share. You know I fish mainly panfish and walleyes. We were catching some nice bluegills yesterday on crawler pieces in 10-12 fow. When the bite shut off, I started casting a tiny red/white spoon on 6lb trilene xl. I set the hook into dead weight, thinking I might have gotten too close to the anchor. But then the line started moving. She took me all the way around the boat, taking line a few times, then dove under it after my brother quickly pulled up the anchor. We finally got a look after five minutes and landed her in nearly ten. The spoon was in the corner of her mouth. My stick only goes to 36 inches and she was 2-3 over. Didn't get a weight - 20? She still swims, so you pike guys can go out and buy some tiny red/white spoons!

[Eric Haataja]

Windy out there today but the fish were cooperating for us, casting cranks and spinners along with some live bait did the trick for us Clients landed about 10 Bass and 12 Pike and we missed another 6 fish. Overall not bad for the tough windy conditions. After 11 AM things slowed up for us for a while early we could not keep 1 rod in the water. Fishing over the weeds was best for us and up shallow.

Eric

[Fishin]

Talk about one lucky guy. ;)

I'll be back out on Delevan in a couple weeks with my buddy. I'll let you know how we do.

[deadeternity]

How is the ice on Dell????

[gloomis]

Has anyone heard how they are doing on Delavan ? I am heading out tomorrow afternoon for Gills/Crappies. Will post a report...

[walleyeshark]

Hey gloomis, check ...there's fish being caught but in a few different spots! I think I've seen you on there but if not, check it out. From what I've gathered, there's gills and crappies over by Highlands and Viewcrest, over by the dogtrack but way back to the left by the marsh and out in front of LL. Now some fella reported getting some fish left of the breakwall by the inlet in 4fow...take that for what it's worth! I have'nt been out for 3 weeks due to my friggin' back but my Pa's either out this morning or going out tomorrow morning...I'll report back, if there's a report to give since he's had really bad luck this year as far as just missing the "bites"! You know, "should've been here yesterday" type thing...Good luck out there!!!

[Eric Haataja]

My buddy did well on the south end for crappies and gills in 8 feet of warer site fishing, also they are getting crappies out deep still so find the fish and you'll be rewarded they are both deep and shallow in this lake. The crappies are really nice this year should be great this spring, I'm amazed how every year this lake still pumps out big pan fish.....

[gloomis]

It was a slow day Friday afternoon. Fished outside the West Bay on the South End... Near the green shack. A lot of smaller gills in the area, but the Crappies were not around. Talked to a guy who said 2 weeks ago was crazy with 12-14" crappies...

[nick]

fished south end 2/15 2/17 and 2/19. far walk with the gear. Well worth it. 4 to 6 f.o.w gills were 8-9 hittin plastics. bigger ones here and there pretty tough bite. Crappies same area 10-14 inchers plastics as well with a few on minnows. crappies were biting very goood verse the gills but 30 yds one way or the other made a difference in size and species.. lot of pike and bass cruisin up shallow. mainly site fishin or spring bobbers. good luck and be safe.


Ice was 10 inches bay to bay :) good for a bit still.

[walleyeshark]

Everyone must be walking/fishing right on the point of the island or no? This snow will make travel a little more of a pain in the a$$, obviously. Oh well, good luck out there!!

[nick]

yes walleyeshark out by the island in either bay . Bay 2 has been the better of the two though. I also like to fish 4-5 f.o.w out from Brown's Channel bout 70 yds . I do well there for the pannies and with a eye or 2 once in a while right at or after dark on tip ups rigged specifically for the walters. good luck . Mite see ya out there.

[HotHead617]

Went out today to try some ice fishing on delavan with Wapa2le and Romepond because i heard it was hammertime out there and......it wasnt...must have been there on the wrong day...i was there from 7am-2pm and caught 5 fish thats it.2 of them were borderline keepers the others were tiny.
I seen some fish but they were not interested in biting but i did have a musk rat scareing away my fish all day..he kept popping up into my hole and that would take care of any fish in that area..will be back out somewhere tomorrow!!

[collinfishes]

hot head thats crazy you say that because i had one or something like it come up my hole in the shanty yesterday and he scared me about as much as i scared him. as soon as i saw it and it saw me we both ran/swam away and joe was still sitting in there asking me what i was running out there from :p:p almost gave me a heart attack.
first time i ever experienced something other than a fish coming threw my hole. i was on a small local lake though.
:)

[fuzzyfishin]

Yea they typicaly will come up and look at you only cause you are moving.I have had them come and visit numerous times. If you see alot o bubbles coming up your hole chances are its a rat. I have had them sit and look at me for a few minutes in my shack. They are only looking for a breatherhole. You proly had yours near one of their feeder holes.

[HotHead617]

Every hole i moved the shack to he came up the hole 4 times to be exact but other than spooking the fish no biggie...he was definitely not spooked by me either unless i reached towards him.

[deno b.]

Fished Delavan today. The only fish we found were in the channels. Tried Lake Lawn Marina saw a few little gills caught. Tried drifting at a few deeper spots, and nada. Then hit the channels and caught very few but nice gills.

Water was real clear, saw a ton of bass. Beautiful day at Delavan. After seeing all the bass looking forward the opening day on Del. Go get em.

[brewcityfishr]

Hit Delavan today in search of crappies and came up with 0. could not find them anywhere today, but we did put the smackdown on some nice gills in the 8-9 inch range. also a bonus lmb and pike while gill fishing. fished between 3-8 fow all around the bays. another week or so and it should really get going out there! good fishin'

[Sam Clark]

went out with brewcityfisher today caught about 14 bluegill biggest one was 10inches, 1 northern and 1 largemouth.. just couldnt seem to find them tried about 9 spots.. water was really clear. lots of weeds fished from 4 to 9 feet.. at least we didnt get a skunkaro.. im gonna try winnebago tomorrow..

[Brian Mirek]

Fished Big D for the opener this morning. 6am - Noon.

Caught 11 pike, biggest 28 inches. Nothing to write home about....embarrassed to even write that on here.

The real kicker, no bass caught. I think I'm off my game.

We had a lot of lazy follows from some real nice pike, saw many other pike cruising on 6 - 8 foot flats. Had 3 bite offs Saw one smallmouth cruising in 10 feet of water, and that was the only bass I saw all morning.

We tried every presentation at every depth for bass, and nothing. I did see a few guys catch some dink largemouths in the channel by the boat launch, nothing big that I saw though.

Water temp 49 - 51 degrees, couldn't find any warmer water.

Need to retune my game, not happy with how I'm playing right now.

Tomorrow's another day....and another body of water.

[Adrift Alone]

Fished Delavan today for about 5 hours, 11am to 4 pm. tried the main lake first because of all the boat traffic in the bays. Caught nothing but northern. A whole crap-load of northern. Maybe 10 in about 75 minutes. Biggest was 33. Not one bass which was my quarry, so I went into the bays and fought for water with 50 other guys:rolleyes:. Caught about 10-12 bass up to 18 inches (on senkos).

Water temps were 56 in the main lake and 58-60 degrees in the bays.

AA

[luv2fish]

**Late Report**

Made it out on the Big D for the opener searchin for craps... and Found em in 7-10 fow. We tried mini mites and waxies, plastics, jigs etc.. with the best presentation being the old trusty hook n minnow fishing bobbers 3-4 ft down. Bite was slow in the morning but slowly picked up by mid day. We left @ noon and took home 31 fish between three guys...

Forgot to mention we also picked up 6 northern on the crappie minnows. All were snakes except for one which was right around 34-35" and FAT. Also saw some pick up a couple fish soaking suckers...

Water temp was still low 50's so hopefully the best is yet to come...

Good Luck,

Ryan

[Hunter5]

Fished Tuesday. Lots of boats out. Caught some nice gills and a few Bass. Gills caught on Wax worms and Red worms.

[Eric Haataja]

Made it out on the big D this past week a couple of time and fishing was solid lots of bass in the same spring patterns as years past with the largies being easier to catch than the smallies this week, but things will change drastically here soon and the smallies will be on fire as well. Saw some fish up on beds but the majority are pre spawn, some nice crappies as well this past week out on the lake. Best depths were 2-10 feet of water

Eric

[luv2fish]

Cousin was out on Delevan today fishing for Crappie and got the SKUNK!!!!! He tried fishing the same area/s that we fished last week (brought home 30) with NOTHING to show for it. He said he tried shallower / deeper and just couldn't find em...Any ideas?? Think they dropped already and are headin back out over deep water??

Good Luck Guys,

Ryan

[Eric Haataja]

Some nice crappies and gills from delavan from this week, fish are still there just gotta move around a bit!

[Needtofishmore]

So ... did you catch those on the Cheez-it? :D

[kthao86]

It was only my 2nd time at Delavan yesterday (5/8). It was a great day, perfect weather. There were plenty of Largmouths, but for some reason we couldn't catch any. Anyone have any clues on how to catch these things when there still spawning? We went all the way to the bedrocks, and saw tons of LM, but couldn't catch any. Any clue?

Also, We were trying to find the Crappie hot spot - but coudln't find it. Anyone can give away any clues?

Good Luck!

[deadeternity]

If they are prespawn still, a 5 inch senko wacky rigged will catch some fish, or a jerkbait like a Rapala X-Rap. If they are on their beds use a small 1/16 ounce jighead tipped with a very lively leech. Leeches are a threat to a fishes eggs and, bass will not tolerate them being inside their nest. Even more fun would be using 8 pound flourocarbon line to make the rig as invisable as possible. The new Trilene Flourocarbon is pretty good so far. A bit stiff but very strong, managable, and invisable under water....

Also remember,fishing preasure turns fish off, as well as coldfronts and storms. So dont expect to catch to many if the boats are over their heads every second, a 100 lures are whipping past them, and the weather isn't right. Try to search out schools of fish where nobody else is fishing, or fish slightly deeper then the other boats a good 50-200 yards from them. Fish often scatter and you may get the fish everyone else is scarring away....

[samthemaster]

as first timers on a boat and launching a boat, we did ok. fished this lake for first time ever and managed 7 bass for myself. all over 16 inches and 1 fat 19 incher. the other 2 anglers with me (brothers) had their selves some nice pikes(1 at 30" and 1 at 22") and crappies(11"-12"). but only managed only 3 crappies. where are they? my brother tried around docks and got 3 there and no where else to be found. need a fish finder i guess. all cpr but the 3 craps. wow the launch fee is expensive! lol.....(broke college student)......

[Cbangler]

Out this weekend with Fishing Dan and MU Fish. Action was pretty good throughout, but couldn't seem to find that "Big" bite.
Water temps were 56-58 on the main lake, and 59-63 in the backwaters. All of our fish came on plastics and spinnerbaits. Here are a few of the cuties.....

[Army-Retired]

Fished for the first time today this year. Managed 1 small pike. Tried spinnerbaits, crankbaits, minnows, and wax worms for crappies, bluegills, and bass. Just wasn't my day but enjoyed being on the water...good luck to all!

[collinfishes]

wasnt our day either hah. got out with dean today and tried everything with only a crappie and a gill to show. seen alott of nice bass and a big northern but they werent havin it. was fun and the weather was nice minus the wind later in the day.

[samthemaster]

does anyone know when this places opens or closes?

[Hunter5]

Went to Delavan Mon-Wed. Very windy all three days. Caught some nice bass and a few keeper gills. Bass caught on plastics and the gills were caught on leaf worms

[Finseeker]

Did 3 guide trips between Saturday afternoon and Sunday night.

Saturday afternoon was tough and we only boated 9 bass with nothing over 17"

Sunday morning looked great with overcast skies but started out slow as well. We got on a hot bite by the end of the trip and finished with 11 bass, 19.5" was the biggest.

Sunday afternoon we tried some new spots with nothing doing and went back to the tried and true late morning spot and finished with 15 in the boat with a 20.5" as the biggest. We switched to a 6" Yum Dinger which seemed to be the ticket. The color didn't seem to matter much.

When we found weedy flats with at least a few feet of water above them was where we did our best.

[Eric Haataja]

today fishing with a 1 client who was fairly new to bass fishing, and had never fished plastics or artificals before. With that being said fishing was FANTASTIC!!!! We easily landed between 40-45 bass both largies and smallies.
The key is fairly simple....the smaller males ( fish 14-19 inchers) are locked down on the beds and I visable saw numerous area's were fry were present meaning the fish had spawned 7-14 days ago. Other area's I noticed fish just starting to spawn and fish actually spawning. Many of the bigger females are done spawning and are actually schooling up in big post spawn numbers now and are fairly easy to catch them, if you know where to look for them. A swim jig (Swim Stalker) in white and pumpkin worked very well along with plastics in 4-12 feet of water.

If you get into some of the bigger females fish slow....when faced with conditions like today , work area's very thoroughly and you can clean up on a pile of fish!

Saw lots of crappies spawning in a few area's as well.

[Army-Retired]

Anchored in 10ft of water casting deeper today I managed a nice string of 15 crappies. The key was a very slow lift and drop retrieve using minnows and a 1/16oz jighead. Decided to try for Bass using a swim jig and spinnerbait but no takers, only Pike which was fun also. Good luck to all....

[Hunter5]

Took the nieces and nephew fishing. They all caught Bass on rubber worms.

[Finseeker]

Fished Saturday with clients. The bite was tough, we ended up with 9 boated and at least 9 misses with 6 of those bust offs on the hook sets.

5" Yum dingers were the best. We tried dragging leeches for a short time and got nada.

[Finseeker]

Fished Sunday with CB Angler and MU Fish. Lots of fish on beds on the south end and after badgering the boys, they agreed to leave those fish alone. Overall things were slow again but we did scratch out a few nice ones.

[Adrift Alone]

Fished Tuesday afternoon for about 6 hours for largies. Just prior to wetting a line, spoke to "a friend of the website" and he generously pointed me in the right direction, because I knew fishing would be tough (time of year and weather). I wanted females and that was all I targeted. I managed six fish, all female, none less than 18 inches, w/ four over 19. Big fish was a fat 21 1/2 incher and went 5lb./14oz. on my X-tools digital. What a wonderful fish! Can't remember catching a bigger one out of D, but I will rememeber next time, thanks to the Captain!!!

All fish caught on jigs, black and blue....

AA

Lastly, anyone reading this who really wants to "learn Delavan for any species...." Just call WI Big Fish and book a trip. No BS, he will open your eyes to a whole new fishery that you never knew was even there. Tactics, migrations, you name it...

[Finseeker]

Did 2 trips on Thursday. The morning run produced 10 pike (32",34") and 4 bass (20",20",18") The pike came on suckers and the bass came on a combo of leeches, suckers and 5" Yum Dingers in Mardi Gras.

The afternoon we mostly targeted bass in the shallows. We ended up with 11 bass and 2 pike. One bass just under legal. Stayed near dark hoping for some top water love and got nada. I think it was too cold. All bass came on the Dingers.

[Finseeker]

more pics from Thursday

[Finseeker]

More Thursday pics

[Finseeker]

Fished with clients this morning. Nothing for the first 2 hours and then fought my way to a 10 spot, 6 pike (32") and 4 bass (20",20")

All pike came on suckers and 3 of the 4 bass came on a football head jig punched through the weeds, tipped with a power worm. The 4th bass came on a 9-10" sucker on 60 lb leader and quick strike rigged. Got off the water just before the rain.

When the wind picked up, I deployed the old 72" Wave Tammer and slowed way down.

[Finseeker]

Took clients out at 7:00 am. The day again started out slow and we just stayed the course and pecked away at our fish. We ended with 11 pike and 2 bass. Everything came on suckers today.

[Eric Haataja]

Been out a bunch this past week mainly on Delavan and the fishing has been either really good or just so so. Lots of males still guarding beds but we've been targeting the bigger females that are either in the weeds or starting to move on the deep weeds and school up, that bite seems to be day to day and if you can get on a school of the bigger females (bass) you can clean up. Best baits have been swim stalker jigs, and senko's for us. The pike bite really picked up this past week in full swing as well with suckers and swim baits.

Here's a few pics.

[Finseeker]

Did a 4 hour trip this morning for pike. We boated 10 pike (1 Legal), 1 smallie, 1 Carp and 2 largies.

The bass and carp came on Yum Dingers and the smallie and pike came on suckers off of the deep weed edges.

[Fishin Dan]

Nice work Stevie!

Got out with my buddy Bob on Friday afternoon. Started shallow and did well on bass with plastics while the sun was out where we could see small gills crusing - as soon as clouds rolled in the bite stopped. Moved deeper (8-15fow) and found a few more bass and some short pike on a jerk bait. As the sun came back out, we went shallow to finish and got a few more on plastics. Ended the day with a few top water fish and a total of 16 bass and 2 pike. Seems like the bass aren't set up deep yet - had a few bites up to 15 but nothing past that. A few warm days and I bet they move to the deeper weeds. Nice day and not too many boats out.

Here are a few pictures.

[Eric Haataja]

Fishing remains excellent fish are starting to move out on the deep weeds and crush the swiming jigs which is a blast when you get on the schooling big bass, best jigs have been the swim stalkers, drop shotting also working along with dead sticking plastics for bass.

20+ fish bass days have been common

[Eric Haataja]

Busted!!!!!!!!!!!! I saw the warden at the launch today issueing a ticket to some fellow fisherman for keeping a 16 inch bass that was dead. The guys must not have known the law, and the warden was cool about everything. I mentioned to him about putting up signs in bright colors on ther docks so it was more obvious and he was in favor of it. Also talked to a shore fisherman off a pier who informed me he loved bass and keeps a bunch to eat...lovely! Guys don't go nuts over this just do you part to make the call if you see someone violating, it's all about educating people for the most part. 1 Bass 18 inches is the LAW on this Lake!
Anyways besides that fishing report today was pretty crappy bass are buried in the weeds and a few deep pike are in the weeds. Pike were easy to catch but the bass were not that active, although I did find one active school on the deep weeds where we hooked up 8-9 times then they vanished....Sweet Beaver's, creature baits, drop shotting and dead sticking worked for us! Hopefully tomorrow id better!!

Oh yea I think there was a fire in Browns channel this evening....

Eric

[Finseeker]

Took customers out for an evening trip. The pike bite was good but all of the floating weeds on the East shore slowed us down a bit. The West shore had cottonwood on the surface which caused a different frustration.

All in all the bite was good, they boated 12 pike and 1 walleye with 4 or 5 misses. We caught 1 pike and 1 walleye on leeches and the rest on small suckers. I couldn't find anything over 4" at the 3 bait shops I went to. No Bass to speak of.

We concentrated on the deep side of the weeds. 12' - 20'

Saw a house burn down as a training excercise, pretty surreal to see from the water.

[Adrift Alone]

Fished last night 5 to 9pm. Nothing going until sunset then largemouth turned on pretty good. Outside weed edge, 12 to 14 feet on drop shot and jig/pig combos. All nice fish,,, 15" to 19 1/2". Water temp was 88 in main basin and 92 in the channels, WOW!

AA

[Cbangler]

Sorry for the late reports, but finally got the new Camera up and running. Bass fishing has been tough for us the past few weeks. (this was 2 weeks ago) but as Eric said, buried in the weeds! Jigs, drop shots and leaches have taken a few fish - but a pretty tough bite for us over all.

[Cbangler]

Another late report, but out on Delavan for a couple of days last week. Water temps 84 - 87 (swealtering hot, with no breeze to speak of).

Bass bite conitnued to be very tough for us, still buried in the weeds. Only managed a few bass each day. Pike on the other hand were going pretty good on the deep weed edge. Dragging meat and deep diving cranks were getting it done, with some really nice fish up to 38". Fish were in 15' - 18' of water. Here are a few of the goods ones

[brewcityfishr]

Fished Delavan this morning 6:30-1:00 looking for gill's. fished 6-7 spots between 12-28 fow. water surface temps right around 73.9 deg. Lot's of gill's, caught 150+ took home 27 keepers. 2 walleye's- both shorts and 4 smb. redworms and wax worms did the trick. boat traffic was low for a change! be back soon! good fishin'

[Eric Haataja]

Fished yesterday and it was a tough bit for me and my customers only caught 4-5 pike and 4-5 bass very slow day! :-(((( That's fishing sometimes!

[Finseeker]

It is comforting to hear that you have an occassional bad day Cappie!......Misery loves company. I had the same day this morning. I struggled to get 6 or 7 pike, nothing legal, 1 8" smallmouth and 1 Walleye.

The walleye was a pleasant surprise, 24.5" caught on a leech by a 12 year old. You could imagine my surprise when I saw here for the first time while netting her.

[Adrift Alone]

Fished Big D for the first time in 3 weeks last night. My reward was two bass, both 18" and a couple of northern. My favorite lake for July fishing was nothing but dread. Even given conditions, this was unexpected. Just when I thought I knew what I was doing,,,, crash...burn....

Here's to hoping that the cool spring and summer haven't screwed the whole prime time summer bite.... I miss last July.... Good luck!

AA

[Eric Haataja]

Don't feel bad Mark it has been tough out there for me as well on the deep weeds, depending on who's in my but dictates how and where we fish, the fish have been a lot more shallow this July than normal!

Eric

[Cbangler]

Made it out to Delavan on a few trips over the past week. Definitely still not a hot bite, but we have managed some decent fish. Pike, Bass and Walleyes on Drop shots, Deep diving cranks, Leeches and Minnows. Great to have a chance to fish with my brother and the Nebraska boys this week. Caught our fish from 14-18 FOW. Here are a few of the nice ones...

[Cbangler]

Few more from this week with Tom, Dick and Steve (who by the way caught the biggest fish and the smallest fish)

[Cbangler]

Last of this week's pics

[Eric Haataja]

Been out on Big D this past week and the bite is improving the jig bite has turned on and the crank and swim baits are also working very well now, Pike are both shallow and deep in this hot weather be careful not to over handle them and let them flop around in the boat always keep them in the water in the net so the fish can breath. Drop shotting and suckers are also working well!

We'll see how tomorrow is..........

[Bigfisherman]

It is a weird year fishing here has been strange I am still catching eyes in 4-7fow and they haven't moved into the 12-15ft yet and may not if the summer stays this way.

Karl

[Finseeker]

I did 3 trips last week and 1 this week. The fishing has been spotty and I am finding my dependable deep bite is really hit or miss. Most of the fish are in the weeds or just outside of them. My least favorite place to get them.

Getting decent bass and seeing alot more legal walleyes for this early in the year which is the only saving grace. This same week last year was the best week of the year for me on Delavan with 4 trips completed and numbers of 16-28 gamefish landed. Even the bluegills are not what they should be, the leech bite is slow etc.

I think the cool evenings and lower than normal day time temps have the pattern screwed up. The fishing pressure this year is at unprecedented levels, even for this lake and that can't help either. Drive by there on a mid week day and by 7:30 they are already parking on the grass.

I was able to catch 12 gamefish Monday night.

[Eric Haataja]

Crazy day for me on friday we pounded the big bass up to 4 3/4 lbs in the AM with easily over a dozen nice fish over 3 lbs and we caught 15 pike so over all action was great in the AM but on my afternoon trip the bass just did not want to cooperate! We caught another dozen pike but the bass shut down until last light where we caught 4 fish all on jigs with creature baits. not many fish deep in the afternoon but they were deep in the AM. Weird day...

That's fishing!

[Jerry Borst]

Fished delavan for the 1st time this year today and things went pretty good as far as numbers go, landed my 1st muskie out of there in 2 years with a 40". I started at noon and fished till they quit moving about 7:15 pm, landed 24 pike with the biggest about 36" missed 10+ others. I remember not to long ago when a 30- 32'' was the small fish of the day, those days are gone for now.

[Eric Haataja]

Fished yesterday and we caught a lot of pike but lots and i mean lots of small snakes in the 22-24 inch range. Probably had close to 40 pike if not more, along with 6 walleye's and 4 bass, could not get the bass to go that well for us yesterday, maybe today will be better. Our pike came on cranks, spinners, and live baits (suckers) on the weeds edges, walleye's came on leeches, and bass came on jigs, drop shots, minnows.

[Finseeker]

Fished last Saturday in the pouring rain and wind but the bite was worth it. We landed over 30 game fish in a full day trip with several legal pike and bass.

Fished last night for 4 hours and landed 20 pike and bass with a few legals. Lots of action at times. Everything came on leeches are suckers. Nice to see Cappie out there in the evening.

[Finseeker]

some pics from last Saturday

[luv2fish]

Got out today and was on the water @ 6:00 targeting specifically gills. I caught fish anywhere from 10-20 fow with 14' seeming to be the best. Leaf worms and waxies on swedish pimples did most of the work for me, not too much biting on small leaches. Ended up getting my one man limit and was off the water relatively early...

Good Luck,

Ryan

[Finseeker]

Fished Saturday and boated 12 Largies and 8 Pike. Several legal Bass and no legal pike. Best depth was 12-16 feet on the South Shore. Medium size suckers was the bait DuJor.

[Finseeker]

Fished Sunday and had 2 bass on before I could get my 4th rod out in the water. We boated 16 Pike and Bass with a 34" Pike being the biggest fish. Half the bass were nice and the other half were smaller than normal for live bait.

Best depth again was 12-18 fow with the shallower water being the ticket. South shore again was hot.

[Finseeker]

Went out last night for a quickie. Caught 8 pike and 2 bass with a few drops. The bass were taken on slip bobber rigs and the pike were on drag rigs with suckers.

Best depth again was 14-18 fow. We did get 1 bigger pike in 20 feet.

[Finseeker]

Fished Saturday morning and boated 17 pike and bass. If memory serves it was like 12 bass and 5 pike. Biggest largie scaled 5lbs 9oz.

The wind was coming from the North West and so I worked the South (windblown)shoreline in 12-16 fow.

Slip bobbers and lindy rigged suckers were the ticket.

[Finseeker]

Fished Saturday afternoon. Started on the calm side as the wind really ramped up between trips. We started off with a really nice pike and a few misses.

Couldn't stop thinking about all the big bass I got on the windblown shore and went back to where I spent most of the morning 12-16 fow.

We scratched out 13 pike and bass with several misses. Ron (8 year old) landed a legal pike, smallie, and largie.

Also, a few more pics from morning trip.

[Eric Haataja]

Nice work skipper I'm heading out in the morning hopefully it will not snow!!! Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

[Eric Haataja]

Most of the bass I've found are schooled up in tight locations off of weed points, weed pockets, and inside turnes on the main lake. The fish have at time been stubborn but they will bit if you fish slow and finese fish them on the tough days, when the fish are agressive spinner baits, cranks, topwater, and all the traditional baits work better.

Out yesterday and we did alright landing 23 game fish in 6 hours bass and pike. Jigging spoons did some damage along with cranks, drop shots, and swim jigs. Suckers also worked on the weed edges. The water is slower clearing up so in the next 45 days many of these fish will work there way up into the weeds.

Eric

[Finseeker]

Fished Saturday and boated 16 pike and bass. 14-18 feet along the south shoreline.

Client boated personal best pike and bass (6lb 4oz). 4-6" suckers suspended off of the bottom was the ticket.

[Finseeker]

Fished this morning and boated 1 Walleye, 19 gills, 3 Bass and 12 pike. The biggest bass was 5 lbs and the customers personal best.

Best depth again was 14-20 feet of water on the South Shoreline. Small to medium suckers were the ticket. All of the gills came on leeches and wax worms off of jigs.

[Hyintegrity]

Fished Tuesday 8am-4pm
Started out on the South end of the lake in the morning, caught bass and pike on a mixture of spinnerbaits and chubs. Missed a bunch of hits... Then later in the day pitched a few docks and pulled a couple good bass off of a few.
Ended up with 5 bass and 10 pike.
Largest bass was close to 4 1/2 lbs

All in all not a bad way to spend a Tuesday

[Cbangler]

Out with Pops on a rare day off for him. Started early to dodge the traffic, and ended up 16 for 20 in just over 5 hours. Live bait for Pike and Drop shots for Bass. Fish came from 12 - 20 FOW. No giants but one 19" and a couple of 18"s. Here are a few pics....

Nice fish finseekers!

[Finseeker]

Morning trip produced 16 pike and bass with about 22 hits and the afternoon trip produced 11 pike with about 20 at bats in 4 hours. Biggest fish in the afternoon was 35" and the morning trip was 32"

Found the bass early on the deep weed edge and then nothing later in the day, 12-14 fow. The pike were in 18' to 23 feet. Biggest struggle was running out of the right sized bait. Started out the day with 5 dozen suckers and then got another dozen later in the day. When the bass aren't biting, you need the bigger bait for the pike.

[Cbangler]

Out for a leisure run on Saturday - traffic was a bit lighter, and the fish were somewhat cooperative. Pike on Live bait, and bass on drop shots. Lots of different sizes on the bass, with 2 over 19". No great big Pigs, but some quality bites. Pike were in 18-25 FOW, and Bass were right on weed edges from 12-18 FOW. Surface temps still in the low to mid 70's.

Pics courtesy of "Finseekers"

[brewcityfishr]

Fished Delavan this morning 6:30-1:30, managed 30 keeper gill's 7-8 3/4", 2 nice perch, 5 pike 24-28" and 6 lmb 16-18". large suckers did the damage on the bass and pike, leeches and redworms for the panfish. fished 12-25', water temps around 72 deg. next time I'm buying more suckers! we ran out to early in the day. be back soon. good fishin'

[Finseeker]

Fished last Friday during the day and boated 15 pike and bass. Few decent pike and mostly smaller bass. Best bite was on the north shore in 18-22 fow.

Lindy rigged and suspended suckers were the ticket

[Finseeker]

Fished Delavan for a few hours Saturday afternoon (19th)after struggling with heavy winds and inactive fish in Racine during the morning run. My wife dropped off my son for his first pike outing. We caught 8 pike in total with my son catching 3 (with a little help from dad and his uncle).

After a few short hours, he announced it was time to go and we followed suit.
It was awesome watching the look on his face when we got the pike in the net.

[Finseeker]

Put a full day in on Sunday with my Uncle and CB angler. The morning shift was a struggle with only a handful of fish. We decided to hit the Village Inn for lunch and regroup. The afternoon shift turned around quite a bit and we ended the day with over 20 pike and bass and a few nice ones.
Bass came on drop shots and live bait(with a twist) after fending off my Unce for 2 days trying to figure out how we could fly fish for pike in 20 feet of water, I compromised and took a few of my fly rods and rigged them with my usual sucker set ups. We eventually caught 3 pike (33") and 1 bass (18")on the 6 WT fly rods and it was a blast. Tough to get the rods loaded up enough for the hook set, but when it worked, it was a ton of fun.

[Finseeker]

Fished Monday morning. The morning started out with me going to 3 baitshops and everybody was out of decent sized suckers (4-6" size).
We decided to use the few left overs we had from the weekend and do some casting. We exclusively ran fly rods for the suckers and casted some top waters. We ended up with 7 or 8 pike and bass during the morning. Overall it was slow.

[Finseeker]

Did 3 trips this weekend. Saturday morning we boated 11 pike and bass with a 32" pike being the biggest.

Saturday afternoon was cut short due to the customer having a family emergency, we boated 6 pike and bass in about 2 hours. No legals

Sunday we boated 3 bass and 2 pike before the wind kicked our A@#.

[reddyguideservice]

Late report from Delavan-Walleye bite has been good early a.m. or last hour of the day fishing 17-22 FOW using Lindy rigged crawlers, fatheads and small/medium suckers. The bite has been migrating to a minnow bite over the crawlers. Have been catching some nice bass on suckers and ripping blade baits in 20-30 FOW. The pike bite has been good fishing 10-12 FOW soaking suckers and casting spinner and chatter baits. Many of the bigger fish have been caught in 25+ FOW with the best being 37 1/2 so far. The crappies are starting to bite in the classic 10-20 foot range in 30-50 FOW. Some real nice schools this year filling the screen on the 510c.

[deadeternity]

How the ice looking for Lake Delavan? I am not seeing any reports so, I am wondering how the lake has been holding up...

[reddyguideservice]

There has been safe ice in the Inlet and Lake Lawn Marina areas for awhile..........around 5-6", maybe closer to eight. The main lake froze in several stages. I would not venture out there yet, but I would believe there is around 2-3". The west end has ice but only around 2/3 of the way out. I checked that out yesterday and had 3-4" good ice transitioning to 1-2" as you get out. Fishing has been so so with smaller gills and few crappies. Ice was gin clear, so we need some snow cover.

[deadeternity]

reddy, thanks for the heads up. I heard a couple guys caught 30+ keeper gills and crappies a few days back but they had to work hard for them and, they were caught in 3-6 feet of water so fairly shallow. But that is the only good report I heard from a reliable source. Hope the ice thickens because I want some pike and panfish action next weekend. Thanks again...

[1MORECAST]

fished south east bay today gills are running small. two guys fell in both got out. guide shack fell in just outside horse shoe channel..everyone be safe

[deadeternity]

It is sad to hear the ice sucks and the gills are running small. I dont remember ever catching a gill outthere under 7" long. The lake is very pressured and, keeping that many big gills could have a positive and negative effect. Positive because it thins the population which helps to prevent stunting, but negative because the big fish genetics are impacted for the future gills. Stay safe and good luck everyone....

[Get Hooked]

might be heading out here this coming week. anyone got any info i could use? i have never been here, so....... i have read all the winter reports from previous posts, just lookin for anything recent. private message me if you want. i have a map and will use it, but any starting points are always appreciated. also have a gps if anyone is that giving.:D :eek: :rolleyes: i'm lookin for it all. eyes,pike, panfish. this may be only my one time out there this year, and i have a portable shack, so i will try my best not to spoil anyones spots. oh yea, did i mention i will have a disabled elderly lady, 2 war veterens, and 3 grandpas that dont have much time left to catch fish? :D:D:D:eek: j/k...( lakelink tactics ) but could use some info...

[deadeternity]

Get Hooked, check your instant messenger!

[Eric Haataja]

The crappies are biting out in the North and south Bays along with some of the channels on the lake!!!

[brewcityfishr]

Late report from saturday- got out for the spring crappie bite. fished 1pm til dark. hit all the bays, channels and wind blown shoreline. slow going, only managed 3 small crappies for the day. caught well over 100 gills but only a dozen keepers. spikes, waxies and minnows did the damage. good fishin'

[Hunter5]

Fished the big D with the wife on Monday. Caught 2 nice bass and about 150 gills, but only 30 keepers. The wind was a real drag. Maybe one of these fishing trips the wind will stop....Maybe

[Finseeker]

I got out on Saturday with 3 young fisherman, new to the sport. After a quick tutorial on spinning gear we set out to bass fish. The boys boated roughly 15 largemouth and a few panfish. All but 3 of the fish were caught long casting 5" Yum Dingers. Ozark Smoke and Mardi Gras were the best. We caught at least a few fish every spot we went to. Keeping the boys from getting discouraged by the weeds was the hardest part.
Tons and tons of bluegills in the shallows down on the south end but not the size Delavan is known for.

Be sure to check out our new website www.finseekers.com and our facebook account - finseekers guide service




Field Editor Report by Steve Everetts
Finseekers Guide Service
(847) 707-1827
severetts@dls.net

[Finseeker]

Boated 4 SMALLies, 6 largies and 5 pike. I was surprised to see how few fish there were cruising the shallows compared to last weekend. The weedeaters were in full effect in front of the golf course and in Lake Lawn which didn't help much. We did catch a few nice largies but the smallies were small. We eventually switched to pike fishing and had a double on 20 minutes and then a triple on 30 minutes after that. We ended up 5 for 6 on pike.

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[BigMusky]

fished Delavan today and got decent bass and pike as well. There are tons of big bluegills spawning all over lake, move around to find giants. Lost a giant smallmouth boat side.

Fish came on cranks, jerkbaits early, but then jigs and tubes once sun got high. Gills came on gulp

[Finseeker]

I found the bass bite tougher again today allthough we had our chances at big fish but only converted on the the smaller guys. We fished for them shallow with plastics and then deep with suckers. We ended up 11 for 20 for the day and boated 5 pike over 30". We lost big bass on jumps and by them hitting 6"-9" baits and not getting good hooks in them. We had 1 bass grab a bait and run 160' of line off like it was nothing and then she fell off 8 feet from the boat.
The pike bite was great at times and had several chances at doubles including 1 fish that clearly ate 2 of our baits one after the other and we photo'd her 2 seperate hooks in her mouth. Traffic was better than expected and the customers had a great time. Got some real nice suckers from Watersedge in Janesville! Fish came as shallow as 13' and as deep as 22', not trying to be vague, that is just what happend.

[Finseeker]

Was out Sunday morning. We went 17 for 20 on pike. The majority of the fish were in the upper 20's to low 30's. We again caught fish as shallow as 13 feet and as deep as 22'.
I picked up some really nice suckers from Watersedge. Nice to be able to buy bigger bait this early in the season.

[Adrift Alone]

Hit D last night for a couple of hours. Water (surface) temps up to 75-76 in the main lake. Immediately went to my summer spots looking for post spawn females. Nada.

Changed plans after three spots without a bite and went to..... the docks. Skipped tubes and scored. Fish up to 18 1/2 inches. Post spawn fish, all. A little surprised to find them so shallow, but glad I changed up!

AA

[BigMusky]

I found same thing when I went that bigger fish had not moved to summer spots yet. we found most of our fish that were not on beds to be on slow transition flats that still had some weeds growing.

[Eric Haataja]

I will eventually make my way back to the dreadful delavan....I've been on vacation and now fishing other lakes with just as big of fish and practically no boat traffic is priceless!

Thanks for the reports!

[kayakfisherman]

Ive avoided the crowds at delavan for years but I decided to give it a shot today. The parking lot was full of trailers but once I was on the water I was suprised to see there wasnt much boat traffic. I did pretty well dragging some suckers behind the kayak.

[Finseeker]

Nice Work Robbie!

Boated 22 pike today and 1 bass. Most of the pike were medium sized but we did manage a few over 30". Bass scaled 5.9 lbs and was the biggest I have seen so far this year.

[Eric Haataja]

Summer patterns are setting up on the lake.

Fished with clients in the rain and fishing was nothing short of fantastic. Started off catching as many gills as the guys could handle. Customers wanted to take home some fish and the gills were going nuts on the deep weeds. clients had numerous triple headers and I had my hands full changing baits unhooking fish etc....after catching a 2 man limit I asked what would you like to catch next, they asked for some big pike. So we ventured just outside the gills in 18-24 feet of water and starting throwing some swim jigs, plastics and dragging some suckers. The pike bite was also very good our first fish of the day was just short of 40 inches and we had several doubles. The we fished eyes for about an hour and we ended up with some nice walleyes on some deep rock in the 22 foot range fishing was also solid for eyes. Seemed like just about everywhere we fished and everything we fished for was biting well. Which is always nice because there's days when the fishing is much tougher.

We ended up with more fish than I could try to count, lots of pike, largies some smallies and eyes, and many gills for the fryer. we had several legal eyes as well.

We also got into some dandy smallies at the end of the day. Overall a fantastic day on Delavan in the rain showers.

I'll be back out there tomorrow. Here's a few pics.....

[Eric Haataja]

few more fish from trips.

[Adrift Alone]

Fished D last night for the first time in a few weeks. Looked for bass on the weed edges and was disappointed with only two caught, biggest 17 inches. Try jig and trailer in thicker weeds, caught a few more, biggest 18 1/2 inches. Was never able to get to an effective pattern, one here, one there. All fish cauaght in 8 feet to 14 feet. Kind of a yawner.

Good luck,,,

AA

[JAL24]

Fished Delavan for the first time with the "Finseeker" on friday. Showed us a good time!! Thanks Steve. We had a great time, good conversation and put some fish in the boat. The only bad part was the "babysitting"....:D

[Eric Haataja]

Made it out on Friday and the fishing was exceptional we boated 37 pike numerous bass and all the gills clients could handle, the pike action was crazy for the 6 hours we fished! The last 2 trips out there we boated over 25 pike each trip so the action is good. Plenty of fish on plastics, live bait and jigging spoons. The summer bite out deeper for bass pike and eyes is going strong! Several more fish in the upper 30 inch class pushing 40 inches all released of course!

Eric

[Finseeker]

Sorry for the late post. Some pics from last Friday. We boated 15 gamefish with a few legals.

Nice pics Captain scrappy. You don't show up until June and then pick up right where you left off. Well played!

[Finseeker]

Hit Delavan yesterday morning. Finally got a taste of Captain Haataja's pike mania. We boated 25 pike and 3 nice bass as well as a handful of gills.

Great 1/2 day on the water.

[Finseeker]

Hit Delavan again yesterday afternoon. We boated 1 largie, 1 smallie and 21 pike if memory serves. We had chances at several others. Between the hits and keeping Braden (6yrs old) from "getting bored" Chad and I were worn out.

Really fun afternoon out on the lake.

[Eric Haataja]

Fished down on delavan this past week and the bite continues to be awesome catching lots of pike of the deep weeds and rock and also catching some big bass now with plenty of gills and some eyes mixed the bite has been great and actually there were only a few boats on the lake this weekend and more during the week which was crazy!

[Finseeker]

Few pics from last outing including a 25" Walleye.

[Eric Haataja]

Great fishing again this past week on delavan with awesome action on the pike, bass, and even a few legal eyes. Gills are going nuts on the deep weeds, pike and bass are on the deep weeds and rock really schooling up. Swim baits, jigging spoons, live bait have all been working along with drop shots and jigs for the bass.

18-25 feet was hot this past week for me.

[Eric Haataja]

few more fish from this past week

[Finseeker]

Nice fish skipper!
A few pics from last night's trip. I found some bigger fish suspended out as deep as 25'. Steering clear of Delavan this weekend but the bite has been good.

www.finseekers.com

[Finseeker]

Fished yesterday afternoon. The lake was jammed with pleasure boaters but at least the floating debris wasn't bad. Things started out slow while pike and bass fishing and we kept getting gill bites on our Ribbon Tail worms. We switched to gills and quickly had 30 keepers for the customers fish fry. We switched back to pike and bass focusing on 15-25 fow.

We tried several artificials with no success. Eventually the suckers did their job and we boated 8 pike and 3 largemouth along with the previously caught gills. 2 of the bass came on suckers and the other one on a nightcrawler. The biggest bass was 20" and scaled 5lbs 4 oz. Most of the pike were small

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[brewcityfishr]

Hit Delavan this morning. fished 6am til 11. the gills are still smashing baits in 20-30 feet of water on underwater points. found a nice school of bigger gills and stuck with them. managed to take home 60 between 3 people. Gulp waxies, waxworms and trout worms did the damage. lime/silver kastmaster tipped with gulp or waxworms put a bunch in the boat also. tons of boats out this am, parking lot was packed by 6.....good fishin'

[Finseeker]

Did a trip on Delavan last night. We boated over 60 gills and kept 30 for a fry;then switched to Bass fora few hours. We boated 6 or 7 largies and 1 pike. All fish came in 13-16 fow

www.finseekers.com and visit us on facebook and become a fan!

[Eric Haataja]

Fished Delavan yesterday and the fishing was fantastic gill fishing is about as easy as it can be out there now, we also caught about a dozen nice crappies on small hair jigs, clients landed 19 largemouth bass and 11 pike along with 40+ gills and a dozen crappies for a fish fry. Pretty much non stop action most of the day. Our fish cam on jigging spoons, plastics, live bait and swim baits for the pike and bass, gills came on waxies and worms and crappies on jigs, tons of fish on the weed edges all over the lake, did our best on some of the deep rock for the bass, they were schooled up big time!!! Biggest pike were 30 inchers I did not bother to take photo's off.
Best of luck

[Eric Haataja]

Did 2 trips yesterday on Delavan and in my morning trip we boated 11 bass and 19 pike along with many big gills all on the deep weeds. In the afternoon trip we caught a bunch of gills in the 8-9 inch range then caught 7 largies 1 smallies 2 eyes, and 4 pike on the deep rock. Fishing has been very solid out on delavan! !


Best baits for the bass were swim jigs and jigging spoons again pike were hitting minnows on carolina rigs down 18-29 feet of water be careful now that the water is warm to always keep them in the water. We did not even take pics of the nice pike due to the warm water temps.

[Adrift Alone]

Been itching to hit Delavan for weeks now and yesterday's cooler weather pushed me over the edge. Wish it hadn't, cause I struggled. Fished for 5 hours and only managed 10 largemouth and 1 smallmouth. I didn't find any schooled fish, it was one here and one there. Most fish were caught on the weed edge with drop shot. Caught a few in weed clumps on a jig. Hard work for little return...

Maybe next time?

AA

[Ben Kueng]

Fished Monday for 8 hours and hammered the bass. Most of the fish we caught were 17 and bigger, but we didnt get anything over 20.. My clients werent that interested in pike, but we caught a few decent ones along with a couple nice eater walleye on live bait. Mainly fished 15-25 FOW with spinnerbaits and shallow cranks.

[RJN]

Was out on Delavan Sunday and did pretty good with the crappies.
Boated around 55 or so and kept a dozen for a meal.
Fished by the Chinese Boat house in 10-12fow with pink and white tubes with minnows.
Two biggest fish were 12ers. and noticed the size has gone down a little bit.
Maybe I just couldn't find the big ones this time around.
Will say there were a lot of boats out there, and I'm not sure what to think about the Harbor Masters.
They try to keep everything in order, but they do hurt the boaters who try to keep the docks open. I always have my partner drop me off at the end of the dock so I can retrieve the truck/trailer. He then backs up so he doesn't tie up the pier.
The Harbor Masters want you to tie up to the dock and then retrieve your truck/trailer. I understand what they're trying to do but it's not helping the flow of traffic. I understand if you're by yourself, but they should encourage the drop off method on at least one of the piers and even put a sign up. Maybe even use a little common sense on each situation at hand. I haven't seen it yet. I've been told one thing by one HM and the other ends up redirecting me to do something completely opposite. I will say it's hard to bite my tongue with these guys.

JMO

[Hunter5]

Fished Delavan on Monday and Tuesday. Caught gills in 20-25 Feet of water. Worms and wax worms were working well. Fish were caught on the bottom and in the middle. Time for a fish fry.

[Eric Haataja]

Fished delavan 2 days ago and the bite was still really good for gills, and bass and pike on the deep weeds and rock with plastics and live bait.

Eric

[BigMusky]

Fished Delavan yesterday and it was good consistent action. Used up all 18 suckers on pike ranging up to 32inches and got a bonus 4.5, 19 inch largemouth. I lost a MONSTER largemouth right next to boat on a jig. Only fished from 9-2pm, so definitely not prime time.

Best depth was about 28FOW for pike with about 1/2 oz weight and 35LOC. Lost two other bass when we would put a 1/4 oz weight and much longer leader out and drift up on weed beds. They tend to drive into weeds and makes it hard to get them in with long moderate action live bait rods.

[Eric Haataja]

I was on Delavan this weekend and the bite was still solid for bass and pike on the weed edges the best baits were shaky head jigs with plastics and drop shots worked best, minnows also worked well carolina rigged on the deep weeds for some of the bass and pike.

Gills seemed to be scattered which means they are suspended out over the basin on the bottom in 20-35 feet of water and on the weed edges so you'll have to work for them now a bite more.

Boat traffic was horrible and I really do not like guiding this lake but it's so darn consistent when other bites get tough!:confused::rolleyes::eek:


Eric

[Eric Haataja]

here's a few pics from this past week on delavan.

[Eric Haataja]

Drop shotting has been the best along with texas rigging plastic worms and fishing shaky heads in the 10-15 foot ranges where the fish are schooled up.

[Adrift Alone]

All alone?

Couldn't believe it! Five trailers in the parking lot. Cloudy skys, reasonable breezes, and solid bass action. So glad to get the lake to myself and what a bonus that the fish were going too.

Stuck to the weedlines, started with drop shot (straight tail) and caught good bass between 17 and 19 inches. Really fat! Caught maybe 12 this way, then when wind picked up in later afternoon, I went to crankbait and dropped 6 more in the boat including one at 20 1/2 (5.2lbs.)

Also landed a couple northerns and a bonus waldo. My fish were all in 13-15 feet. Had to move around, never really ran into a "school" more like "an area" bite. Good luck out there....

AA