Pewaukee lake

[Justinm]

Welcome to the official Pewaukee Lake thread!

[Eric Haataja]

Fished Pewaukee today and Muskie fishing was slow client caught 1 largemouth and a pike to show for our efforts. Last light I did have a nice mid 40 inch class ski follow in at the honey hole just west of Taylor's bay.

Back to Delavan Tomorrow

[Eric Haataja]

Muskie action is Hot on Pewaukee, Client boated 1 nice fish yesterdat on a believer and he lot a bigger one at the boat, today we raised 8 different muskies and I had 3 clients in the boat and they all had fish hooked up that came un done.... really bummed me out but that's fishing, biggest fish I saw was a mid 40 inch fish. I'll post some pictures one of these days..........

[MLoppnow]

Eric, I always seem to be off by a couple of days on this lake don't I.:(

[BigMusky]

Pewaukee was not hot for me last night, big skunk-aroo on muskies last night...fished in front of taylors bay, condos and large point on south shore that usually at least shows a fish. Lake really busy last night for some reason.

[Eric Haataja]

Muskies are still going on Pewaukee, this fish came out of Taylor's Bay clients raised a few other and missed another nice ski.

Eric Haataja

[steinmj]

Caught my first 50" today on Pewaukee.

[BigMusky]

give us the story....looks like you were near the condos. I am still waiting for my big fish. Are you mounting it? Replica?

[steinmj]

We were trolling over 40 ft. of water in the SW part of the lake, and the fish hit on a Depthraider, about 5 minutes after a put it on. The fish was released, hopefully to be caught again someday :)

[Eric Haataja]

Awesome fish and congrats on the release! Great fish and great pic thanks for sharing it.

Eric Haataja

[steinmj]

Someone on lake link posted a message saying a 50 turned up dead on Pewaukee. Has anyone else heard this? We held this fish boatside for 30-40 minutes until it came back. It swam away strong, and headed straight down. I was a little concerned because of the heat, but I felt confident it was going to be okay. I hope this isn't true.

[BigMusky]

For some reason i would guess it was your fish, I have never seen a fish that took that 30 minutes to swim off live. They always come back up in a short time you have to work them that hard.

[Musky101]

First off hows the water temps doing on the lake? Talking to Smokeys the trolling bite has been pretty good. Wondering if anyone has tried drifting suckers or bluegills around weedlines like Eric out on Okauchee? Eric also wondering what types of circle hooks you use, what size,any weights on the line, and do you use leaders? Hoping to get out here with my brother one last time before he leaves and a few times with my friends this fall.

[tuffdaddy]

The temps out there on Saturday were around 75. Cooling down nicely. The trolling bite is still going great, and there have been some fish caught casting as well. Look for the casting to get better as the weather continues to cool the water down. I wouldn't drag any meat out there yet because you can get them on artificials at the time. Unless you wanted to slow down, then I'm sure suckers or gills dragged on the breaks or weedlines would get you some fish. I just move too fast this time of year to drag any bait. Hope this helps a bit. By the way, make sure to watch the baitfish and get your baits in the same area. Saturday the bait was really high in the water, and we were getting fish on wash rods as well as other short lines instead of the standard patterns we run out there.

[Musky101]

Was actually out there on sunday from about 5 till dark. Mainly trolled for skis but no luck there. Our depth finder wasn't working so I didn't know how deep we were but looking at the maps I would guess we were in 20-25fow. Police were out also, as we arrived at the launch they had picked up a lady for having her boat stickers in the wrong place. Now that is an interesting start.
When trolling started off with a big jointed believer and then switched to depthraider with no luck. What colors work the best out there? I have heard firetiger and other bright patterns were working from Smokeys.
Ended up catching a small bass and missing a few others by chesters island.
Will be out in the fall more.

[tuffdaddy]

Colors out there are pretty basic. Brighter colors on the sunny day (firetigers and whites) and darker colors on overcast days (perch, oranges).

[BigMusky]

trolled Saturday morning and did not get anything...saw one 37" musky caught in 35FOW of water on what looked like a fire tiger bagley. Casted for an hour with no luck near condos as well.

[Justind]

Caught this 40 inch fatty off rocky point about 415pm on a large sucker. Out all day and the only fish we saw.

[Eric Haataja]

One nice fish last week on a sucker on the weed edge on the north shore near the condo's doing nothing secret. Clients first ski and very fat!

[RJN]

Nice fish Eric!!
How long was that beast?

[Justind]

The warm weather and colder water temps seems to have pushed alot of fish in the 8-14 foot of water area. Out yesterday and picked up a 37" ski on a sucker to go with 2 misses and 5 drops as well as two follows on a bagley. One miss today. Fish are very lethargic.

[Steve White]

Justin,

Good job on all that action!!! Water is getting cold even in your part of the state. That means musky slow down big time. Try using smaller size suckers for better hook ups and less drops. Also cast baits that have a wide wobble at a slow speed for cranks. Plastics like bulldawgs, twin fish, etc, will be your best bet now. Work them like jerk baits with long sweeps and longer pauses. Strikes will get more subtle, so even if it feels like a weed set the hook.

With water temps now below 40 and ice forming, these are the tatics that are putting fish in the boat here in the northwoods!!

Tight lines,

Steve

www.whiteswoodsandwaters.com

[HotHead617]

Went out today it was a bit windy but not really a bad day for fishing.Took the boat out for it's first trip out and took a few people with me.We caught about 50 gills maybe 2 dozen crappies alot of small bass, small perch,and a sheepshead.

[HotHead617]

Went out to Pewaukee for a couple hours today we caught tons of gills close up on the shoreline some were really fat so im guessing moving in to start spawning..We caught a few crappies not as many as the other day,small perch,lots of small bass only two were over 15.Was a nice day to be on the water.Might try again tomorrow.

[BigMusky]

caught lots of little gills and craps in about hour of panfishing....rest of time we were musky fishing. Brother did land a keeper walleye.

[HotHead617]

Was out today caught lots of gills,lots of largemouths not many keepers 1 smallie also not a keeper,1 crappie could not find them today,and some small perch.Was a good day to be out before the storms hit.

[BigMusky]

north shore near weeds, at least that is where the 7 inch craps were :)

[HotHead617]

we were on the south shore line out from the big island were we normaly find them just not today.

[HotHead617]

Went out tonight caught a bunch of decent and some small gills,still seems like the gills are still hangin back and not on the beds yet.Water temp was 74 degrees in the shallows,
some small bass,ONE crappie again.Was rough when we first went out but as the night came it turned out to be really nice.Someday i will find some good fish in that lake.

[BigMusky]

dont count on it unless you start musky fishing

[HotHead617]

I have never even tried to catch a muskie before so my chances with the other ones are probably better.

[BigMusky]

went musky fishing yesterday with no results. Wife says she had follow on spinnerbait, but I did not see fish. Tried invader and top water and dragged a bluegill around from 4 till dark.

[Geoff]

fished saturday buddy got a slob 37.5 at dusk on a pacemaker, awesome strike and i moved one mid 30's, hit er hard, tough fishing not like last week, off to shawano this weekend..

goodfishin all!

[HotHead617]

Took the family out today we caught nothing but gills NO bass No crappies nothing just gills and no decent ones either think i had 3 legit ones on the bucket and they were back before i left.Hope i have better luck with the perch in the morning.

[BigMusky]

fished for musky from 1:30-4:30. Did not see any fish other then carp jumping. Tried trolling west and north shore with no luck and casted same areas. Just one of those bad days on the water battling wind and having equipment problems and the ever annoying floating weeds to battle all day. Could have stayed longer...but ran out of patience.

[HotHead617]

Isnt it nice takin weeds off your line every cast?I had to give Pewaukee a break for awhile because of it.

[Eric Haataja]

Fished pewaukee for ski's yesterday and we mainly trolled and the fish gods were not with us this day, had 2 hooked up and both came off. Both on planner boards out over deep water suspended. maybe next time!

Eric

[Eric Haataja]

Had a decent day on pewaukee yesterday trolled mainly out in the 25-30 foot depths and did best with baby depth raiders. Clients landed 2 ski's missed another and about a 17 inch smallie on a baby depth raider.

Eric

[BigMusky]

trolled Pewaukee this morning for four hours. had one hit on an orange bagley in 30FOW with 105 LOC.

[Eric Haataja]

This is one of the better fish I have caught from pewaukee it is a nice fat upper 40 inch fish, client caugh on the west shore on a crank. Best area's for me have been taylor's bay and the west end from the island to the condo's.

Eric

[BigMusky]

raised two nice muskies today out there next to boat. One was a hot follow I would have had for sure but he came in while checking weeds shortline trolling. As I started figure 8ing my line got caught in other line. DOH!!!! Second fish came casting and was bigger

[Eric Haataja]

Fished the IMTT musky tourney this past weekend with Ben Keung and we had a blast fishing together. I can say this of all the tourneys I've ever fished this was the best time I've ever had and we did not even win. During the tourney we had 9 fish up to the boat and caught 2 others so we had our chances at 11 fish. The best bait for me was big plastics. Best area was from the narrows east that's where we saw and lots the nost fish. I lost 2 big fish one I saw that was a low to mid 40 inch fish at the boat and another was very big down deep on plastics no doubt at least 40+ inches by the way it fought the short while I had t on....it was big!

Great thing about this tourney is it's 100.00 bucks a head and if you get a ski over 50 inches it 10,000 bucks!

Lots of fish all over out there now and the next few weeks should still be good!

[Ben Kueng]

Definitely one of the most enjoyable tourneys Ive fished as well. Got a few live bait lessons from Eric that Ill be utilizing more often, as well as confidence in a couple baits I havent used before and a few out of the way hot spots. I highly recomend spending a day on the water with Eric, especially if your a hardcore musky angler looking to learn a new twist on the sport.

Fished today with clients and had a pretty good day. Jeff started it off quick by missing a THICK low 40s at the boat before I could give him a good figure 8 lesson. Moved a few more smaller fish and Bill lost a smaller fish on a sucker. Slow going till around 230 when we got on another batch of fish. Jeff and Bill had 5 nice follows within a 100 yrd stretch of shoreline and one of the follows (mid 30s) found its way to our sucker that was hanging out back on a bobber. This fish was stuck good and Jeff soon had his second career musky in the net..Bill redeemed himself around 4 with a smaller fish that ate a sucker... one more follow and we split..All in all a good day of fishing and I couldnt of asked for better clients!!

Hittin Okauchee all day tomorrow for a cold front fatty..

[Ben Kueng]

Casting bite is picking up nicely out here. Got 3 today with clients, casting cranks..Pulled suckers and Chris got a decent fish at the end of the day. Lost 2 other fish casting and had several other follows.Everything on the east and west end horseshoes in the shallow weeds.

[Eric Haataja]

We had 10 fish to the boat and clients had more than one chance to score at some ski's but all we landed were a few small ones. Swimin Joes worked best for us in the narrows and up on the east end on the weed flats. Here's a good one I had a nice ski come up out of 8 feet of water and follow my sucker bobber for about 5 seconds on the surface and then gues what happened....Yep he at the bobber but not the sucker 4 feet under it...... Just our luck that day.....

Nice work on the ski's Ben!

Eric

[Ben Kueng]

Fishings still going good out here for us..The west end is starting to clear up nicely and the fish are still moving in the shallows. Fished Wed with my girlfriend and a buddy. Didnt find any active fish on the west end so we went in search of some warmer,darker water on the east end. My buddy and I raised several decent fish and my girl pulled in weeds on every cast due to the fact that she refused to take off her deep diving crankbait. Call it womans intuiton or just plain dumb luck because she ended up putting a nice mid 40s in the boat! her personal best and proof that there are still a few FAT fish left in Pewaukee..

Good luck out there!!

[BigMusky]

ugh...musky fishing. Raised 8 fish today and had another on a sucker. For some reason the drag was not tight and got the worst hook set in history...so no muskies for me. Most action on north shore out of wind casting musky size spinner bait. Water was 65 degrees there and 60 degrees everywhere else. Did not see any fish on horseshoes or rock point.

[BigMusky]

gotta a low 30's musky on topwater this morning. Followed a maurader for a good 10 yards slashing before he hit. Pretty cool. Had another big fish follow on west end but no action on suckers. Another boat worked weed edge before us on north shore and had 8 follows, so I am pretty sure that might have been why we did not raise any fish there.

[BigMusky]

yesterday was the worst day fishing for me in LONG time. I had a day off thursday and I knew looking at forecast I should have changed it to friday. Last time I put work ahead of fishing.

Blue Bird skies most of day with NE wind 15mph. Yeah baby.

Fighting wind sucked juice out of trolling motor by 11am so I had trouble working horseshoe weedlines after that. Second battery died two weeks ago and was hoping to get to off season before buy another, not. Used drift sock to try work taylor bay to chester island weed bed and lines. Dragged two suckers all day with no action there. Did raise one nice ski on extended weed point on northshore.

Lost my shallow invader and double cow girl due to equipment problems.

Water temp was 57 once sun got up. Lunar events did not matter yesterday...

I hope you guys enjoy the 5pm moonrise and 6pm sunset window today! there was another crossing this morning already too.

I am really mad at myself for not fishing today.

[Eric Haataja]

Almost did not fish today on pewaukee because on the strong winds but the fish gods took good care of us and awarded our patience and a bit of frustration, there was not a lot of boat traffic out there this afternoon and we were drifting down a long stretch of shoreline and there was not another boat in site but along come couple of guys in a smaller blue lund? and pull up about 100 feet just down in front of us working just down from us on the same break. The right thing to do is to get behind us or move about a 1/4 mile down the shoreline, but not right in front of us.

I looked at my client and said "ya know that's just not right to cut right in on us in front of us when the entire 4 miles of shoreline was vacant of boats. I said I really want to scream and yell over there "what the .... are you guys doing' but with the 13 year old in the boat I just explained to him that it's the wrong thing for me to do to yell at them and also wrong what they did.

I never have the attitude like I own a lake or certain spots but I always try to give people there space ecspecially when working the weed edges. They left after about 5 minutes and about 1 hour later we hit our 1st fish on the south shoreline in about 12 feet of water. A decent 36 incher and Ryan was happy, 20 minutes later ryan got to battle a much better fish! so 2 legal fish in the baot lots of smile and I think the fish gods took good care of us today! Sometimes it just better to smile and wave when you get really ticked off! Hothead taught me that!

Eric

[Ben Kueng]

Nice work Eric!! Was out the same day and had the same blue lund cut me off over on the west end. In the past Ive waved and smiled or had a little chat, but now a days I just pull out the pounder Bulldawg and throw a few "precision" casts over by the offenders boat.Seems to work everytime.

Fishing wasnt quite as productive but we had our chances to boat a couple and the fish just got the best of us this day.

The fishing has been steady though and should only get better as the cooler weather prevails. The fish have been scattered everywhere right now. Suzy suckers, swimming joes and live suckers have been working best.

Heres a 41 my client boated yesterday on a sucker in 8FOW..Only action of the day

[Eric Haataja]

Fished again yesteray and fishing was about the same except we could not get any big fish in the boat, we caught a smaller 32 inch ski and client caught a upper 30 inch ski, both casting both out in taylors bay fish came on bulldawgs. Unfortunately I left the camera at home :-( Raised a few nice fish as well but they were not too aggresive.

Eric

[BigMusky]

five follows today on west end and taylors bay. Lost a fish on a sucker on south shore. Finally nailed a 40incher on double cow girl after following about 4 figure eights. Was pretty awesome. Really fat fish too.

I still have never seen a fish on a bulldawg in four seasons of using them. I am starting to believe that when someone does not want anyone to know what they are really using, they say bulldawg :D

[Big_D]

Congrats BM!

[green knight]

Big Musky, I agree with your Bulldawg sentiment. If you ask anyone who fishes the Indiana musky lakes what they have been getting them on, the automatic answer is "White Bulldawg."

[Ben Kueng]

Thats funny I caught my first musky from webster on a white mag dawg..

[cmontiho]

Fished Saturday night from 1pm until 830pm and caught 5 walleyes on large shiners. We were in the weeds in about 10 f/o/w about a foot of the bottom. Fish were 22, 21, 17.5, and two just above 15. It was a great night. Anyone else getting any?

[Army-Retired]

Fished for a few hours today and managed 3 LM's, biggest being 17 1/2. Used a Tube jig and Rapala XRap. Also, tried the wacky worm style for the first time with no success (hopefully, working it correctly). Good fishing to all...

[cmontiho]

Fishing has been good in the afternoons for bass. I have been using shallow running cranks around docks in about 6-9 feet of water. Low and slow since the water is still cold. Bigest smallie was 21.

[Eric Haataja]

Had a succesful muskie outing today on pewaukee, we had 3 ski's hooked up and landed 1 fish that was healthy and fat! The best bait was a 3/4-1ounce rock stalker jig, with a thumper tail fishing it threw the weeds, we also had a few other fish up to the boat. still slow no wake out there as well! I tell you what what a blast catching these fish on big jigs!!!!!!!!!

[Eric Haataja]

here's one of thre we had hooked up.

[Ben Kueng]

Nice fish Eric!

Fished pewaukee today with clients..Client started the day with a hot follow from a upper 30s/low 40s and than it got real quiet for a few hours..Later we got a low 30s trolling,lost 2 other fish casting and had another rip trolling..Pretty slow day even with fronts coming through. All of our action came on small cranks fished around the weeds, except for one nice fish (low-mid 40) that my client lost on a tiger tube..

[BigMusky]

1 for 3 on hooked fish and another follow today. Fished hard for 10 hours. Father in law learned some lessons today about musky fishing equipment and why not to use cheap components. Got a bonus 3.5lb largemouth as well.

[BigMusky]

fished pewaukee for some full moon night action...had two muskies hit bucktails but neither took hooks. One of them was hanging onto the skirt of a DCG as I brought it in to boat until I tried to set hook. Very little casting action for us and never marked really any fish when driving across lake, so not sure how trollers did.

[BigMusky]

Missed a big fish today right at boat...fished 6-10am and headed off before before clouds moved in this afternoon. I hate losing muskies right at the boat when not paying attention.

[Sam Ubl]

As temperatures have plummited over night in the last week and a half down here in Southern Wisconsin, water temps have followed the pattern. While I'm still seeing trolling on the steep breaks around the basin, casting has been a real producer recently, with not a day going by without some sort of action. Seeing fish hasn't been a problem, as everyone can agree, Pewaukee is a "window shopping" lake, however, strikes and hook-ups have been consistent daily! I spend the majority of my time fishing the shallows, and lately, well, there are some tankers up close! Slide in just as the sun sinks below the tree line and reep the benefits like I have. I can't disclose my secret presentations, but this much I can assure anyone looking to get close to big fish.

This is my first post on this site, and I'm glad to do it. I'll have to update my profile with a picture when I get home from the office tonight... Or after getting off the lake, I'll be out there this evening.

[Eric Haataja]

Welcome aboard look forward to seeing some fishing reports!

[Sam Ubl]

Last night was a cool night, what most musky hunters would consider ideal. As a cold front moved in from the NW, Pewaukee lake was missed by the rain by no more than a quarter mile, yet the winds picked up, the sky clouded up and the temps dropped from 83 to 67... We have been on a pattern the last several days, but it seemed as if it wouldn't hold under these conditions, such that it was only hot on blue bird days, temperatures not really a factor as it was cool for being sunny the last several days with yesterday the exception.

And so we began our search with the typical "search" bait, bucktails... Started with big blades and weren't moving anything, so we downsized and played with a couple opposite colors and WHAM! My partner nailed a solid healthy 38 at the end of his cast so he earned himself a good battle. Two casts later, he rips his bait out of the water and it whizzes by us, which sounded like an arrow flying by. I say, "What was that?" He says, "Just got hit again!! Look at my bucktail!" I look and it's bent in half... Long story short, one in the boat, one miss, no visuals.

[Ben Kueng]

Boated 3,raised 3 and lost 1 today in 6 hours of fishing..All mid-upper 30s except for the 45+ that came loose on the 8:mad::mad:..Everything shallow on bucktails.The sucker bite should get jumping pretty quick if we dont get any major warm-ups..Water temps were 71-73

[Sam Ubl]

Sunday was a killer day through and through to be on the water chasing ski's. Four in the boat between 6 of us in 3 boats. Biggest fish was a solid 45" and smallest was a 38. Now, as many of us musky hunters know, when you get on a hot pattern, if you tell and everyone starts trying it, well, it's not a pattern anymore, so I'm sorry but I can't tell you what we're using... BUT, I will tell you where were finding them discretely.

Anywhere you can find sand, start and finish there! Dark colors, especially right before dark. Anywhere you can find spaghetti weeds (those tall, thin spiraled weeds that like to wrap around your bait a dozen times so much so that it ruins your cast. Fish the high sun on the 10/12' weed edges, casting over weeds and bringing your presentation right off the edge, sometimes, if throwing spinner baits, let your bait flutter down and continue on. In the latter part of the evening, we're hitting 'em shallow, I'm talking 3-6'. Colors are pretty variable our here, but I'll tell you that black/silver, black/orange/ and sucker or night shiner patterned jerk baits are pretty effective right now.

[Sam Ubl]

At the office, I can't retrieve any of my pictures from my myspace page, where I store them all online. Restrictions! I'll try to remember to post some pics with reports at home once in while.

[Eric Haataja]

Thanks for the great fishing report@!! That's what I'm talking about!

[Skeeterzx185c]

I have never fished pewaukee for Bass before and our permit got pulled from Okauchee this weekend so our tourny is now at Pewaukee. Anyone have any idea of patterns/advice out there this time of year. Please PM me. I would be willing to trade info for any lake I know.

[BigMusky]

good luck with that tournament.

same patterns apply as any other lake except water is more stained so weed edges are shallower and fish will be shallower then on Okauchee. Do not forget to get off weedlines and fish rocks as well...there is on obviously rock place on this lake :D

[Sam Ubl]

To be honest, I'd focus on the smallies here more than the largies, however, if you must, pitching jig/pigs, small elbow spinners and plastic worms under piers is what I see the guys doing successfully when I'm throwing pounders on the breaks, but seriously consider targeting smallies.. There's all kinds of rocky shore line and sandy bays notorious for them. I also catch 3/4 lbers once in a while with big blade baits fishing skis, but... Good luck.

[Ben Kueng]

Fishing has been nothing short of exceptional out here for us.3-5 fish days are pretty much the norm during a full day trip lately with plenty of follows and lost/missed fish..

My clients this weekend re booked for a different day so I Never made it out, but I wish I did..A buddy of mine boated 6 on sat..Sun another buddy and his brother boated one,lost 2 and had a 50 hooked up on the 8 that got off.

Today I was out with a regular client and he ended up with 2 in the boat and lost 2 on the 8..I threw a few casts and boated a low 30s on a swim bait..Everything on bucktails and swim baits.Pulled livebait but only had one fish stalking the boatside sucker..Caught a monster largemouth today that at one point had been grabbed by a huge ski..You could see the jaw marks and scrapes on its side..The one half of its tail isnt doing to good either..When we got the fish up to the boat there was an even bigger bass following right behind it..

Monday we boated a 36,lost a upper 30s and raised 5 in 4 hours of fishing..

Tuesday I fished pewaukee by myself for a few hours in the morning and ended up with a bunch of follows and had one fish chasing a sucker..Spent the evening on okauchee with a buddy and never saw a fish

Find weeds adjacent to deep water and you will find fish..Find weeds that are not adjacent to deep water and you will still find fish..We've been moving around alot and catching fish from the far east end to the far west end and everywhere in between..The bigger fish have been in the same spots, it just has to be the right day.

Good luck!

[Sam Ubl]

Well, we caught a fat 38" who decided to eat at our feet and saw three others with one seperate miss all on blades over shallow water. Had one mini ski jump clear out of the water, up and over the jackpot my buddy was throwing, which looked somewhat like a rainbow... Couldn't get over how funny it was.. He was at least 6" from the bait, but clearly got excited enough to show off with an arial. Good evening to be out on the water. The biggest I saw was perhaps 40" or so, and I screwed up the figure 8... Big rollers out there threw me off balance as I tried to turn off the trolling motor and I hit it with the tip of my rod under water... That fish wanted to eat it seemed, but there that went... Darn wind. I don't like admitting to mistakes like that.

[BigMusky]

this lake is on....caught three muskies today fishing solo with two other lazy follows. 35, 40 and 44. Ben gave about the best description, weeds from east end to westend :rolleyes: I caught them on weededges, up in weedbeds and off points. The two smaller fish hit on figure eights, so pay attention.

[Big_D]

That's Awesome BM! Congrats! :eek:

[Skeeterzx185c]

Fished the TBF 4 man classic Sat and Sun. I was shocked by the number of big fish that were brought in. Winning team brought in almost 60 pounds on 24 fish. Some nice smallies as well as chunky greenies. I personally struggled. My fish were caught pitching a sinking minnow to docks and jigs, texas rigs in the weeds. Even with the decent fish caught I'm still gonna leave this lake alone other than dragging some late October meat. Off to Kentucky lake next week for the BFL regional championship. Tight lines.

Justin

[Sam Ubl]

With the humid temps mixed with overcast skies, I wasn't sure what the evening had in store for me. I decided to slow things down a little bit in an attempt to hang the lures in the strike zone longer, so I threw suicks, Long A Bombers and Shallow Invaders. The Sh.In. created a real appetizing appeal with a super slow steady retrieve, but nothing agreed. I raised one 40" fish on a suick in 10 feet of water off a slide bar coming off the point of one of the islands, but she wouldn't go. I only had two hours on the water, so I felt like I cut myself short... Than I realized how fortunate I was to be able to on the water for any amount of time and I moved on.

Will be back out Saturday morning.

[Ben Kueng]

Fishing is still smokin out here for us! 15 fish boated in the last 3 outings, but lots of shortys.Clients had a shot at 3 over 40 yesterday but couldnt get the figure 8 mastered till the 30-34s started eating:rolleyes::rolleyes: Lost 3 other fish on 8s that were hooked up and went balistic

Will post more pics when I get a second of free time..

[Ben Kueng]

Had a boat drift by me on sunday so I stopped casting and started figure 8ing for about 2 minutes while they passed. The other boat was about 30 feet away when a nice fish came up and hit my bait..I had the fish on for a second,it got off,came back for the bait again, missed twice,dissapeared for about 30 seconds and finally came back and smashed it..40+

yesterday we had fish up all day and my buddy missed 2 nice fish (38-42) on the 8..The bigger fish came in on my bait but liked his better..Kinda caught him off guard.

Get out there!!

[Sam Ubl]

That's a pretty exciting scenario, odd too... It reminds me of my buddy who took his 70 year old father out last month and was working a big Phantom glide bait, his father, armed with a bucktail, was in the back of the boat doing figure 8's because he his arm was tired. Well, James says after about 10 minutes of his father doing that, he had a solid fish follow his bait, but as you know, it's next to impossible to make an efficient 8 with a big glider, so before he knew it, the fish surprised his dad during his dad's constant 8's!!! So his dad pulls up a 46" doing figure 8's for ten minutes. James said he didn't want to take anything away from his dad's catch, so he never told him about the follow. The problem is now his dad thinks that's the most efficient way to musky fish, so when he takes him out, James has to remind him to cast, otherwise he just starts figure eighting! LOL!

Anyways, conditions were right last night, but the bite was a tough one. Saw only one boat land a nice one, not sure of exact size. I picked up another low 30, which I knew was under 34" by an inch or so, so I didn't even measure him. Caught him fishing 8 foot weeds with about three feet of clearence between the weed tips and surface... Casting magnum buchertail black and orange. Fish was caught on one of my last casts right at about 10 to 7 or so...

Ben, did I see you heading out right around that time to start? Looked like your boat.

[Ben Kueng]

Cool story, Sam! That was the third time in 4 years that Ive caught a fish like that..Almost stops the heart..I may have seen you out there.If you saw the dirtiest 620 tiller youve ever seen it was probably me:)

Fished with my girlfriend today until she wouldnt keep quiet about the wind (which was like 25 minutes) Within that time she lost a mid 30s on a sucker and I had 2 follows..

[schram]

Worked the entire lake most of the day. We did not raise a fish all day. We trolled, casted and soaked a sucker. The activity seemed to be very early in the morning, from what we were told by guys on the water. Some Musky were caught on Sat, either trolling or on suckers. Biggest we heard was 40".

[Ben Kueng]

Our biggest fish from this weekend..Boated a few smaller and had several other follows/misses and lost 2 other fish bigger..Pretty tough weekend overall, especially if you missed the morning window (like I did on sat:() Sucker bites starting to pick up..All of our action was in 8-10 FOW near green weeds..Giving pewaukee a break for a couple days.Its starting to remind me of depere in the spring out here..;);)

[BigMusky]

that many boats? yikes

[Sam Ubl]

Boats.... Lot's of boats! You're right about that Ben, so getting on a hot pattern has been tough the last week, but once we found it, it was on. So many guys ripping blades through the shallow weeds are starting to scatter fish and those that stick around are slinking down into the weeds. Find a way to stay in the strike zone longer or stir up a reaction strike to put more fish in the boat. We were out Saturday morning from sun up till 10:00 am and put three legals in the boat... Although just shy of 40 for all three, we still caught fish. Weird thing that happened... Generally as a rule of thumb, I try to use a stiff wire leader for my jerk baits because you get away from the recoil of a mono leader, however, Sat. morning I made a quick change of presentation on a rod with a fifteen inch mono leader made of 80lb Seguar and started throwing a 9' twitch bait. When you twitch or jerk a lure, a mono leader will recess towards the lure in a bowed fashion during pauses as the lure slides forward after your twitches... Well, that was the unhappy/crazy fate of the moment when after the third fish in the boat, I watched a nice fish inhale my lure with the leader in its mouth and upon the hookset and thrashing of the fish, that initial moment was too much for the thick sequar. After the leader was severed in half, I sat in dismay, watching this fish fight my lure with no resistence but the loose hooks in its mouth. After the lure came free, the fish dove down under the weeds, then exploded from where he disappeared from and inhaled the lure within seconds of getting free from it as it floated a couple feet from the boat! Now I was dismayed! I watched him dive down with it and shake it loose a second time right before my eyes... The clincher, my partner didn't know I wasn't connected to the bait anymore and kept coaching me to get on the fish... Got the bait back and lived to tell the story today... Fish was fine, just a little embarrassed maybe.

We saw one boat land a 38" doing exactly what we were doing, but saw no one else throwing our arsenal...

[Skeeterzx185c]

Well now that my tournament season is over I am planning on heading out on Saturday for some big toothies! I am what you might call a lazy muskie guy but hey after pounding bass tournaments every weekend for 5+ months I think Ive earned it. I like just getting out there relaxing with a beer, the badger game and some meat being dragged behind the boat. My question is how is the sucker bite right now? Anyone having any luck and if so what size suckers seem to be producing? Thanks and tight lines.

[Sam Ubl]

This early in the fall, I like to keep the suckers at an average size of 10-12"... Come November and I'll be dragging the biggest suckers I can find. This is just what I do, and I can't really tell you a rhyme or reason behind it, like I said, it's just what I do... But it produces. I've dragged bigger suckers this time of year and still had success, but not as much as with the 10-12".

Right now there are a few guys doing it, and I'm not one of them, however, I'll be out with Doug Kloet of Musky Magic Tackle on Saturday morning and we'll be trying 'em.

Up north their being used in full effect with abundant success, down here... A few of those dragging are starting to reap the benefits, especially a certain few who really know how to do it.

[.Pan Handler]

We've been dragging suckers here in Madison since the second week of September, and have caught fish on them nearly every time out. It's never too early to fish a sucker. Smaller suckers have been better for us as well.

[Sam Ubl]

Pan Handler is right, I have friends who fish suckers all season long! Some of their best success is dropping them deep while fishing rubber for suspendos...

For me, it just gets in the way and it's expensive...

It's up to the individual I suppose.

[BigMusky]

personally I think there are better sucker lakes in the area....

[Skeeterzx185c]

Better sucker lakes? Such as Oconomowoc? I drag meat on Pewaukee cause I actually know where to fish there. I dont know any spots on Oconomowoc and only a few on Okauchee. If you have any advice it would be appreciated.

[BigMusky]

Is 1 for 16 good or bad? Funny day on water.... my father in law found the one lure in his arsenal that I have nothing that replicates. He managed to raise 13 muskies with it. During that time I was able to get one 24 incher to hit and then get one of his followers to hit my bait as a throw back, but hook did not stick on either. After about 7 hours he finally got sick of missing fish because he can not figure 8....so I asked if I could use the magic lure. Boated a musky 10 minutes later :D

[.Pan Handler]

How big was it?

[Sam Ubl]

Guess the question is really more of an inquiry as to why a musky would be more likely to eat a sucker on one lake as opposed to another within the Lake Country area.?.?. There are specific things you can do to improve your odds of catching musky on pressured water with suckers, such as your sucker rig (mono leader, etc.), but when I really think about it, muskies are muskies... They eat the same as the next, and a sucker in front of one has the same odds of another of getting eaten, despite the lake. The only real difference, in my opinion, would deal with numbers...

[Ben Kueng]

I get more hook-ups with suckers on pewaukee than any other lake..mainly due to the fact that the water is dirtier, where as on OC and okauchee they can see the line and rigs allot easier..Ive found that Flourocarbon is the best to use for a stealth rig becasue its a little more durable than mono.. I use nothing less than 125 pound test and tie everything rather than crimping it..

Fact of the matter is that when the fish are going, there going to eat a sucker no matter what lake your fishing..

Fished today with clients and had an awesome day on the water..Boated 5 fish, lost 2 and had over 12 follows..Had two really nice upper 40s chasing baits and suckers, but we didnt hook either..

The warm-up this weekend was pretty tough on fishing, but we managed to boat a bunch of fish, the biggest was a 25" whopper that bent the hoop on my frabill..LOL

Last green weeds..

Pics of the 3 biggest from today..

[Ben Kueng]

Was supposed to fish the bay today with my Mom, but the weather was pretty bad so we headed to Pewaukee instead..My goal was of course to get my mom on a nice ski, but she didnt want to mess with these two big fish that smashed boatside suckers within 1 minute of each other..Thanks Mom!!..My fourth double and by far the best!! Saw at least 7 other fish chasing suckers in the 6 hours we were out..

last green weeds on the west end..

[Eric Haataja]

Nice fish Ben! Double is SWEET!!!!

Made it out today with clients and man talk about good luck and bad luck all in the same day! 5 mintes into the day I have a low 40 inch fish smash a bulldawg and come off, 10 mins later we miss a fish on a sucker, 20 mins later we land a nice ski, about 2 hours later we miss another ski on a sucker.:( 1 hour later we miss another fish,,,,,well get get the point..... Client then lands a nice ski on a bulldawg.

We strickly fished the East end and river channel area, along with taylors bay and rocky point had action and fish in all area's we fished!

We had our chances at boating 8 fish this afternoon that we had hooked up, not to mention a couple other hot follows!:eek:

Fishing is going great out there now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lesson of the day is fish were hitting the suckers with circle hooks WAY better than the quick strike rigged sucker. I have seen this many times before with pike and ski's. We used 12-14 inch suckers but needed to give them more time. From this point on now as the water is cooling a bit more it's back to all quick strike rigs because the hook up ratio get much better and it's safer for the fish! For me the circle rigs work great when the water is warm and fish eat quickly but as the water gets cool and you start missing a bunch of fish after giving it to them for a few minutes, that means it's quick strike rigs for me!

However the last few trips we had about a 6 to 1 difference on the rods with out quick strike rigs, same thing happened up north on the big pike we caught more fish hit the circle hook rig. Remember not to set the hook if you try this, my big scare fish circle hooks is that occasionally fish will swallow them if you let them sit and eat the suckers, however you just never know how fast them will eat the suckers so you miss many fish as well if you try to hook up too early.

Time for bed!

[Ben Kueng]

Nice fish, Eric..had a day just like that on Friday..I fished with regular client, Louis S. and What a day! (it could of been lol) Had 8 fish hooked up on suckers and we could only manage to land one..Just wasnt our day..Didnt go 20 minutes without at least a follow all day..

Saturday I fished the IMTT and it wasnt quite our day either..Saw 10 fish and lost 1 that we never saw..

Today, however was my day..Fished with David and his buddy Nick (both 14) from sun-up to sun-down..Had one of the craziest things happen to us today that I have ever encountered while musky fishing..Picked these guys up at the launch at 6am..Pulled up on our spot at 6:15..The first sucker landed in the water at 6:16..The second hit the water a minute later and instantly got hit..When I mean instantly, I mean the bobbe went down the second it hit the water..So I tell these guys fish on! Both Nick and David (who BTW have been musky fishing for 3 years without a fish) thought I was lying till the drag starting screaming....Nick set the hook like a champ and after a nice fight he had his first musky in the net at 45 inches..Saw 6-7 other fish chasing suckers but nothing would commit..Switched lakes mid day and Nick Boated a 37" and missed a NICE mid-upper 40s at the boat..Had a mid 40s in a different spot shopping the 5 suckers we were dragging, but she couldnt make up her mind..Would of liked for David to get his first ski, but all in all it was a good day..

Fished the west end mainly and stayed in the weeds.East end was packed and once it started to get windy all the boats migrated to where we were fishing so we left after moonset..Still pretty quiet out there for a sunday..

[Eric Haataja]

That's cool Ben! Nice work!

[.Pan Handler]

I heard a 49.5 was caught during the IMTT this weekend. That's a pig! :)

[Eric Haataja]

Was out today and fishing was a bit tougher although that's not how the day started we boated 1 ski five minutes into the day and had another drop a sucker and another hit a shallow invader and come unglued oh well at least we got one in the boat. Fish came on a bucktail on the east end.

Eric

[BigMusky]

went 3 for 5 yesterday with no large fish in the boat. Fished mostly weed edges on east end

[Eric Haataja]

made it out again dragging meat and casting white bulldawgs and the fish gods rewarded us this trip with a 100 percent hook up day. Finally we got all the fish in the boat.

The fish were on both weed edges and on rock. Drag some meat do some casting, control the boatn and this lake is not too hard to get a few in the boat.

Client with a ski on a bulldawgThe only down fall is our average size of ski's is not the greatest. Still clients and I were happy good fishing Boys! Going to chase some more smallies this afternoon!

[Eric Haataja]

Few more pics

[Eric Haataja]

Well it took a little while but once I found the big schools of bait the ski's were right behind them! We fished hard up shallow to no avail so we hit the deeper water in 17-25 feet of water and BINGO! Shortly after finding some massive schools of baitfish out deeper it was pretty abvious by the marks on my Lowrance that ski's were very close by! The best baits for fishing the deeper water are big Zips, Fuzzy does it's, white bulldags or cisco pattern, and Twin Finns for us, along with dragging some meat. Find the bait and the fish were there chowing!

I'm sure there's still fish up shallow we just did not get a single fish to go up shallow so I moved out deep and got into the fish there.

Good Luck!

Eric

[shipdog]

Fished Pewaukee 500-830 pm. raised a fish working the shoreline south of rocky point on a buchertail around 6ish. Real lazy follow. Around 8ish, convinced my buddy to go back to the spot to see if the fish was more active and my buddy landed it off of the double cowgirl. Healthy looking 34" fish. That was the only action we had for the evening. We threw dogs, buchertail, suicks, and cowgirls

Many of the spots I like to cast on this lake this time of year still were fairly behind in weed development. We stuck to hitting mostly shorelines and some of the points.

[Skeeterzx185c]

Anybody got any advice on where to locate the bigger smallies that are swimming around out on Pewaukee. Thanks

[deadeternity]

There are some big smallies in Pewaukee but for a better chance at some bigger ones try Oconomowoc Lake or Pine Lake. Better populations overall. Otherwise search for rock bars and gravel bars and the smallies should be there....

[shipdog]

Did a quick outing this morning on Pewaukee. Fished 6-9. Surface temps were mostly 70. Weed development improving. We changed up our routine and fished some new spots. Didn't see a fish. The water was not as bad as we thought it would be given the rain we had.

[shipdog]

Fished 4-9 p.m. My partner had the hot hand. Raised 4 fish and lost a low 30's. 3 of the fish were mid 30's and the other was a low 40's. We raised the fish on 4 different spots working the various weed edges 11-13 fow. Surface temps were about 72 on the lake. most action came on the DC 10's. the largest fish we raised was on a spinner bait. I was throwing the esox willow beasts and he throwing the dc 10's. we also threw some top water and dawgs, but nothing. silver/black was the combo that worked the best for us....or i should say him. I still think this lake has a week to go before it's pure troll time.

[BigMusky]

Fished 2-10pm today. Caught two muskies in the mid thirties casting...and missed three others on top water. Not really sure how I missed the last one... lure blew up,reeled down, felt weight, set hook...nothing? Trollers did good today as well.

[Eric Haataja]

Did a trip this past week and lost all 3 muskies we hooked including 1 big one right at the boat but that's fishing! Taylor bay and the narrows were our best locations with cowgirls and baby D raiders.

[BigMusky]

Slow afternoon on Saturday for Pewaukee..... two follows on east end and typical mid-30's fish boated on the same lure and spot that nearly always produces on west end.

I noticed something disturbing though...several of my weed edges had moved significantly. Am I out of my mind or did someone clean out a bunch of weeds, specifically around Chester Island and near Taylors bay?

[Joe Murphy]

Friday we threw topwater for a bit and my buddy got 4 hits on his bait but they seemed to be hitting short. Saturday I got the action with a hit boatside on a prop bait. The fish tried smackin it twice but missed on the 8 and swam off. Got one that was prolly under 30 on the same bait. Had another follow. After dark I was using a real slow topwater and had hit and a nice follow maybe 40 but just stopped when i started the figure 8. I think the white running light was too bright because the cap of it fell off and he just sat in it like a deer in headlights, so i poked it with my rod and it swam away lol.

[Eric Haataja]

Fished out there today and we did so so...overall I guess o.k. but our chances at 2 big fish fell through and we landed 2 smaller ski's in 6 hours of fishing, we casted and dragged meat in the snow and wind. Now that's fall muskie fishing! Our fish came both shallow and deep today and the lake should be turned over by next weekend I still had 56.8 degree's.

[BigMusky]

we fought the snow and wind as well. Was on mission to get wife her first musky and she went 1 for 2 on suckers...so mission accomplished. Fished mostly deep breaks with live bait today and dawgs.

[yatch]

Pulled a couple of suckers and casted most of the morning in the area between the east and west ends. Finished the morning on the west end south shore working 12 to 18 ft. of water. Even pulled a bobber off and pulled the critter on the bottom for awhile. Water temp right at 55 degrees after 10am but lower 50's earlier. Should be rolling over soon. They look like muskies???!!! :rolleyes:

[Joe Murphy]

Been doin ok on walleyes The past couple weeks

http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/hh43/fishin_joe/TopwaterWalleye3.jpg
24 incher hit a muskie topwater (hawgwobbler)

http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/hh43/fishin_joe/WalleyeMug.jpg
Decent trolling fish off a shad rap

http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/hh43/fishin_joe/Pewaukee20.jpg
Another Decent trolling fish

[Eric Haataja]

Nice job Joe!

I was out for 6 hours on Sat and we boated 2 ski
's but had 2 giants almost eat :-((( I would have traded those two for these two!

But 2 ski's is better than nothing!

[Joe Murphy]

Nice...We been doing great on huge suckers...talking 18 plus inchers

[deadeternity]

Joe, beautiful walleyes man, nice to see something different then a musky come out of Pewaukee and photographed. Nice fish.....

[BigMusky]

design #2 of the sucker rigged proved another flaw. Fished 7-10am today and went 1 for 3 with small fish to boat. Discovered that 50lb test can be bit clean in half by a musky. So now I need to invest in some 100lb and crimpers! I had made design decision to only have one treble on dorsal fin because that is where I always get hits....well not today. Had a musky shred the tail of a sucker because I did not have a hook down there....I guess that is why every rig in store has two hooks.

I guess we will see what design #3 does for me. At least I am seeing a huge increase in fish on my sucker rigs compared to what I used to get, so I am getting closer!!!!

[BigMusky]

new rigs are a success so far...kind of slow day fighting wind all day, but did land the fattest 43 incher I have ever seen....fished weed lines as usual. We had another fish lost on sucker that we did not get hooks in and lost a smaller ski on a cobra swim jig.

[Joe Murphy]

Fished yesterday but didn't enter the ironman, now regretting not doing so...Had we got out sooner we would probably have had a shot at some money...The Winner of the tournament had two fish for 82.5 inches. 7 teams doubled. They paid out 4 positions. 4th had 76.5 inches. Biggest fish was 46.5 I believe...This is only what I heard so don't quote me...
Anyway, we got out around 2 pm...Heres some pics of the damage that we inflicted...Pic of buddies fish is terrible but he will email me a pic from his camera that is much better.

http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/hh43/fishin_joe/DSCI0415.jpg
http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/hh43/fishin_joe/DSCI0417.jpg
Heres a 45 i scored after an hour and a half

http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/hh43/fishin_joe/11134_179065747136_525797136_272872.jpg
My buddy Todd with a 44 incher caught on a sucker
http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/hh43/fishin_joe/DSCI0424.jpg
http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/hh43/fishin_joe/DSCI0421.jpg
Another low 40s...real clear looking fish, totally engulfed the bait
all fish exploded away after in the water a few seconds...
Finally got rewarded after getting skunked and many lost fish on suckers this month, can't complain with 3 fish over 40

[BigMusky]

took a friend from work out on Saturday morning who is mutual friend of the notorious Big D. He warned me that he always jinxes Big D and I should expect same, I had confidence though on Pewaukee lake with full moon! Since weekend was totally locked up with other activities, I took my shot early Sat. despite windy forecast. The weather man was "just a bit outside" on his 15mph forecast. More like 30mph. Got out early and started dragging suckers in dark and casting. Question is asked "what happens if suckers get tangled together" sure enough I make stupid comment " that never happens." Well in the dark of early morning and duck hunters shooting over our heads (is that legal?) the suckers found safety in numbers. Get tangled and one fell off to freedom. After a good laugh at the obvious jinx in play we deployed sucker number #3, aptly named "Big D." As sun came up, noticed the typhoon winds at SIGNIFICANTLY clouded the weed edge I was fishing. DOH!! Tried to move, but ran out of time after we completed that drift. So I got skunked out there was not a follow or hit for the first time in forever.

At least the sucker formally known as Big D kept our interest all day with his mighty runs and activity giving us false hope that a fish had taken the float down.

[Big_D]

Darn it BM! I thought for sure you'd bust that jinx... with how well you've been doing this year. If it's any consolation, you did better than I did. Had major work malfunction late Friday afternoon, ended up working all weekend. Never even got the boat wet. :(

[Joe Murphy]

Last night i couldnt fish muskies so my buddy went out without me and I just hit the river, it was the first time all season where I wasnt in his boat when he went out, he took some girl instead who has never been muskie fishing...Full moon, calm night, todd hooks into a 50 plus fattest hog on the planet...He caught this beast the one time all season I dont go with him....go figure...wait til you see a picture of this fish, it was ridiculous

[Joe Murphy]

http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/hh43/fishin_joe/14245_184920907136_525797136_278845.jpg

http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/hh43/fishin_joe/14245_184920917136_525797136_278845.jpg

http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/hh43/fishin_joe/14245_184920942136_525797136_278845.jpg

http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/hh43/fishin_joe/14245_184920932136_525797136_278845.jpg

http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/hh43/fishin_joe/14245_184920957136_525797136_278846.jpg

Bad pics but you get the idea

[Needtofishmore]

I'm guessing he wlll be fishing with the girl more often.
;)

[blitzfish]

That is a PIG... girls often are good luck unless you try to hook them into a fish while out trout and salmon fishing!!! lol (personal experiences) :p

[BigMusky]

you guys definitely put your time in and deserve a fish like that...

[deadeternity]

Hope your buddy is getting that replicated Joe, that is a once in a lifetime fish for most musky anglers, expessially in SE Wisconsin. I love the coloration on that fish. I guess you and I both see that women are a good luck charm when fishing,lol.

[BigMusky]

hit pewaukee for for a good 8 hours today. Went 1 for 4 on suckers and saw 8 follows on casts. Fish were acting so weird on follows...they would just take off as soon as they saw boat. The one fish we did catch was on weedline on west end...a fat 44 incher.

[Eric Haataja]

Wow give him the big congrats I'm jealous and have no problem admitting it!

One heck of a fish for around here!

[Eric Haataja]

Not sure if you guys know this or not but muskie season is open until dec 31st this year.. Just a FYI--- south of Hwy 10

Eric

[Get Hooked]

late response here,

how did that huge musky fit in that net i see in the pic with the girl???? surprised its not all bent up. good job. thats the kind of pic that keeps others like myself going after something like that.

[Ben Kueng]

Ran a full-day trip for the opener with a regular client of mine and his buddy. The day started off really good and we ended up with 2 mid 30" fish in the boat. between the lost/missed fish and follows we had action from over 12 fish in 3 hours. tails, cranks, gliders and suckers were all doing damage..We fished mainly in 4-10 FOW and most of our action came from 8 FOW.

The wind started pounding around noon so we switched lakes and boated a 44" in the first 15 minutes..Also lost another 40" class fish on a swimbait..

Pic of the other mid 30 didnt save to my camera for some reason..

I spent today scouting a bunch of different lakes, but it was pretty slow all around..

Hope everyone had a great opener!!

[Ben Kueng]

Ran a 6 hour trip with clients this morning and we had action from 12 fish, but couldnt get anything in the boat. Fish were real lazy or came in fast and only nipped at the bait. No action on suckers, but a few lookers..A handful of the fish we saw were over 40..
I have 6-8 spots on 3 different lakes that are stacked with fish right now, its just a matter of getting them to eat.Hopefully this cold front will change there minds..Kind of warm for May if you ask me lol..CRAZY spring so far! The weeds are getting thick already and I cant even imagine how bad the floating weeds are going to be this year after the ski boats get after it.

We saw fish in 5-8 FOW on gliders, tails, cranks and plastics..The more active fish were on tails..

I have a few days open for May yet if anyone is looking to get out. I will also be offering 5 hour evening trips this year for $200..

[Eric Haataja]

Thanks for the great reports Ben

[Ben Kueng]

Ran a split trip yesterday with a regular and it could of definitely been better for us. We started at 5am just as the winds were dying down from the night before. It was overcast with a slight drizzle and I had no doubt that we were going to pop a fatty, but we never saw a fish. Switched to pewaukee and ended up going 1 for 2 with a mid 30s. The fish we lost was bigger, but not 40

All of our action was on the east end in 8-10 FOW..

Ben

[Ben Kueng]

Ran a full day trip today and ended up with 3 legals in the boat. The first fish hit before I had the second sucker set back. The second fish hit a sucker and the third fish my client caught at the boat on a soft plastic jerk bait. We also had multiple fish up to the boat over 40 including one real nice upper 40s that went around 3 times on the 8 and dissapeared. Everything up shallow on the east end.

[Eric Haataja]

Great Looking fish Ben! Nice job looks like it was worth it to get out there in the weather!

[Lake&Pond]

Made it out on Sunday, first time ever fishing the lake. Ended up raising 9 fish, catching a low 30's and missing a mid-30's on the 8. Everything came on bucktails, couldn't buy a fish on any other bait. Most fish came off the East end of the lake.

[Ben Kueng]

Ran a half day trip yesterday and we ended up with a 34"..Pretty weak considering we had lots of hot follows that just wouldnt commit on suckers or the 8..Still in 7-9 fOW around newly emerging weeds. most follows on bucktails

[Eric Haataja]

Ben nice job 1 fish is better than 0 fish!
eric

[Ben Kueng]

Fished all day yesterday and ended up with a 36, one smaller and a handful of follows. The down side to the day was the mid-upper 40s that spit a sucker... Shallow weeds were best for us, but the narrows have been showing fish as well.

Weird start so far...Not good, not bad, steady..Lots of missed opportunities this year which can be expected when you’re teaching people how to musky fish, but still disappointing...

[Lake&Pond]

Made it to Pewaukee Sat. morning (didn't know about the tourny) fished for a few hours with no action. Went to Okauchee for the rest of the day and saw 2 fish but no takers.

Went back out Sunday to Pewaukee and my buddy caught a 40'' right away but then only saw 1 other fish the rest of the day, plus one looker on the sucker. Slow weekend overall, but you can never complain when you catch a 40. The action we did have all came on Bucktails.

[Ben Kueng]

Nice work on the 40, lake and pond! Tough weekend indeed..Very short feeding windows..

Fished yesterday with clients and we ended up with a 37 in the boat and lost yet ANOTHER big fish. This one we never saw,but when my client set the hook he said it felt like a snag for a brief second before the line snapped like a whip. The fish was right next to the boat and the line broke pretty far back so I dived and tried to grab it only to have the very end slip through my fingers. I had no doubt in my mind that the bobber would pop back up and sure enough about 5 minutes later my client spotted our bobber 50 yards away. To our surprise the line was still attached..My client grabbed the line and the fish was there! He fought it for a second only to have it get off....I HATE musky fishing!!!!

[Needtofishmore]

Lake & Pond ... your crappy day on Saturday can only be attributed to one thing: Your fishing for the WRONG species! :D From what I read it was a slow weekend for everything. Welll ... almost everything! :p See your PM's.

[Lake&Pond]

Made it out Sunday from 5:30 - noon-ish. Slow day, ended up seeing 5 fish (3 around 40) and catching zero. Two of the fish I saw with in my first 10 casts. Only one fish showed real intrest. Heading up-north next weekend for the Northern opener (I can only imagine what this lake looks like on a holiday weekend). Good Luck.

[JAL24]

Was out for the light house tournament on Saturday. Tough day. Saw 3 fish, all avaerage size. Got off when the crazies hit the water...

[Joe Murphy]

Thursday I lost one in the first 3 minutes, around 41-42 on the 8, hour later I got this tank of a 47 1/2... Monster head and shoulders on that thing, I got 2 other fish, one on topwater and one on blades. 47 1/2 ate the mag dawg... I mean it was GONE!! My 2 buddys each lost one over 40 on 8s...

http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/hh43/fishin_joe/BigMusky.jpg

Got back out on Saturday but it wasnt as good

[deadeternity]

awesome fish joe and it sounds like you are having a blast fishing them skis. I have to get my act together and get some gear ready and try my luck for some muskys this year. Great catch! And that fish has a monster sized head indeed....

[Eric Haataja]

Good bite going on now best baits for me have been spoons, big swim jigs and Perfect 8's and 10's at smokies which are similar to cowgirls Smokey's is the only bait shop that has the 8's and 10's and they are sweet been moving a lot of fish on them and plan on throwing them alot this year! Fished Saturday and we caught 3 ski's in 6 hours, fished today and we caught 1 40 incher and raised 2 big fish one 45 incher and one really close to 50 inches... I'll post some pics when I get some time. These fish are from sat.

Eric

[Joe Murphy]

sorry to correct you eric but they are called perfect 10s and perfect 8s... they catch fish so you cant go wrong... Wayyy More tinsel on them than a cowgirl and I believe they use cable instead of of strait wire so fish dont trash them everytime... Sometimes off brands beat cowgirls because they throw a different vibration than the cowgirls seeing as how they have different thickness of the blades. Those fish definitely get accustomed to the same baits thrown at the same speed by every boat on the lake...

[Eric Haataja]

Thanks I fixed my post yea they are sweet cool thing John said if you ever have a problem with a bait bring it in and he'll exchange for free can't beat that!!!!!!!!!!! Those things are truely muskie catching baits I'm impressed! I bought 6 more today!

[Jim Dembiec]

I can't say Pewaukee has been on fire...BUT since Memorial day weekend, We put 14 fish in the boat. 6 have been 40 and bigger. Most of the boated fish have been trolling, but many follows as well casting. Spinnerbaits, topwater, and crank baits have boated most of the fish. Here is a few pics of 2 , 45"ers, and a 48".
Pewaukee guide specializing in Musky for over 20 years.
JIM

[Eric Haataja]

Great Job Jim I know you have been guiding Pewaukee for many many years and you catch a ton of big fish out there casting and trolling, I know your the trolling "guru" so if anyone is looking to learn this lake is a great resource and fantastic fisherman! And he's a good guy!

Be sure to leave your contact info for people to reach you!

[deadeternity]

Jim, that 48 is a beast, great catch!

[Jim Dembiec]

Thanks; The 48 was thick, Not like the sickly looking 45 in the other pic.
My contact info ; dembieclynnejim@aol.com

Or 262-538-1259

Thanks ...JIM

[Jim Dembiec]

Well; If you ask my friend Pat G what my exact words were at 5;30pm tonight when I started fishing...He will tell you I said" They should be on tonight" !!!

Well From 5;30pm to 10;35, I went 7 for 7. Needless to say, they were on.
Pewaukee was hot tonight with 2- low 40"s, 4- 35" to 37", and 1 under 30". Caught 3 musky from 6:50 to 7:20...Nice little window!! :D

Blades and crank baits were the ticket. Exact line lengths were key in most situations where 2 or 3 foot of line meant fish or blank. Floating weeds were Hell, so 2 lines max was the ticket to being productive. Wish I did not have to work Friday! I'd still be out there!!!

JIM

[Eric Haataja]

Excellent Jim nice work on the water I know your getting more fish than most guides each trip!

Eric

[Jim Dembiec]

Happy Fathers day Eric and all you dads!!!;)

Here is your pewaukee musky report for fathers day. Boated 2 legals this mourn. It took 6 hours though. Not quite as productive as last Thurs. Saw some fish caught casting. Seems like the bite is finally more consistant. This next 2 weeks should spell big fish as waters warm a bit. Hopefully the call for rain the next 3 days won't be heavy rains to drop temps. If it does, fish may slow again. Small amount of rain should not hurt. As long as water temps start to climb, the big fish should have to commit. :eek:

[Eric Haataja]

Yea yea Yea Jim nice work again your kicking butt this year! Nice work skipper!

Eric

[Eric Haataja]

Made it out for another trip with clients who had not caught a muskie both caught ski's a low 30 inch fish I did not bother to photo and this nice 40+ inch class fish, all our fish were on white bulldawgs or perfect 10's with white and silver blades. We did move a monster out in the main lake in the 50 inch class which was nice to see! All our fish were released!



Eric

[Jim Dembiec]

Well; after picking up a mid 30's ski monday night and losing 1...

And the dreaded skunk on Wednesday after 3 solid hours of lightning :mad:

We are back catching more ski's...Caught a mid 30's and lost a bigger musky Friday night.

Water levels coming up about a foot, slowed the musky a bit this week. Kind of finicky for me. Ended the week with 4 in 4 outings...oh well...:rolleyes:

[BigMusky]

Jim -I believe I talked to you briefly at the launch last night. I had a tough time Friday night as well. I did pull one musky around 30 inches using my electric trolling motor to burn a DC10 over east end weeds. Otherwise I saw just one lazy follow on a marauder.

[Jim Dembiec]

Picked up 3 musky today between thunderstorms, along with a 35" pike. All on crankbaits.
Also had another hit but did not stick. The musky were 33, 34, 42". Fish still seem alittle off but can't complain about 3 musky...:eek:

Monday night had winds switch from NW to NE. Managed a 35.5" That is a gift as NE wind changes usually spell a skunk!!!

Wed night got out and stuck a 36.5" the first ten minutes. Then had NO action after that. Barometer is sky high and the bite is tough. That will change as the barometer drops this weekend and the heat arrives...

Thursday mourn...7/1...got out for a few hours. Caught another pike, 32 1/2", and one musky 41"

[Lake&Pond]

Late Post -

Made it out Friday night with a buddy. I caught a 37'' on a Tinsel-Tail Inhaler and my buddy lost a fish that hit right at the boat on the same bait. Good luck to all this weekend!!

[Eric Haataja]

Nice work guys I might try to make it out this evening for a few hours.

[Jim Dembiec]

4th of July is usually a good barometer of the last 2 months and what kind of season we are going to have.

Picked up 1 musky 35.5" , and lost another today as we continue to add to our total of 42 musky to date in 2010. Last year was a banner year as of July 4th, 09 I had 44 ski's in the boat. And I thought they were easy last year as others did too. This year has been somewhat spotty, but still getting fish to hit almost daily unless Eric fishes with me...:D LOL :rolleyes:

Most of my outings are 4 or 5 hour trips.

dembieclynnejim@aol.com

Or 262-538-1259

Thanks ...JIM

[BigMusky]

Pewaukee is No Wake right now. not sure about other waukesha lakes.

figured it would not be great, but my 4 year old wanted to go night fishing and figured hitting lake michigan with approaching storms and submerged trees in 60FOW was not the best idea. So we threw top water from 730-900pm with no action on west bay.

[Lake&Pond]

Made it out Friday night and managed one 35'' on a double 10 Inhaler around 8:00 ish. Didn't touch or see another fish the rest of the night.

[Ben Kueng]

Boated these 2 in the last couple minutes of the trip..

We need a cool down!!!!!