[Big_D]

Couple Reports...

Out on Wednesday 9/27 from 9:30 AM to 4:30 PM. Cloud cover all day with some showers on and off throughout. Heavy winds out of the NW, surface temp 64 F.

Dragging suckers (Mortimer and Dead Head Pete) and split casting time between musky and bass. Morning was pretty dead, one nip from a 30"er on a bucktail and a 40"er followed Mortimer for about 100 yards of breakline but never took a bite. Managed a couple of smallies mid day... then finally late afternoon, had a 40"er take Mortimer for ride. Got it to boatside quickly and it swam right into the net. Was released about as quickly, but Mortimer was toast. Enter Dead Head Pete. I had to put the grip of death on him to get him rigged up... he spent the rest of the day floating upside down. Apparently musky don't really care cause not 15 minutes later, I had hooked into a ~42"er that was not so cooperative. After several artful dodgings of my apparently not so masterful one-handed netting techniques, this one shook Pete loose then shook himself loose shorty after one more failed netting attempt. I guess we'll call that one quick-released.

Back out again on Thursday ~2:30 - 6:30 PM, with friend and dragging two suckers together (Orville and Cheese). Had a couple smaller follows on bulldawgs, who lingered around to marvel at the size of Orville and Cheese. Slow going till about 5:30 when a fat 40"er followed a bulldawg in and turned on Orville... got him by the tail, so hook set pulled it right out of his mouth. Not to be deterred, the musky turned right around and took a bite out of cheese... tail again, right behind the hooks, pulled out again. Needless to say, this musky was hungry, turning right around and hitting Orville again... and AGAIN right on the tail... gave him a little slack hoping he might try to get a better grip, but eventually had to set it and pulled the rig clean out. Orville Redensucker RIP. Cheese was pretty well mangled too, but managed to hang in there for the rest of the day... no further action to report.

Take Care,

D.

[Big_D]

Out on Saturday 9/23 6:30 AM to ~4:30 PM. Nice mix of weather throughout the day, thick soupy fog in the early morning then a couple hours of sunshine, followed by some cloud cover w/light showers and then a full fledged T-storm to chase me off the lake. Water temps holding ~64F, water clarity is excellent and the weeds are slowly getting a little thinner each week.

Decided to tempt fate and bring two suckers (Princess and Barry) with me in hopes that I might get to use them both. The morning hours were very bleak... casted everything in my box and not a follow to be had. Princess was very high maintenance. I've never had a sucker get into so much trouble... but my patience paid off as she drew the first action of the day around 11 AM... looked back in time to see a nice sized musky roll on the surface, peel out some line and let go before I could get to the rod. We casted through a couple more spots and found taker number two... finally a clean hookup and.......... a modest 35"er got to spend a little time in my boat! The musky gods have finally been caught napping... the curse has been lifted. Not really able to take a good picture all by myself, snapped one in the net and was going to try to get a release photo, but she fired right out of my hands the second she hit the water... which was cool to.

Honestly could have gone right home after that, but decided to give Barry a chance. As the skys started darkening, action really livened up. Fished on to have close to a dozen follows (several were repeat customers) on bulldawgs, including an upper 30's dancing around figure-8's at boat-side and then swimming shark circles around Barry a few minutes later. Had another taker, drop before I could get to the rod again... and a couple other non-taking sucker-sniffers too. This was all in about 2-3 hours before the T-storms blew through. Probably 4-5 in the mid to upper 30's and one low to mid 40's.

That's all from D-Land...

Take Care,

D.

[Big_D]

Out on Saturday 9/16, 6:30 AM to ~5:30 PM. Partly cloudy in the AM, Partly Sunny in the afternoon. Heavy winds ALL DAY long, out of the South. Water temps (surface) ranging from 66 F - 69 F.

I've been starting to get the itch... so I picked up a Sucker (Seymour) to tow around with me and split my time (50/50) between Bass & Musky. Seymour was a gamer, drawing two hard takes... but both fish got off. First was an upper 30's but very fat, got to wrastle within viewing distance for a brief stint before he spit Seymour back out - hook set failure on my part. Used and abused, Seymour kept on keeping on and drew another hard take, but a seemingly better set pulled the rig clean out with no hookup and no more Seymour. Seymour Sucker RIP, 10 AM 9/16/2006. He will be remembered always.

Tossed some tubes around for bass, but the fishing was not so good... a 16" Smallie and a couple of shorties. Some additional musky casting in the afternoon yielded a couple smaller musky follows, both ~30", and a follow from a mid 30's Gar as well.

Add in the obligatory rock bass, and that concludes the adventures for this day.

Take Care,

D.

[BigMusky]

Saturday morning I boated two 17inch smallies between 7-9am. One on a luckycraft pointer and other on a Big D smoke colored special.

I think I should have been throwing top water instead of pointer because the cast was fouled and lure skipped a little which resulted in smallie attack. Oh well.

[Big_D]

Out on Sunday 6:30 AM - 2:30 PM. Cool and cloudy all day with an occasional drop of rain. Medium to Heavy winds out of the East. Water temps 70-71 F.

Put 7 bass in the boat as well as a sampler pack of rock bass, perch, pike and gills. Very fat 18" smallie was the catch of the day. Everything on tubes.

Pretty slow day and the winds were making for some tough fishing, so I decided to pack it in early and head home for the Packer game. Good Grief... I should kept fishing! What was I thinking???

Take Care,

D.

[Big_D]

Out two afternoons before and after Labor Day weekend (8/31 & 9/5)... for 13 & 10 bass respectively, mostly smallies. Water temps are holding in the low-mid 70's and any traces of the algia bloom have now subsided.

Have been doing well with the smallies up on the flats and have picked up some nicer bass very shallow in the later afternoons... 19", 18.5" and a few 17"ers in the last two outings. The few LMB were found slopping docks/piers or working the breakline weeds. No size to any of them though.

Should have a few more weeks of decent action on the flats before they shift into their fall feeding patterns. Starting to see a little more musky activity in the lake now too... stalking on the breakline weed edges and cruising the flats.

Take Care,

D.

[Big_D]

Out again on Friday afternoon. 1 PM to ~7:45 PM

Got out a little too early... had to take cover for an hour as the last of the nasty storms worked thier way through that afternoon. After that, twas a fairly nice day, though... partly cloudy, a little humid and occasional winds out of just about every direction. Water temp was down to 74 F.

Threw tubes all day and ended up putting 12 bass in the boat plus a tiny perch and the obligatory rock bass. Fat 18" smallie was the catch of the day. Smallies were up cruising the flats, LMB were in the breakline weeds.

Take Care,

D.

[Big_D]

Out on Monday afternoon (8/21), ~12:30 PM to ~10:00 PM.

Nice day, upper 70's - low 80's not too humid. Sunny with an occasional white poofy cloud. Moderate winds out of the West. Water temp ~76 F. The algia bloom has subsided mostly, but the water still has a light lingering stain.

Slow day. 7 bass fishing till ~8 PM. Switched to musky at dusk. I really have no clue what I'm doing musky fishing in the dark, but it's fun to hear your pacemaker echo across the entire lake when everything has quited down for the night. Anyway, did some casting of weedbeds w/topwater and bulldawgs, and then trolled a jake around for an hour. No action.

Take Care,

D.

[Big_D]

Out on Saturday (8/5), 5:30 AM - 8:30 PM. Mostly cloudy all day, air temps up into the lower 80's. Water temps (surface) 82-83 F. Occasional light breeze out of the S & SE throughout the day.

Pretty decent day... 19 SMB, 6 LMB, a handful of RB and a snakey pike. All action came on tubes. Streaky in the morning and evening, a couple here, a couple there mixed with a lot of nothing. Hit a hot crawdad feed on the flats around Noon that accounted for about dozen of those smallies. That alone made the whole 15 hour day worth-while. Not much size to anything this day, but lots of of those 13-15"ers that never say die. Did pick up one nice fat 18" LMB in the morning though and lost another nice one at boat-side near dusk.

This is the first day this year that I've seen any evidence of heavy crawdad gorging. I wonder if the odd weather patterns that we've had this summer, have somehow affected thier propulation? By this time last year, we had seen 4-5 weeks worth of the crazy-crawdad action. I know there's a LOT more minnow-forage in the lake this year, compared to last year. Just kinda curious if anyone else has picked up on any subtle differences this year. Shoot me an message if you'd like to talk.

Take Care!

D.

[Big_D]

Out Saturday 7/29, 5:30 AM to 6:00 PM.

Very Hot day, but occasional breeze and occasional cloud cover kept me going. Fairly Humid, light winds out of the W/NW/SW (shifted throughout the day). Surface temps 83-84 F. The front that moved through for about an hour mid day brought only wind and cloud cover... no rain.

Aside from the heat, twas a decent day. Morning was slow. Had a brief hot streak in the afternoon that kinda made up for it. Ended up with 15 bass in the boat, a couple rockies and a micro-pike. Even mix of LMB/SMB today. LMB came strictly out of the breakline weeds. SMB were half/half, breaklines, vs. shallow flats.

Pleasure boat activity was pretty heavy in the afternoon. Understandable, with the heat. Most folks were quite courteous, though a couple spots were nearly unfish-able with all the traffic.

The algia bloom has remained very thick for the past couple of weeks, but it looks like it has started to subside just a little bit. Water clarity was still pretty poor, but noticably better than last week. Maybe a couple more weeks to shake all that out yet.

Take Care,

D.

[Eric Haataja]

This past Sunday was pretty slow from just about everyone I chatted with as well must have been one of those days....
Thanksfor the great reports!

Eric Haataja

[Big_D]

I haven't seen a thread for Oconomowoc out here... so let's get one going with a couple of (late) fishing reports....

Friday 7/21... out from 12:30 - 8:30 PM. Cloudy and cool, low-70's. Water (surface) temps 78-79 F. Light winds out of the N & NE.

Not too bad of an afternoon, at least as far as this year has been going. Put 11 bass in the boat along with a couple of stray walleyes and a small pike. Everything came on tubes.

Out again Saturday 7/22 ~8:30 AM - 3:30 PM. Clear skies in the AM w/occasional breeze out of the N & NE... shifting to partly cloudy with medium wind out of the W by mid-day with a brief shower later in the afternoon. Air temps mid 70's but felt much warmer without much breeze, and water (surface) temps holding 78/79 F.

CRAPPY DAY! Or at least the fishing was. Would have thought to have done much better after a decent Friday afternoon, but it was completely dead into early afternoon. Picked up a couple SMB, a walleye and RB (tubes only, again) as the weather started to shift, to save the day, then back to dead again. Packed it in early... very tough, very futile day. Talked to a couple other boats who said pretty much the same thing. Did throw some musky baits around for an hour or so, but that was uneventful as well.

Well, that's all from D-Land!

Take Care,

D.