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This past weekend was a busy one for me as I was bouncing around all over the place. I did get over to spend some time with my girlfriend who was feeling the urge to fish. I never need my arm twisted to do that, so I hauled the boat over. Last winter I saw a lake on google maps that I had never fished before only 15 minutes or so from her parent's house so we set off on an adventure to explore it. Upon arrival, things were looking good, it had some bogs that looked to have some water under them, lots of grass, some deep holes, and some stumps and downed trees. Conditions were not the best though, post frontal, bluebird skies, a light breeze that seemed to be blowing in circles. Things started off on a good note, as Mikalila had her first fish in the boat (baby northern) while I was still pulling rods out of the box. Things slowed drastically after, but we seemed to catch fish in spurts, I don't know if we just happened to run across a productive area, or if it had to do with the switching wind or what, but you'd catch one or two and it'd be followed by a long stretch of nothing. Most of our bites were coming on a frog, and all 3 photo worthy fish were caught on one. We lost a few others that got us wrapped up in the thick stuff and we couldn't get to them before they pulled off. Overall, this little lake has some potential, and I look forward to going back under better conditions and seeing if that lake has more to offer. Sunday, on the way home I stopped at a lake closer to my house that I usually fish quite often, but haven't had the time to get over there lately. I've only been on it once this year and that was early spring. I spend the little bit of my time fishing off shore structure with jack squat to show for it other than a few tiny and I mean tiny fish and a nice northern than liked the look of my jig. I decided to move in and fish some shallow slop in my last 40 minutes or so and was rewarded with 3 keeper bass one of which was a big momma! 20 3/4" and 5 lbs 3 oz. my first 5er of the year but hopefully not the last, they aren't exactly common around here. It was definitely a quality vs. quantity weekend, that's one of the best parts about fishing though, you never know what could happen the next cast.

Yesterday morning, I was mentally preparing for a tough day of fishing knowing the lake we were headed for is normally a tough one. Normally, it's not too hard to get bites, but the size is always the issue. The DNR has gone as far as removing the size limit for bass just to reduce the population in order to allow fish to grow (our club still maintains a 14" minimum). Don't get me wrong there are some big'uns in there, but they are pretty hard to come by and weights there usually reflect that. The lake or chain or lakes rather are fairly unique and almost overwhelming at times due to the sheer amount of grass and the lack of anything else. I would estimate that 85% of the shoreline of the entire deal is covered in grass flats that extend out between 50 and 125 yards. Almost all of these flats grow up within a foot of the surface, with some patches reaching the surface. The weather forecast was shockingly good, with overcast skies supposed to be holding throughout the majority of the day with chances of scattered showers. Winds were fairly light (3-10) and coming out of the south-west. It was just gloomy enough to keep most recreation pressure off the lake. Despite that, a local perch jerker was sitting right where I wanted to start things off so I moved up to fish a large weed point. To cover water and hopefully call up any early aggressive fish, I was throwing a rattlin' spook and dad was using his tried and true wacky worm. It didn't take long to put a couple in the boat after doubling back to expand on the area where we caught the first few fish, Dad had switched to a wake bait and pulled in one more fish that was about 1/8" shy of making the well before the sun came out and the bite died. We ran through a few more spots fairly quickly; a stretch of docks, a fairly steeply sloped point, some shallow cabbage beds, and a shallow mat of lily pads with trash grass that filled in the holes making a canopy. All of which held fish, but they were all tiny. We decided to move out to the deeper weed edge and hit that with a combination of creature bait and wacky worm and moved up in size and picked off two more keepers and some others that were at least close. Around 11:30 we headed over to another deeper weed line thinking we could replicate the pattern. The spot I pulled up on had some weird stringy type of grass I'm not fond of since it doesn't create shade and it tangles in your trolling motor prop like nobody's business. I kicked my trolling motor up to move up to some better grass quicker and picked up my jig. A few seconds after I stood back up I saw a thick patch of coontail moss so I let off the tm and dropped my jig down a hole almost right off the edge of the boat. I let it fall all the way to the bottom and let it sit for a second and my line just tightened up. I laid the wood to it and flipped it up in the boat, keeper number 5. Dad and I boated 4 or 5 more fish in that small little patch about 2 1/2 times the size of the boat. We ran back to where we started knowing there was some coontail in about the same depth of water (5-7') and sure enough, caught a few more legals, all about the same size. I had moved to a bigger creature bait hoping to pick up a bigger fish. We made another move back to the deep weed edge we fished earlier, but found a few boats around it so we ran to another spot I knew had some coontail, but it must have been just a little too shallow because we didn't even get bit. With about an hour left in the day we went back to the first coontail bed in hopes more fish may have moved in or it had settled enough to catch whatever else was there. Three pitches in a row I caught 3 more but they were all dinks, and then I hear dad yell "NET!" from the back of the boat. I turn around and see his rod doubled over thinking he's got the keeper we need, and that's when I see it shoot out of the grass...it's a 32 or 33" northern! I hear a noise up front and the rod I set down to pick up the net is starting to slide out of the boat, so I jump back up there to pick up my rod and there's no resistance, apparently a northern grabbed that one too and cut me off (someone really needs to invent braid cutters made of northern teeth as they would be the best on the market haha). We ran back to the lake with the landing in it, and fished a deeper section of grass with little patches of coontail mixed in, caught 3 in the last 15 minutes none even close to being keepers. In the end, we had caught over two limits of legal's and probably 25-30 fish total. Our keepers were all within a few oz of one another, so we were just missing 1 or 2 keeper bites that would have moved us up enough to win it. Ended up taking 3rd of 25 boats with 12.31lbs, missing out on 2nd by about 2/10ths of a pound and about 2 lbs out of first. Tournaments on most lakes in the area it usually takes 15 to 17 lbs to win so you can see how this body of water fishes. It was nice to put some money back in our pockets and build some momentum going into the second half of the season. Above all it was fun, and a great day spent with dad out on the water making memories.

Unfortunately for the second weekend in a row, my time on the water was limited. I did manage to get out all 3 days, but not nearly as long as I wanted to. From here on out, my Friday fishing will be even more limited as the Jr. High basketball season has started up so I'll only have a few hours after work to fish. This past Friday, I got out with a friend though that I haven't fished with in a long while. We ended up boating a few small northerns in our limited time, but it was good to get together and catch up again. Water temps on that particular lake were in the 50-52* range. We had plenty of bites, but couldn't capitalize on them. Saturday my dad and I were planning on having another bass battle. Unfortunately the TM repair shop hadn't sent out his replacement cables yet, so he left early Saturday morning to pick them up in hopes of a quick repair and to have enough time to get to our next scheduled lake and fish. Unfortunately it took longer than anticipated and I headed out to at least get a few hours of fishing in. The lake I chose to fish Saturday had considerably warmer water, with temps being between 58-60*. It was similar to the previous weekend where the fish are still confused as to where they should be. In my few hours on the water I caught 3 and lost 3 with the biggest being just over 18 1/2". I did manage to break in my new St. Croix Premier Crankbait rod that I won the previous week from sending in for one of their giveaways. I was happy with it's performance as the little 15 incher it pulled in was a hard fighter for being a small guy. The rod handled him as good as I expected. Sunday, I was out on the water to provide a guided trip I had donated for a cancer benefit the previous winter. The father and daughter I took out had put off the trip all summer and waited until now to take it as it's set to expire at the end of open water season. Both of them are new to fishing and with this time of year being challenging to catch fish, I elected to case after some northerns. With a cold front coming in and water temps again dropping to 50-52* I knew it was going to be a challenge. On top of that the wind was very gusty blowing 15-20 mph switching from west to north. They gave it their best shot but only managed to bring in 3 between the two of them and the father got snapped off by a pretty good one. I ended up fishing along with them to make sure they had enough to take home for a meal and I missed far more than I caught, but got them enough for a meal.When the wind switched around it was as if someone flipped a switch and the bit shut down for a good hour. Not only did the bit itself slow, we went from seeing fish actively chasing down bait and splashing all over to absolutely nothing. Baits that we had success with were shallow jerkbaits, oklahoma bladed spinnerbaits, and hollow belly swimbaits. Pictured below was Katie with her little northern that she was pretty proud of but not entirely sure about having to hold something as slimy as a northern haha.

This past weekend we had an unseasonably warm weekend for this time of the year. Temps were in the low to mid 60's .I was hoping to spend a bunch of time on the water this weekend, but my girlfriend was coming home from school so that limited my time considerably, not that that's a bad thing haha. The water is still very warm for this time of year ranging from 57-60 degrees and actually making it a little more challenging bite. Fish are somewhat scattered in between their early fall and late fall patterns. Most of the fish this weekend came on a jig off of shallow wood, and remaining lilly pads.Unfortunately had 2 move really solid fish come unbuttoned boat side. Overall, it was a good weekend though and what is probably going to be Mikaila's last trip of this year so she was happy to not finish the year with a skunk in the boat. Also, thanks to the warm weather, the farmers are getting more time to play in their fields...unfortunately they've made a mess of the roads because of it. I think the blue beast is going to need a good washing...

This past weekend, instead of fishing I headed over to visit my girlfriend who is going to school about 3 hours away from where I live. We had a great time, but my weekend fishing suffered haha. I figured it would be ok because things are slow at work right now and I got Monday off because of it. I decided to take my aunt to a small lake over by her house and commenced to struggling. With the weather being stable all week and weekend I figured not much would have changed since last weekend. I had been catching them on the outside weedline so that's where we started. Unfortunately there were only a few still there. They were not wanting to cooperate at all. I had bites, but they must have just been barely nipping my jig as I didn't even lose an appendage.I had tried a few different techniques thinking we'd get something going and I finally hooked into a good one on a jerkbait. My aunt decided to tie on a crankbait that was close to the same color, and within a few casts hooked into a decent bass as well, but she lost it about 10' from the boat when it jumped. She did manage to avoid the skunk by catching a small northern a few minutes later. Not much to show for 5 hours of fishing but at least one was photo worthy being just shy of 18 inches. As much of a struggle as it was, it could have been worse..... I could have spent the day at work!

As much as I fish, there are still times the fish confuse me. We've had some unusual weather here lately. Lots of rain has fallen, and there was a good chance of rain Monday through Wednesday this week. Monday I ended up not fishing because of it, but then the rain never came. I was bummed and itching to go, so yesterday when I looked at the radar and saw I had a few hours, I hooked the boat up as soon as I got home from work. It was a gorgeous day, completely overcast, a slight breeze, and storms moving it. I was thinking it was going to be lights out, and in a way I guess it was....the fish were fickle because the lights where out? haha. The lake I chose to fish has some large pad flats that I've caught quite a few fish out of. With the front coming in, you would think they'd be aggressive and with the lower light, there would be a movement out towards the edge of the pads. That was not the case yesterday. I couldn't get anything going on the edges, and had a few blowups on a frog but couldn't connect. Since they were at least slightly interested in the frog, I figured I'd give it a little longer before abandoning that pattern and trying something else. I was burning my frog back to the boat to make another cast when I noticed the signature bluegill boils come from a clump of pads as my frog came by and spooked them. I clipped my frog off and tied on a bluegill colored one and while I was doing so saw something pretty big roll a distance away. I finished tying it up, and zipped over to where I saw the roll. I must have thrown 15-20 casts in that area before the water under my frog erupted. I finally got one to stick, and it follows my theory that the bigger fish don't miss a frog nearly as often. I managed to wrestle her out of the pads and I finally got a look at her when she got in the open water an dang did she ever look big in that clear water! When I managed to get her in the boat, I found out my eyes weren't lying. Just a smidge over 20 inches and tipped the scales at 4lbs 12 oz. Man what a rush it was! I decided to work the area a little more and within 5 casts I was hooked up again. This time it was a northern that I was battling through the slop, but it was a good one. I got a great look at it boat side before it pulled off and it would have been pushing 30 inches. I continued to work the area and this time it took about 5 minutes, but there was a "v" coming towards my frog. It turns out that v was made by another northern, but this one I got in the boat and she measured up at 33 inches. I only caught one other little dink last night flipping a rock bar with grass on top. Admittedly, I probably spent a little too much time frogging, but I was getting some action I just couldn't connect. I still don't know why they weren't more aggressive though. Even the one I caught flipping just kind of picked it up. Oh well I guess I landed the ones that mattered and because of that it was still a good evening on the water!

After severe storms pushed through the area Friday afternoon/evening I knew it was going to be a tough day to fish on Saturday. The weatherman was calling for clear skies, light north winds, and heat pushing the mercury into the 90's. I don't skip a chance to get on the water though, and my dad and I were excited to defend out titles in a multi species big fish tournament on a lake not too far away. The previous year I had landed the biggest bass of the day, and my dad had brought in a winning northern pike. The tournament consists of 5 categories of fish, and the 8 hour day is divided in two. The biggest 3 fish of each species weighed in for each half wins a small amount of money. The morning started off pretty slow with a few small fish landed, but my dad did manage to hook into one in the 17 inch range. It was about an hour and a half in and we were coming up to a spot I broke a big one off in a tournament a few years before. For nostalgia sake I tossed my jumbo frog up there and after a few short twitches a big one rolled on it. I just got a glimpse of the side, but I knew it was big enough it would have a chance to place. I managed to wrestle it out of the pads, but there was a wall of slop between me and the fish and it managed to get some traction and bury itself in there where it got enough leverage to pull free. It was disappointing for sure, but I knew there was still plenty of time left. From there we bounced around to a few decent places without much action other than some bass coming up to feed for about 30 seconds. We pulled up on a main lake point and I caught a short one pretty quick. It was a promising looking spot, but we went all the way out on the point without a bite. We were almost at the tip when we were considering moving on, but decided to fish to the last little bit before we were off to our next spot. I'm glad we did, because within 3 casts I had one bump and miss before it came back and hammered my crankbait. When we got it in the boat I knew I had a chance to win some money. It was just a hare over 18" and weighed in at 3 lbs 15 oz. It ended up being good enough for 1st place for the second half of the day and was the biggest bass weighed in that day overall. It just goes to show, don't let a lost fish get you down, just keep plugging away. Dad's just barely missed out on 3rd at a just a hare under 3 lbs which was unfortunate, but all in all we still had fun despite the slow fishing and scorching temps.

I've been fishing since I was roughly knee high to a grasshopper. I bought my own boat the summer between 5th and 6th grade and never looked back. Despite all that fishing experience, one bait I've never had much confidence in is a jig (with the exception of a swim jig). I'm not sure why, since I know how deadly they can be, but I haven't had much luck with them and have felt that I can outfish them with a texas rig. Last fall I had finally decided to toss them around a little bit since you always hear how effective they can be in cold water. After catching a few fish on them and loosing a monster, I decided to continue practicing with them to gain some confidence and knowledge with them. I've been doing some here and there this year, but earlier this week I set out to kick it into high gear. We have gotten quit a bit of rain lately, and I know that they stack up pretty good on a few spots of a local lake when the water is high so I headed over there after work excited to see what I could do. Pulling up to the landing, my excitement quickly died. The water wasn't up just a little, it was up a good 3 feet, which I know to you southern guys is nothing, but up here on our natural lakes 3' is highly abnormal. From high water in the spring into the drought of summer the water may fluctuate a foot to maybe 2 total so to go up 3 over already high water left half the parking lot under water. Despite my best efforts I couldn't get my boat off the trailer there. This last one really shows how far I was from getting to the landing itself. Anyway, I packed things up and headed to the next lake over which was only a few miles down the road. This one was up a little but not anywhere near like the first one. Once I pulled up on my first spot, it didn't even take 5 minutes before I connected on the jig. I was a bit surprised when I pulled up a dinky walleye. Not that it's super surprising to catch one on a bass jig, but it only came out of a few feet of water with a lot of grass. It wasn't too much after though I connected on a few largemouth. I was trying to fish it in the sparser areas of the grass flat, and then swim it over the thicker stuff which paid off. While I was still up shallow, I just couldn't help myself. I had to sling a frog around a bit. I missed a fish right off the bat, and threw the jig back and caught it. I'm glad I pulled the frog out though as it netted me the biggest bass of the night, a 17 1/4" that I know I wouldn't have caught on the jig simply because I wouldn't have thrown it where I threw the frog. Man did she annihilate it! The skies started to clear off as the front started to move through so I slid out to fish the outer weed line and pick off a few more fish on the jig. I'm slowly starting to get a hang of this jig deal. Definitely not an expert, but I've got a lot more confidence in it than I used to. I fished for about 3 hours, and boated 9 largemouth, a walleye and a decent northern.

Hey guys, just made this post to let you know that the Chippewa Valley Bass Attack is looking for members. We have a team format, and generally fish lakes within an hour and a half of Eau Claire. As a team, we fish for a 5 fish limit so if you're a boater and want to fish alone, you can still compete. The Bass Attack is a B.A.S.S affiliated group that is part of the Federation Nation. For those of you unfamiliar with this, it means you are able to fish a series of tournaments (a kind of playoff format) that if you place high enough in, will earn you a trip to The Bassmasters Classic. This will be my 3rd year in the club and I've gotta say the members are all pretty stand up guys, not to mention they can fish! If you want to know more about us, check out our website at http://www.chippewavalleybassattack.com If you have any questions, you can always hit me up on here and I'll get you the info you need or put you in touch with someone who can.