Cade Laufenberg

about the skipping... we skipped a lot of docks at the state tournament on Lake Nagawicka here in WI. I never put down my baitcasters for that. I would go so far as to say that spinning rods were obsolete (for me) if it wasn't for shakey heads, drop shots, and hair jigs...I throw everything else on a baitcaster. Even senkos and flukes.

You must be thinking of the drop shot as a verticle only type of bait... I rarely vertical fish a drop shot..usually making casts and pitching it..The way I fish it is a series of pulls along the bottom, then pause, then shake the worm, repeat. With the way I fish them, yes you can fish it from the banks.

huh, that's cool. Funny thing about summer and current in a place where both largemouth and smallmouth inhabit the waters....They are never far apart...Whether I'm fishing grass, slop edges, lily pads, sand, or even main channel wing dams in the summer, you're always looking at a chance to catch a mix. I have caught smallies out of pads and slop...as I said the most fun is when they are sitting behind stumps in current. That is also a mixed fish deal.. The fish on the left is a 17" ~ 3 lb fish, and the fish on the right is a 19-1/2" smallie (only around 3 lbs because it was spawned out) both were caught behind the stumps..Just shows that smallmouth and largemouth are definitely cousins... ;D sometimes we forget here on the river, when all the smallies are on the main channel on sand drops in deep water, and the largemouth are completely seperated and in the backwaters. You can never catch a mix in the same area this time of year here. Ok done rambling now ;D

I haven't heard anyone say swim jigs. I fish a large river system with lots of backwaters, and it is a lot different style of smallmouth fishing i'm sure..when the smallies spawn out they are on current breaks in backwater sloughs all the time. I like to throw a 1/4 oz dark colored swim jig- usually trying to mimmick a bluegill- behind stumps..The thump from a smallmouth on a swim jig is amazing. I agree that hair jigs are an extremely deadly technique. My biggest limit ever was caught yesterday using hair jigs for 19-1/4 lbs of smallies, you can read about it under tournament or outing. Although hair jigs work, I catch really nice smallies flipping wood and cut banks with silicone jigs all the time. One time I was fishing a lily pad field with a frog and tearing up the largemouth..I turned around and there was a sand flat behind me with 5 ft of water on it, and I could see the bottom. (this is extremely uncommon in the Mississippi river) it didn't take long before I saw a bunch of smallies cruising so I started dragging a jig with a paca chunk over this expansive flat. I caught a bunch of 2-2-1/2 lbers doing this. That was one spectacular thing. The coolest part was its way out in the middle of nowhere, and it's also on my gps for next ear! ;D

well it all started on Saturday..I was fishing a store bought hair jig that was black/purple...I'm using these jigs with nothing on them, fishing them extremely slow. I mentioned that I am fishing wingdams. For those un-familiar with river systems, wing dams are rock structures that are put in to control the current flow in the Main Channel. they help keep heavy flow in a concentrated spot which keeps the channel deep enough for the barges to navigate. As you might be able to guess, these wingdams are also very good places for bass to sit. The smallies for me seemed to have moved off the tops of the wingdams which come up to about 3'. now they are sitting on the sand drop coming off from the wingdam where there is less current. Each wingdam has its "sweet spot." the sweet spot of this one dam where I caught 2 of the big fish, is a break in the dam where the current runs through. You pitch the jig right in on the edge of that current and you get smoked. enough of the wing dam talk, after I lost that purple/black jig, i quickly made some jigs at home using some decorative feather material that is very similar to maribou..It is red, and I used a sharpie to make it black. The end result is a dark blood red color that the smallies have been tearing up. and the sharpie gives it a heavy scent, which the fish also don't seem to mind. The fishing is slower than we are used to in the summer, you have to really pick things apart for each bite you recieve. But when you get bit, it is well worth it. We caught 17 keepers between us two in 4-1/2 hours, and only 4-5 dinks. Hope this helps clarify things. Thanks everyone for the kind words! It was the greatest fishing day of my life. Although the fish aren't jumping 5 ft out of the water when you hook up, its still fun to watch a 5 lber try and get her fat self out of the water!

Pool 8, near La Crosse, Wisconsin (southwest Wisconsin)

??? Pretty brown here...No leaves left except for the silver maples and oaks...Water temperature is 39-42 degrees..ice in the backwaters in the morning...I wish it looked like that here...but that is just a distant memory now :-[ :'(

The bite on pool 8 for the past month or so in my boat has been very spotty to say the least. One day you have a great day fighting the current on the main channel, the next, it can be extremely tough. The high water that we had also brought extremely high flow and made those areas unfishable for a while in my boat. With a couple weeks withought much precipitation, the water has finally come down and cleared up considerably, making these areas fishable, and the smallmouth bass are on a tear. I hit the water around 10:30 yesterday to see if I could find some smallies that would be willing to bite for today's trip with Justin. Call it pre-fishing if you will. My goal was to cover many wingdams on the pool and locate the best ones so I didn't have to waste time when I had an extra person in the boat. The end result of that was 6 keepers early in the day and after I left that area, I never caught a bass again. My 5 fish limit was only a touch over 9 lbs with the biggest going about 3 lbs. I lost a solid 3-1/2 to 4 lber at the boat and I knew that this was the right area. Arriving at the spot today right before the kickoff of the packer game was an incredible feeling. The first fish was boated by Justin at the same time the packers scored their first touchdown. It turned out to be a day of amazment for us both, as we proceeded to catch some of the largest smallmouth I have ever seen in my boat. My first fish of the day was a 20" smallmouth that made some incredible runs at the boat. I took a long time to catch my second keeper of the day, however it was worth it when another 20" fish came to the boat, this one being much fatter than the first. The fish could hardly swim it was so fat, and I honestly thought I may have a smallmouth that would be close to 6 lbs when I first saw it. I won't talk my self up much more, this whole time Justin was whacking the smallmouth too. By 4:30, Justin had 8 keepers in the boat, and I had 7 keepers (not including a 14" snagged in the side) as well. Justin's best 5 were 13-1/2 lbs and mine were at 15-3/4. But it does not stop there. Just minutes before it was time to leave (due to darkness), i felt weight on my line. After a few minutes of fighting It finally set in what had just happened. I had boated a 19-1/2 inch smallie which secured the biggest limit of my life. At 19-1/4 lbs, I could hardly believe what I was doing. Thank goodness for a good friend that was with to share the experience and witness this magical day. We caught all of our fish on wingdams in 7-15 ft of water with little current on them. Not every wingdam is going to produce. You need a combination of light current, sand, and wintering water nearby. 2 of these monster smallies came off of the same dam, the other came off of a different one. Both of these dams have access to 30+ foot water. 1/4 oz hair jigs are the way to go, the water temperature is 40-42 degrees at this time. I tried some other stuff, including a swim bait, drop shot, and jigging spoon, with minimal success except for a 14" smallie on the drop shot, and a 30+" northern on the spoon. Here's my friend Justin with a 3-1/4 lb smallie Justin with a 2 lber..we caught many others in this size range. here is a double that we had...they were the exact same size, the only difference was Justin's had red eyes.. Here is my first 20" smallmouth My second 20" smallmouth. With the girth this thing had, it was certainly 5+ lbs. same fish, this picture shows the girth a little better 19-1/2" fish that hit with 5 minutes left in the outing.

you know what...forget what I said earlier...forget erie...go to the Mississippi River!! ;D I caught 9 keepers today and my friend caught 8 keepers. My best 5 were 19-1/4 lbs..My best 3 were 14-1/4 :o

yeah it sure is a nice picture. By the way, that is Jim Johnson in the picture...He is from my hometown and placed 9th in the '06 bassmaster classic after qualifying for the classic..

15 fish a day between 2 guys on live bait..even if they are all 7 lbs..i feel sorry for you guys.. sorry, i'll take my northern smallies any day...You can't beat enticing limits of 3-4 lbers and then helplessly playing them to the boat. lake smallies fight like river largemouth..river smallmouth... I always love this time of year..and also the early-mid spring..when almost all tournaments are won with smallmouth, and usually 5 fish limits of 17+ lbs. In a tournament that i fished in this spring, I witnessed a 24 lb 6 fish limit. It was mega. The thing is, they were throwing back dozens of the same exact size once the had their limit.... by the way...Lake Erie has plenty of 7+ lbers. a local hero of mine said he had a 35 5 lber day last november on a trip with some buddies, and the year before that one guy had an 8-14.

Justin can back up that 3 lber...as he took the picture and saw it on the scale. It does sound crazy but you wouldn't believe what these river largemouth will do when the water temperature is dropping and they have to fight the current too..They have to dramatically increase their calorie intake to survive the winter...and the best way to do that is to gorge themselves on 4" shad..This one went a little nuts, and he wasn't even done yet as you can see, he ate my 4" baby brush hog.. ;D

Hey Guys..It has been a real long time since i got around to making a post on here...I have just been so busy lately but finally had time to sit down and give a report tonight. So far, This fall has brought a lot of surprises. It all kind of sparked back in mid August, when the area recieved nearly 20" of rain in 2-1/2 days. Yes that is not a typo. Almost 20" of rain in southwestern WI!! That just isn't normal. Between getting evacuated from the house, roads washing out, and the river jumping up about 8 feet over night, things were pretty hectic. What really had me ticked was that i had almost a 3 lb average going on frogs, and the rain changed everything. Since that rain, it seems like we can never get completely dry around here. And the river hasn't really had much time to settle down back to normal pool for a while. It still remains 5-6 ft. above normal pool. Normally this time of year there is low flow and the smallies are all over wingdams and areas with slackwater adjacent to current and deeper holes in which they will winter. well this year there is almost no such thing as slackwater. And I am finding these brutes stuck right in the middle of the current and voulnerable as can be. Crankbaits, Topwaters, shakey heads, and even swimbaits are getting the best of some really nice fish lately. The fish will school by size, so when making a run on a line of wingdams, your main goal is to catch one or two fish at 18"+. If you do that, you're most likely in business, and there are many more of that size range around. This is where it becomes very simple to catch huge sacks of fish that hardly seem imagineable anywhere else..and they FIGHT like you wouldn't believe. Today the main channel bite was a little tough. However I was able to take advantage of 2 smallies that totaled 7-1/2 lbs. One was 4-1/4 and the other was 3-1/4 lbs. What a rush. The big one hit a 5" swimbait (which is big around here ;D) and went nuts from there. the 5th keeper eluded me today, but i came out with 4 fish for 12-1/2 lbs. I probably should have stayed after the smallies, as I went into some backwaters for largemouth and it really didn't pan out back there, save for probably 30 small fish and 2 2-1/2 lb fish. Overall the last month of fishing has been great. The following are just a few pictures to sample what its been like. 19-3/4" smallie that inhaled a swimbait She sure warmed me up earlier today when it was only in the 30's out! an 18" smallmouth that got wrapped up in a log, but we were able to free it and get it in the net thankfully. my friend with a decent smallie that took a jointed shad rap One of a few NICE smallmouth that fell victim to a shakey head on a rock point with heavy current a couple weeks ago... I shouldn't completely neglect the largemouth..they are biting well right now, especially on sand drop offs, but i have just been putting most of my efforts into the smallies, as they are where the big weights are, and the most fun to catch! a few weeks ago however, I had a day flipping deep wood that produced 13-1/2 lbs of nice largemouth with only one smallmouth in that bag. This included a 15" largemouth that weighed 3 lbs! and also a 17"er that weighed 3-6. A 3 lb 15"er!! and a 3-6 Thanks for reading! Cade

I agree, they do fight amazingly! it seems as if the smallies change color way more that largemouth do, especially when put into a livewell for any period of time. It only takes minutes and there is a noticeable color change. Here is a 17" largemouth and a 19-1/2" smallie. The largemouth looks normal but the smallmouth has a lot of color compared to when I actually caught it.

I start when the slop grows in and the fish are in it ;D We don't have slop year round so usually mid-late may is when we start getting a few mats. June is prime time for that kind of stuff though here.

Thought I would post a couple pictures here of my big tom for this year. it was my first turkey ever, taken at 6:45AM on Saturday, 4/14/07 with a 12 gauge shotgun. The bird came in with 2 hens and 3 deer ;D and was shot while in strut at about 30 yards. We couldn't get the bird out of strut to get it's head up to shoot but it wouldn't come out. So I just let the led fly ;D It was a perfect shot, most of the shot went in the neck and head of the bird with a little that actually broke the wing. I didn't lose any meat though so it turned out great. The Tom ended up being a 24 lb 14 oz bird with a 10" beard and 1" spurs. What a fun time, I sure hope I get a permit again next year for Wisconsin turkey season!!

Congrats! I hear ya on the weather..We got snow last night too. only enough to cover the grass but its still a sick sight to see :'(

Now that looks nice! I have a ton of those craws..never thought of that though. Thanks for the idea!

Yeah the air temp went from 70's to low 40s, but on Monday we actually saw 67 degrees for water temp up in this creek. Its no surprise like I said, it conducts the warmth a lot better like I said in my other post. Right now though I bet its in the low 50's because its been cold and raining the past few days. The rest of the river has been 40's-low 50's..

thanks for the comments. Yeah we really really got into them. Thats one thing about mississippi River bass fishing..You have a potential to have 70-100 or even more fish days. The river is really abundant with bass in the 12-14" range because the keeping size limit is 14" . I believe this aids in having such a healthy population of fish. Like I said, they were mostly dinks but still several keepers each. It was great fun. Yes the 60+ degree water temps were no exaggeration either. The ice went out and we had several days above 70 degrees with 2 days cracking 81, and 83. They were both records and when the water is clear with lots of wood around, and 4 ft max, you are bound to have warm water. Not to mention this place stays open all year round because it is city run off and I believe some of it may be warm water discharge from area buildings. The fish definitely use the small stretch well this time of year, as you can see from the pics and report

Thanks Everyone for the replies! Yes Ryan..lol I have actually been starting to like them. I have always had a few but now I'm really starting to shine with them. We went out in the rain today and everything but me got soaked. ;D However I caught this good fish on a popper. I caught 2 others on a flipping jig but they were dink 12 & 13 inchers. The fishing really slowed down because we got like an inch of rain over night and the temp went from 70's to low 40's in the course of a day. We had 4 ft visability yesterday and less than 1 ft today. I'm just glad I caught a few and stayed dry!

Thanks

here is my friend Zac Cassill with the biggest fish of the day..a fat 16"er.

;D ;D ;D On Monday I finally got into my first fish of the year..however I only caught between 8 and 10 bass.. Last night I was out, same spot, same type of baits and absolutely clobbered the fish. I caught 70+ and the guy I was with also caught 70+ we each had several keepers, but nothing over 2-2-1/2 lbs. It was a great time. We were using Jerkbaits, flipping jigs, swim jigs, zellamanders, spinnerbaits...pretty much anything you want to throw at them. The water temp is well into the 60's in this back creek as compared to other places on the main part of the river. It was a great time and needless to say, I have a good case of the bass thumb now!! I can't wait to get down there tonight to whack some more fish! -Cade

WOW, now those are some awesome fish..that lake has Largemouth, Smallmouth..Spots ( I think?) and ELK?!?! THat lake must really be something special to fish on. Congrats on an amazing day on the water.