Brew City Bass

I was fishing Waukesha on the opener, it was dismal. 25mph winds and a mix of weather. Grinded for 5 hours with two bass to show. Water temps are in the low 50's, too much rain for it to get warm. I give it two more weeks before spawn. Going out to Okauchee tomorrow.

I landscape for extra cash and mow 3 lawns a week. I generally don't mow before 8 on a weekday. On the weekend, I give people the courtesy and don't mow before noon. I work thirdshift so I know all about sleeping during the day and how annoying noise can be. My noise law is from 8am - 10pm.

Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after.

Jack Daniel's Single Barrel Select with a nice Dutchmaster Honey.

Removing some of the skeg would result in loss of steering while trolling. I'd advise against it. Just mount it on the transom.

A local lake near me was drained / stocked over the course of a few years. They stocked it with fingerlings and it wasn't fishable for another 2-3 years after that.

Thanks for the report. I am going out to Okauchee tomorrow at 8:30am after work. I'll let ya know how it goes.

I'd say it dropped to 20' over the length of 5-10 yards. Not a complete drop off, but not a long slope. I am not sure what a hump or creek channel would look like. I was just cruising 20 yards off shore and noticed the drop off. It wasn't at a point. I can see if I can find it on the map. Here is the drop off circled in black

Sorry for the lack of information. I live in Wisconsin and am fishing in the South East part of the state, Waukesha Co. to be exact. The lake is Okauchee lake for anyone who knows it. I'll fill out my profile with details. How do I choose the depth of the crank? If I am fishing a 20ft drop, do I throw a 10ft crank if the baitfish are at 10ft? Thank's for the tips already!

So, I've only ever known shore fishing up until I bought my bass boat this month. So, I've never had the chance to even see what a ledge or drop off looks like on sonar. Yesterday I was just cruising looking at the sonar and spotted where the water drop's from 5ft to 20ft and that must be the ledge. I always here people talking about fishing points, drop offs, ledges, etc.. I would love to learn on how to fish these spots, but have no idea where to start. I am very confident with spinners, but I don't know if these work in the depths. How do I fish these spots? Do I throw cranks? If so, what type? Do I throw a t-rig worm, or creature? Jig? It's so overwhelming. When I find the ledge, point or drop off, should I even fish it if the sonar isn't marking fish? Do I cast into the shallow, and bring it deep, or vice versa? Do I fish parallel to the ledge? Any tips are appreciated. Tight lines, Jason.

The boat plug fiasco made me spit my orange juice! That's just flat out funny. First mishap, the anchor gets wrapped around her ankle... Then you fall into her and she goes over the gunwale.

Pewaukee Lake, and Okauchee are only 20 minutes from me and are great fisheries, I just haven't gone there yet because it's a zoo on opening weekend.

Most ice fishers on that lake keep anything of legal length. I've seen people walk off with five 12" bass every day. The population is probably pretty low to begin with, it's not a very well taken care of lake.

Well, my opener was dismal. 25mph winds, but managed two bucket mouths. I went out for about 4 hours today on upper and lower Phantom lake in Mukwonago. Was sunny and calm, still rough fishing. Only got a pike and lost a bass. This lake is notorious for getting POUNDED during ice season, so I am assuming its tapped for the summer already. Didn't even see any bass cruising.

a .22 rifle is the solution.

I am from Milwaukee and we had a rough time down here as well.... 20mph winds, 2ft waves, and some rain. Crap conditions, should have just stayed home.

Went great. I launched by my self, it's no big deal on a slow ramp. Putting on the trailer, that's a different animal.. I wish I knew that the trailer should be 100% straight before attempting to put it back up. haha It was Sunny and 70*, great spring day in Wisconsin. Saw plenty of bass cruising the shallows.

Well, my new purchase had her maiden voyage today! She did great.

This is kind of funny, but the season is closed here until this Saturday, I bought a few new buzz baits and I was at a drainage ditch that holds no fish, just testing the baits. Some guy rolls up and says he called the DNR on me. LOL

LOL!

Thank you

Hahaha thanks!

Well, the sale went smooth and I am the new owner of the boat! Thank you everyone for the advice. I'll be taking her on the maiden voyage this Thursday so I can practice before the season opener.

I use braid on all my ice fishing tip-ups and never seem to have an issue with that.

Yessir. Milwaukee boy here. Our opener is this Saturday. Our bass season is only closed for like a month and a half, and ice out isn't generally until late March, so we only have a month of down time. It still sucks, we should at least be able to catch and release. All gamefish in Wisconsin except for a few bodies of water is closed from sometime in March through the first Saturday in May. If you're fishing with a spinner, crank, anything like that, you're obviously not pan fishing, so it's pretty easy to tell you're poaching. Also, DNR here play hide and seek. A few times I've been fishing a bank and a game warden comes popping out of a bush as soon as I pull in a fish and ask's for my license etc.. It's pretty annoying, it seems like they are more interested in hassling the good guys instead of catching snaggers, or people netting in the rivers...