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Where are all the Illinois Guys ?

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Went to Hennepin and Hopper lakes on Saturday.  It was pretty crowded.  I got there at about 6A and there was already 5 boats on the water and another 5 boats loading up to get on the water.  There were also about 5 kayakers.  The boat launch has 2 sides, one for boats and the other for canoes, kayaks etc.  The lake was very weeded up.  Every where that was less then 3 ft had a thick mat.  There were channels of 7-8 ft that everyone was fishing out of.  I took this time to head towards the middle of the lake, the kayak let me go over the top of the weeds I spooked so many fish out there.  Any openings in the weed mat I was able to fish a frog in.  I also tried punching, but 1oz weight wasn't heavy enough to get through.

 

I was pretty consistent frogging all day, lots of 12-13" fish (10), but very aggressive.  Saw some boats with very high numbers (one boat had 2 anglers, 98 fish between the two in about 6 hours).  Should be an awesome spot in the springtime if they open it up for next year.

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Went to Hennepin and Hopper lakes on Saturday.  It was pretty crowded.  I got there at about 6A and there was already 5 boats on the water and another 5 boats loading up to get on the water.  There were also about 5 kayakers.  The boat launch has 2 sides, one for boats and the other for canoes, kayaks etc.  The lake was very weeded up.  Every where that was less then 3 ft had a thick mat.  There were channels of 7-8 ft that everyone was fishing out of.  I took this time to head towards the middle of the lake, the kayak let me go over the top of the weeds I spooked so many fish out there.  Any openings in the weed mat I was able to fish a frog in.  I also tried punching, but 1oz weight wasn't heavy enough to get through.

 

I was pretty consistent frogging all day, lots of 12-13" fish (10), but very aggressive.  Saw some boats with very high numbers (one boat had 2 anglers, 98 fish between the two in about 6 hours).  Should be an awesome spot in the springtime if they open it up for next year.

 

I found the same thing, that anywhere there was shallow water, it was really weedy and nearly impossible to fish a jig, unless you were fishing the outside or inside weedline. All of our fish were caught on the outside weedline next to deeper water Those 2 guys with the big numbers, that is impressive. Do you know what they were throwing?

I found the same thing, that anywhere there was shallow water, it was really weedy and nearly impossible to fish a jig, unless you were fishing the outside or inside weedline. All of our fish were caught on the outside weedline next to deeper water Those 2 guys with the big numbers, that is impressive. Do you know what they were throwing?

Cadman,

 

One was throwing the smaller senko wacky rig (4") I think and the other had a texas rig worm of some sort.  My buddy got 30 fish, most on frogs and wacky rig senko.  I looked through the fish record book at the station there and some of the numbers were pretty impressive.

 

Awesome!  I grew up a block from Bangs and did a ton of shore fishing around the lake when I was younger.  Haven't been out there to fish in a long time, it's usually pretty crowded on the weekends.

  • Super User

Headed out west to Apple Canyon lake and did well, over 20 bass with 19" being the best of the trip.

 

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Went out to Powers Lake this past Sunday. Beautiful day on the water and fishing was really good too. Best of all no skiers or jet skies. Now to fishing. (2) 18", biggest being 3.9 lbs, (2) 17", (2) 16", (4) 14" bass , (1) 28" pike, 1 rock bass and 1 warmouth. All on jigs and in 6 -8 feet of water. Water temp was 71degrees. Going to Pewaukee Lake on Saturday and Delavan on Sunday. Reports to follow later.

Caught this one tonight. What would cause those marks? Did he come home late? Lol.post-39451-0-74177000-1443321147_thumb.j

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To my knowledge their are no musky in that lake. Highland silver lake.

  • Super User

To my knowledge their are no musky in that lake. Highland silver lake.

Pike? It looks more like a bite to me because it's on both side of the fish. 

  • Super User

Headed to the Fox Chain this morning. Launched at 6 and headed to my first spot. Picked up a short walleye, a 2lb smallie and a 2lb largie all on a bluegill swim jig before 8:00 then it died...or did it. I finally put on a black n blue senko around 10:00. I couldn't keep the bass off my line. Granted none were big, but the action was fast. Even had one bass jump out of the water chasing the senko. I threw on a black n blue fluke to try and get a little larger bite. Picked up one more 2 pounder and a few more shorts. All the fish were relating to metal sea walls and breaks where the sea wall material changed to cement, and pads just off the walls. Surface temps have been hovering around 70 for a few weeks. . 

  • Super User

Nice. Where you fishing?

Lake Miltmore in my neighbor hood. Couple of blocks away from my house. Launched my boat in the early am and got 4 bass and 2 pike. Later my buddy wanted to get his boat out and the big ol gal came crashing the party. I was worried that the fall bite was going to be all messed up with the weather last week. I could not launch all week because my boat is a cork and the wind we had would have made it impossible. It was a nice surprise with how good the fishing was yesterday.

  • Super User

I moved a couple weeks ago and now have the luxury of a 5-6 acre pond right across the street.  I've been out twice now and haven't' caught anything to write home about but there are fish and they're healthy so that is very promising.  I just have been zipping around a shallow crank to search the place out.  So far a lot of dinks under 12".  Here is one of the better ones.

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Lake Miltmore in my neighbor hood. Couple of blocks away from my house. Launched my boat in the early am and got 4 bass and 2 pike. Later my buddy wanted to get his boat out and the big ol gal came crashing the party. I was worried that the fall bite was going to be all messed up with the weather last week. I could not launch all week because my boat is a cork and the wind we had would have made it impossible. It was a nice surprise with how good the fishing was yesterday.

Is Lake Miltmore open to the public? If so where is the launch, how much to launch and any boat/motor restrictions?

Private lake.

That's what I thought. Thanks for the reply.

  • Super User

Fished the Wisconsin river this weekend. Surface temps 58* and water is down around 2 feet below normal pool for this time of year. No shortage of smallies or walleyes but there was no size to any of them. Smallies were all in less than 6fow. Walleye were sitting on the bottom of humps in 15-18fow. Action was real fast and in spurts. Had to keep moving around from bluff to bluff if we saw fish on the graph we stopped. Picked up a 5lb flathead and a 10lb channel cat and had a 3ft sturgeon break off at the boat while drifting and bouncing jigs off the bottom in 30fow.Couldn't find any panfish.  

Fished, Tichigan on Saturday, very slow. I got a 15-1/2" largie, 17" walleye and a 26 " northern pike. My buddy got an 18" and 15" largemouth and about 6 other bass under 12". Jigs and rattle traps.

 

Fished lake Beulah on Sunday. We got about dozen largemouth all under 14". Lot of really small fish on jigs and rattle traps.

  • Super User

Planned on doing some crappie fishing on the Chain today. I spent yesterday afternoon butchering a deer and didn't feel like cleaning fish, so I went bass fishing. I shoulda went crappie fishing. Caught 1 snot rocket on a bluegill Houdini Shad, not another bite. Water temp is 49* and most of the vegetation is dead. Twas a bit nippy this morning. Was nice to have the Chain to myself. Not many boats out. Crappies are rescheduled for next weekend. Deer jerky is drying in the oven. Bears are losing........

Went to silver lake yesterday, one at 15", rapala jointed in shad. The trees where pretty though! Water temp 18°c.

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