Thursday, June 26, 2008

Wisconsin Trip, Tournament Preview, 4th of July

My trip to northern Wisconsin was much needed. Not necessarily from a fishing perspective, but more so for relaxation. It was nice to get away from work and out of the metro area for awhile. My buddy Sam has a cabin on a small lake that is very close to the Turtle Flambeau Flowage; a large reservoir type system that is known for its walleye, muskies, and football looking smallies.

The first day up there, we put the boat in at the "Flowage". We started in a spot that was shallow with plenty of rocks and wood and the fish were biting right from the get go. We were catching them mainly on weightless flukes and zara spooks, man was that a blast! I got one picture of a smallie I caught, but haven't got it sent to me yet (I'll post it if I get it). I swear once these fish hit about 15-17 inches, they don't get any longer. Just wider! They looked like deformed footballs. As a storm blew though the area we parked the boat on an island and waited it out for a little bit. I was still throwing a zara spook from the bank and proceeded to miss two more fish during the storm, made for some excitement at least! After the storm we moved to another area that had muskies in it last year as well as some smallies. Sam and my other buddies, Matt and Adam, were chuckin and windin for muskies while I was throwing a fluke. I ended up getting one more smallie before another much stronger storm came in that forced us off the lake. Overall it was a very fun day on the lake chasing those smallmouth. Oh yeah...Sam also caught a walleye on a fluke. He asked himself at the beginning of the fishing trip whether a walleye would hit a fluke, I guess he answered his question! I thought that was pretty cool.

After a fun filled night, we hit the lake that Sam's cabin is on the next day. We ended up catching some largemouth on frogs and tubes up shallow and Matt also landed a nice Smallie from under a dock that day too. I really enjoyed my weekend up there and I couldn't think of anything better than spending time with good friends on a deserted lake in the north country.

Looking ahead to this weekend... I have a club Tournament up on Rush Lake near Rush City, MN. I have fished the lake a couple times before and was able to prefish it two weeks ago. I'm not sure fishing it two weeks ago helped me much in establishing a pattern for this weekend, but it was good to get out on the lake to familiarize myself with it again. Not quite sure what to expect, but I have some ideas and all I can hope is that those ideas pan out...we'll see.

I'm also heading up to my cabin on Sunday. I will be up there for an entire week and I can't wait. Over the 4th the fishing can be good up there at times. Its also a good place to practice and gain confidence in new techniques mainly because its not a tournament situation and most times I have a general idea of where the fish are since I've been fishing the lake since I was in diaper.

I will try and get a quick post in on Saturday night about how the tournament went before I leave for my cabin on Sunday. Until then, boat one for me!

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