Post by illinivandy on Jun 17, 2007 21:26:58 GMT -5
The family and I went on our yearly fishing vacation to Big Arbor Vitae Lake near Minocqua, Wisconsin this past week. We normally fish for bass and musky with the occasional panfish thrown in. Bass fishing was AWESOME this past week. We figured out the smallies in the lake for the first time this year and there are some GIANTS in there!! Smallies were in 4-6 feet of water on the north end of the lake. There’s a long stretch of shoreline in the northern part of the lake that quickly drops to that magic 4-6 feet with a rock bottom and several sunken logs.
We caught several NICE smallies ranging from 14-19 inches (I personally caught 3 that were 18, 18.5, and 19, my biggest smallie ever) on green pumpkin and watermelon seed creature baits texas rigged and dragged on the bottom and worked around the logs. We caught more smallies greater than 14 inches than smallies less than 14 inches. I think the smallies were just finishing up spawning (I caught only one off a bed, it was a male that was guarding aggressively, it had swiped at some ducks which tipped me off to its location so I backed up and it bit on the first pitch to the area).
Largemouth fishing was also phenomenal. We caught many in the 12-18 inch range fishing creature baits near stumps and laydowns in 1-3 feet of water. We only saw a few starting to move up on beds in a really shallow and muddy portion of the lake.
The weather was BEAUTIFUL the entire week up there. It rained for a total of 15 min the entire week. Clear skies and sun for a week made the water temp jump 10 degrees from the start of the week (67 degrees) to the end of the week (75-77 degrees). My brother and I each caught a bowfin (dogfish) during the trip. I caught mine the first full day we were up there on a creature bait. I saw the fish, pitched near it and the fish seemed interested. After one more pitch to the fish, I lost it in the sun, and when I saw it again, I saw my sinker hanging out of its mouth! I set the hook and the battle ensued. A couple minutes later, a 30 inch dogfish was in the net. My first and only dogfish to this point! It was an awesome battle (and to think that people throw these up on the bank when they catch them). My brother caught one later in the week on a spinnerbait.
Musky action was slow until the last day we were there. I figured the muskies would be hanging out shallow (especially near docks) adjacent to newly forming weed beds like they were last year (4 feet range). Last year was much cooler and this year much warmer which made the muskies move off to the deep weed edge in about 12 feet of water. We only raised 2-3 fish early in the week fishing bucktails over the top of weed beds, but my dad and I raised 4-5 fish the last night we were there fishing the deeper weed edge. My dad missed one on an in-line spinner when he was searching for the submerged log I pointed out to him (so he wouldn’t snag on it). Of course the 3 seconds he was looking for the log is when the fish struck and he missed it. Oh well, the fish was small anyways
.
I did catch a 24 inch tiger musky on a beaver early in the week off of a pine tree laydown. It was quite a battle with the fish getting wrapped around multiple branches which culminated with me going shoulder deep into the water, breaking the branch the fish was wrapped around, and my dad scooping up the fish.
We fished Lake Tomahawk down the road on Thursday and caught several largemouth and smallmouth fishing rock islands (SMB) and laydowns (LMB). The male largemouths were bedding and were picking up our creature baits and moving them off of their nests. Bites were hard to detect and my brother caught many of the largies using a smaller creature bait on a spinning rod. All in all it was an awesome trip with lots of big fish!!
My dad with a nice bass
30 inch bowfin
A nice view of the lake
18.5 inch smallie
18 incher (I have a pic of the 19 incher on my computer but it's at a bad angle, these are better pics)
My mom with a nice smallie
I learned to hold fish like Rob
My dad and a nice smallie
There are 7 eagle pairs on this lake. They are EVERYWHERE. Here is one bird.
There are many loons on this lake. Here are two that are nesting.
A pretty smallie from Lake Tomahawk
24" tiger musky
My mom with a nice bass
We caught several NICE smallies ranging from 14-19 inches (I personally caught 3 that were 18, 18.5, and 19, my biggest smallie ever) on green pumpkin and watermelon seed creature baits texas rigged and dragged on the bottom and worked around the logs. We caught more smallies greater than 14 inches than smallies less than 14 inches. I think the smallies were just finishing up spawning (I caught only one off a bed, it was a male that was guarding aggressively, it had swiped at some ducks which tipped me off to its location so I backed up and it bit on the first pitch to the area).
Largemouth fishing was also phenomenal. We caught many in the 12-18 inch range fishing creature baits near stumps and laydowns in 1-3 feet of water. We only saw a few starting to move up on beds in a really shallow and muddy portion of the lake.
The weather was BEAUTIFUL the entire week up there. It rained for a total of 15 min the entire week. Clear skies and sun for a week made the water temp jump 10 degrees from the start of the week (67 degrees) to the end of the week (75-77 degrees). My brother and I each caught a bowfin (dogfish) during the trip. I caught mine the first full day we were up there on a creature bait. I saw the fish, pitched near it and the fish seemed interested. After one more pitch to the fish, I lost it in the sun, and when I saw it again, I saw my sinker hanging out of its mouth! I set the hook and the battle ensued. A couple minutes later, a 30 inch dogfish was in the net. My first and only dogfish to this point! It was an awesome battle (and to think that people throw these up on the bank when they catch them). My brother caught one later in the week on a spinnerbait.
Musky action was slow until the last day we were there. I figured the muskies would be hanging out shallow (especially near docks) adjacent to newly forming weed beds like they were last year (4 feet range). Last year was much cooler and this year much warmer which made the muskies move off to the deep weed edge in about 12 feet of water. We only raised 2-3 fish early in the week fishing bucktails over the top of weed beds, but my dad and I raised 4-5 fish the last night we were there fishing the deeper weed edge. My dad missed one on an in-line spinner when he was searching for the submerged log I pointed out to him (so he wouldn’t snag on it). Of course the 3 seconds he was looking for the log is when the fish struck and he missed it. Oh well, the fish was small anyways
. I did catch a 24 inch tiger musky on a beaver early in the week off of a pine tree laydown. It was quite a battle with the fish getting wrapped around multiple branches which culminated with me going shoulder deep into the water, breaking the branch the fish was wrapped around, and my dad scooping up the fish.
We fished Lake Tomahawk down the road on Thursday and caught several largemouth and smallmouth fishing rock islands (SMB) and laydowns (LMB). The male largemouths were bedding and were picking up our creature baits and moving them off of their nests. Bites were hard to detect and my brother caught many of the largies using a smaller creature bait on a spinning rod. All in all it was an awesome trip with lots of big fish!!
My dad with a nice bass
30 inch bowfin
A nice view of the lake
18.5 inch smallie
18 incher (I have a pic of the 19 incher on my computer but it's at a bad angle, these are better pics)
My mom with a nice smallie
I learned to hold fish like Rob
My dad and a nice smallie
There are 7 eagle pairs on this lake. They are EVERYWHERE. Here is one bird.
There are many loons on this lake. Here are two that are nesting.
A pretty smallie from Lake Tomahawk
24" tiger musky
My mom with a nice bass
