Wisconsin Bass Fishing

Wisconsin fishing for the mighty Smallmouth Bass - and his close friend, Mr. Walleye - near Minocqua, WI. We fished for 3 days straight with some success, but nothing to write home about - casting every bait in our arsenal. Spoons, jerkbaits, jigs, bobbers, cranks, swimbaits, plastics of every kind - you name it. However on the third day, during an afternoon outing with my son, we came across an area with a ton of boat and swimmer traffic... and a HUGE load of panfish.

Crappie, pumpkinseed, bluegill, rock bass and perch...

Guess who we saw swimming underneath?

Yup. Big smallmouth. BIG SMALLMOUTH. The big smallmouth that had not been in the "regular spots", like mid-lake humps, rock bars, sandy flats with scattered logs, or even the deep inner weed edges of isolated coves - and when we started to work the new area, we caught 'em, along with their sneaky friends, the walleye.

We had success with jigworms, leeches, finesse Texas rigs and weighted wacky worms.

Perseverance was the name of the game, and even though it took us several days to find them after the water temperature had dropped drastically with summer storms, the effort made success all the sweeter.

Tight lines! | http://theminimalistfisherman.com/