June 2012 — John Gillespie's Waters & Woods

June 2012

Episode 22
Out Fishin’ with the Yamaha Boys
Show Date: June 2nd & 3rd, 2012
Location: Chequamegon Bay; Ashland, Wisconsin
Guide: Charter Captain Jim Hudson [715-209-6431 | fishchequamegonbay.com]

This years annual Yamaha dealer outing is the first time we’ve done a trip open water fishing, thats because the water opened up much sooner than we anticipated this year. We called our buddy and guide Jim Hudson, and he put together a fantastic trip for our guys. Jim got a few guides together, so we’d have enough boats to get our crew on the water. Thanks to Jim and all of the guides that helped make this trip a wonderful success. Also big thanks to the Ashland chamber of commerce and Hotel Chequamegon, for putting the Yamaha boys a great place to stay and eat.

If we were to keep that ‘thanks’ train going, we’d have to applaud Lake Superior for the excellent day and a half of fishing that we had while in Ashland. We split our attention between bass and walleye. Day one we stayed shallow casting wacky rigs, bouncing the bottom looking for post-spawn cruising male fish. We look for wood or weeds, then cast over it, and hop our bait through the structure. Day two we head out to troll for walleye, and find plenty of excitement on the end of our lines.

Episode 23
Hooked on Chinook
Show Date: June 9th & 10th, 2012
Location: Lake Michigan, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Guide: Charter Captain Brian Settele [414-559-9238 | fishchaserguideservice.com]

Lake Michigan didn’t always have great Salmon and Trout fishing. In the 1950’s the Alewife population in the lake was peaking, and in need of a predatory species to quell their numbers. Alewives experience seasonal die offs, in which they wash ashore in massive quantities. When this happened, the beaches would be flooded with dead fish, and basically unusable because of the smell. The DNR introduced coho and chinook to Lake Michigan in the late 1960’s, and ever since the first salmon was caught, the lake has been known as one the the best places to experience a great salmon or trout bit.

Today we are out with Charter Captain Brian Settele on a mission to jig for chinook. We have a pretty windy day, so have to try a number of different methods to keep our lines vertical. We try tying to the break wall, but the baitfish aren’t below us in the area that the wind puts us. So we use our Minn Kota on it’s “anchor” setting to get right where we need to be, above a giant cloud of baitfish. The salmon are just below the baitfish, so we bounce the bottom with vibrating lures and jigs, and also work different parts of the water column casting spoons.

Episode 24
Bassin’
Show Date: June 16th & 17th, 2012
Location: Delavan Lake; Walworth County, Wisconsin
Guide: Pro Fisherman Matt Bichanich

We enjoy a fun-filled bass fishing day with our favorite pro bass angler, Matt Bichanich. We are fishing Delavan Lake in Walworth County, Wisconsin. We try a variety of techniques, working mostly shallow shorelines.

Episode 25
Guys Fishing Outing
Show Date: June 23rd & 24th, 2012
Location: Oneida County, Wisconsin

It’s nice to get out fishing with a few buddies, and this week John does just that. Tom and Steve join us for a couple days of fun-filled fishing in the Wisconsin Northwoods.

They split their fishing across two days and two species, walleye and bass. We fish a bunch of our favorite secret spots, using live bait for both species, and the occasional wacky-worm for bass. We catch most of the walleye on rock humps, surrounded by deeper water. The bass congregate, in wood along shallow shorelines. We find that most of the bites come during the day, between noon and 6 - with the high blue skies, midday isn’t usually the hot-bite time of day. We have a fantastic time angling, and can’t wait for next years event.

Episode 26
Big Door County Fish
Show Date: June 30th & July 1st, 2012
Location: Sand Bay Beach Resort - Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin
Guide: Pro Guide Dale Stroschein [ 920-743-5731 | wackywalleye.com]

We love to fish anywhere in Door County, and this show is a great example why. Dale Stroschein is our go-to guide, and he can always show us a good time, even in inclement weather. During our two-day stay at Sand Bay Beach Resort, there were some pretty severe storms in the area.

On day one, we got chased off the water by a pretty impressive lightning storm, caring with it lots of rain. We did however managed to get in a few hours of walleye fishing, and boated some nice fish throwing crankbaits and Gulp. We also caught some fish under 15 inches, which is always nice to see, and shows us a good sign of the healthy Lake Michigan fishery.

Day two, a gigantic thunder cell moved through in the morning, keeping us off of the water until noon. It wasn’t a big deal though, we pretty much managed to catch smallmouth bass at will. We motored around in shallow water, casting for the post-spawn “cruisers” with Gulp.