October-09 — John Gillespie's Waters & Woods

October 2009

Episode 40
Big Dave’s Fall Crappies
Show Date: October 3^rd & 4^th, 2009
Location: Wisconsin River, Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin
Guide: Pro Guide Big Dave Ehardt [414-803-7160]

It’s fall in Big Dave’s neck of the woods, and he again illustrates to us that crappies can be great sport, and a great meal! Dave takes us along on a guide trip, so we can see the great action that his clients can experience. All it takes is a short trip down the river, and we’re are on a hot crappie bite that lasts the entire day.

Casting small GULP tails with a small crappie hook is the ticket to the action, and we take full advantage. Dave has us positioned to cast into slack water bringing our baits over deep water to bring the crappies out of hiding. It is pretty much a crappie-fest all day, but we do take a break mid-day to target some small mouth bass. For the bass it is just a larger presentation of what we are using for the crappies. We use a 3” yellow and white GULP minnow and a bare worm hook, and the bass are biting hard today.

Episode 41
Fishing in the Rain
Show Date: October 10^th & 11^th, 2009
Locations: Delavan Lake, Walworth Co. Wisconsin; Fox River, De Pere,Wisconsin
Guides; John Gillespie; Pro Guide Larry Smith [920-361-4996 | walleyeguide.com]

This week’s show takes us to two rain soaked locations in Wisconsin.

We start out on Delavan Lake in Walworth County, where we are out with Bass Pro Shops on the annual employee outing. Joining us is Ed Gramza and Stella Driscoll, two anglers that are serious about fishing, and are after our own heart not wanting to leave the lake when it starts to pour. We start out dragging suckers, targeting trophy pike, but when the rain hits we decide to be a bit more proactive. We end up casting spinners and spoons into the weeds for the rest of the day. We catch a bunch of bass and pike, and prove with dedication, we can catch fish in the worst of weather.

The second half of our show takes us up to Green Bay. We start up trolling for muskie, but the rain and wind builds all morning until we are forced off of the bay. We pick up and move to the Fox River in De Pere, and cast crank baits by the dam. During our move the rain stops, and it turns out to be a wonderful evening. A place that is notorious for monster walleye, the dam in De Pere doesn’t disappoint this time. We stay well into the evening catching a sizable amount of eyes. We are definitely glad we stayed on the water all day.

Episode 42
Lake St. Clair Muskies
Show Date: October 17th & 18th, 2009
Location: Lake St. Clair, Detroit, Michigan
Guides: Pete Maina [thenextbite.com | petemaina.com]

Lake St. Clair is part of the Great Lakes system, and is located between Ontario, Canada and Michigan. Through the Detroit River, this 275,000+ acre lake connects Lake Huron and Lake Erie. This massive body of water is where we are on the hunt for the great muskellunge.
This week our crew consists of our resident esox expert - Pete Maina(petemaina.com), and our rock star buddy Brian Schram(schramband.com) . It’s officially fall, and hitting hard right before the two days we were shooting. So we be slowing down our presentations, using long pauses, and slow retrievals. Pete also tells us that we will be working our spots more precisely. We are working weed flats, and are looking for weeds that are still green, thats where the muskies should be. We will be casting.

Episode 43
Monster Walleyes on Castle Rock
Show Date: October 24th, & 25th, 2009
Location: Castle Rock Flowage, Adams Co, Wisconsin
Guide: Pro Guide Larry Smith [920-361-4996 | walleyeguide.com]

It’s a sunny cool day in late October, and we’re on the Castle Rock Flowage with Larry Smith. It’s been a while since we’ve been here for open water, and we are hoping to take advantage of the fall movement that is happens in the walleye population.

We are looking for thick structure, where the big walleyes are hiding. We are vertical jigging, using the bow-mount to keep our position above the structure. It’s a fun way to fish, setting the hook as soon as you get a bite.

We catch literally a boat-load of eater white bass, but also have a banner day catching trophy walleye.

Episode 44
Petenwell Mix
Show Date: October 31st & November 1st, 2009
Location: Petenwell Flowage, Adams County, Wisconsin
Guide: Pro Guide Larry Smith [920-361-4996 | walleyeguide.com]

We would first like to thank our special guests this week, Gary and John Grunau, who made a contribution to the Medical College of Wisconsin. They were treated to a guided day of fishing for their gracious gift. Thanks guys!

We love fishing with Larry Smith. He always puts us on fish, no matter what the weather is, or what species we are after. Of course this week, our second in a row with Larry, is no exception. This week we are on Petenwell Lake in Adams County, Wisconsin.

Lake Petenwell is Wisconsin's second largest lake at 23,040 acres, and we attack it by looking for wood on top of structure in 15-30 feet of water. Most of our fish were caught in 25 feet. We are targeting big walleye, but our rods are kept bent by a whole mess of different fish. It is a non-stop day of great fishing!

Episode 47
Mississippi in the Fog
Show Date: November 21st & 22nd, 2009
Location: Mississippi River(Pool #4); Red Wing, Minnesota
Host: Everts Resort [evertsfishingresort.com]

Our guide Brett King get us out of bed nice and early for an AM bite on the Mississippi River. We are starting to get a taste of winter, with our entire boat coated in frost, temps in the 20’s, and it is very foggy this morning. Today we are targeting walleye and sauger. Brett needs to have us parked on the spot before the sun comes up to maximize the potential of the AM bite.

We are casting into the slack water today using a jig and a ring worm or GULP. We are positioned right next to the dam, where the shad are stacked up. Where the shad are, so are the walleye and sauger.

It’s very early in this unique season, and will definitely get better as the winter progresses, and stays good through April. Our host, Everts Fishing Resort, provides lodging right on the water. Everts also keeps the boat ramps salted all winter, since the water here never freezes.