10/25/22. Hi from the shores of "Kennedy Bay" on Lake Minocqua. We are in a full fall season weather pattern with snow one week, temps 20 degrees below normal then last weekend almost summer like with temps in high 60s and 70s.
Wednesday, I fished with the Pizza guys. It was supposed to be 4 guys but due to weather conditions the group shrunk to just Jim and Ken. Boy did they make the right choice! We were the first boat at the landing, I breathed a big sigh of relief because the fish hold in a very small spot and I wanted to be there first. We were fishing 47 feet deep and the guys started hooking fish immediately. The lake has a slot that doesn't allow you to keep Walleyes between 14 and 18 inches. I never fished, which was a good thing so I could try to keep my hands warm between removing fish and baiting hooks. After 2 hours the guys had boxed our 3 angler limit of 9 Walleyes, also releasing some small fish and 2 dandy Walleyes in the slot.
I pulled the boat and headed to my number two lake. We managed 3 nice Walleyes between 14 and 19 inches which filled our 1 Walleye over 14 inches per angler within 45 minutes. It took awhile but we followed up with two more Walleyes close to 20 inches, so we had our 1 Walleye per angler over 14 inches. Our next Walleye was also over 14 inches. We made the decision to call the day a success, rather than to catch and release these Walleyes knowing that most of them would have their bladder up in their throat and would not survive being released back into the 45 feet water depth. At the end of the day, they had 12 Walleyes in the box as well as releasing 3 fish too big to keep and a couple of small fish. It was a great day. My best Walleye day of the season.
My son and grandson were here for the weekend and the weather couldn't have been better. We went out early Friday morning again hoping to be the first on the water. We were the first boat at the landing so I sighed a breath of relief but when I got to the spot, there were already two boats set up there. I hate fishing in tight with other boats, especially when I am pulling in on the other guys that were there first.
We pulled the boat and went to my lake number 2 from Wednesday. We landed one 13 inch Walleye and missed the next bite after about 45 minutes with my tail between my legs. I suggested that we move to lake number 3. Our goal was to catch enough fish for dinner that night and it wasn't looking good.
I pulled up on our first hump and before we were completely set up, Lawson put the first Walleye in the box. We had gotten on the lake at 10:30 and pulled off at 12:00 with our 9 Walleye limit making the day a success after working hard to accomplish it. We finished out Saturday and Sunday with 9 Walleyes each morning. A great weekend for us to end the year on.
I have my boat at Premier Motor Sport in St. Germain for an oil and lower unit change and the 100 hour service on the big motor. When I think back to last March when I was wondering what I would be doing for a motor, I couldn't have come out better. Big thanks to Ken's Marine in Kaukauna Wi.
That's it for now folks good luck fishin' and remember
KEEP YOUR LINE TIGHT AND A BEND IN YOUR ROD. DAVE LANG
10/16/22 Hi from the shores of "Kennedy Bay" on Lake Minocqua. What a way to end my 2022 season. In the last week I had 4 trips canceled due to the weather and I certainly understand. It has been a stretch of morning temps at freezing and only getting up to low 40s by noon along with wind and rain and wintery mix "yuk". My go to lake for fishing Walleyes on rock humps has been slow to poor. Worst action in years. With the poor action there I moved to fishing a couple of deep hole Walleye Lakes. One of them only produced 1 Walleye but it was a dandy 24 1/2 incher, note the picture of that Walleye laying in the snow on the bow of my boat. Lake number 2 has been producing good action "thank God".
Tuesday of last week, Carolyn Quevy was back in Minocqua for her annual fall vacation. It was a cool morning when we got on the lake at 7:15 but it was the last nice morning we've had. At the end of our morning we had our two angler limit of 6 eater Walleyes in the box. We also released a couple of small Walleyes and a nice 16 incher that was in the slot so it was released. It was a good morning.
Friday Tim Grittinger, his son Cole and father Chip drove through near white outs to get to Minocqua to go fishing. The guys are from Wisconsin and had good cold weather clothing including hats and gloves. We were on the water Saturday morning at 7:00. There was some wind accompanied by on again off again precipitation. We had decent action, a good morning with everybody catching fish. After three hours the guy's caught their 9th Walleye making their 9 Walleye limit so with freezing hands and ears they said it was time to quit an hour early. They had 8 Walleyes ranging from 12 inches to 13 3/4 inches and a dandy 18 1/4 incher that Cole caught. Yes it was a cold morning but everybody agreed it was a good morning that we would all talk about and brag about how we bested the worst of conditions.
I have a trip booked for next Wednesday, and then my son David and grandson Lawson are coming up for the weekend. That will most likely bring my year to an end.
The water temps are down in the 40s, and these fish were 45 to 47 feet deep.
The guys caught these fish while vertically jigging 3/8th oz. jigs tipped with large fathead minnows. That's all for now folks good luck fishin' and remember
KEEP YOUR LINE TIGHT AND A BEND IN YOUR ROD
DAVE LANG
10/2/22 Hi from the shores of "Kennedy Bay" on Lake Minocqua. It sure felt good to be back on the water these last couple of days after my covid stint. It is time for the fall migration of Walleyes to begin. Depending on the lake, they will head to the deepest water in the lake or rock humps coming out of the deep water.
For these couple of days, I chose to fish a lake with rock humps. Day one started out with the first Walleye within 5 minutes, problem was it got off the hook right before the net. We fished hard the entire morning hitting a half dozen plus humps. At the end of the morning they had their two angler, six Walleye limit plus 1 for me in the box. We released a number of small fish, and we also lost a number of fish.
Day two started out the same when we lost the first Walleye right at the net within minutes of starting. I had 4 anglers fishing with me on Saturday, we fished on the first hump for over an hour with steady action, everybody on the boat had fish on but the unbelievable part was we didn't land a fish. We fished hard the rest of the morning but at the end of the morning we only had 3 Walleyes in the box. We did catch and release a few small Walleyes, but the big problem was we continued to lose most of our bites. I have to admit that most of the morning we were fishing under bright blue skies and water that was flat as glass, however these fish are 25-28 feet deep. It was one of my worse mornings ever. I can only remember one other day like that; it was November 21st last year when I fished with my boys and we were lucky to land 1 out of every 15 of the bites we got.
I am fishing 3/8 oz. jigs tipped with large fathead minnows. I am hooking the minnows in the mouth, then out the gill then through the back halfway down the back. This puts the barb further back towards the tail helping hook short hitting fish. I am not a fan of stinger hooks, however if I continue missing so many short hitting Walleyes I may give it a try. That's it for now folks good luck fishin' and remember
KEEP YOU LINE TIGHT AND A BEND IN YOUR ROD
DAVE LANG
9/24/22 Hi from the shores of "Kennedy Bay" on Lake Minocqua. When I think I've seen it all along comes another day and another surprise. Last week, two days before I was scheduled to leave for my Canada trip with my son, I had a burger with Bobbi Ulrich who was riding up with me. Bobbi mentioned that he had checked his PassPort and it was still current, I couldn't remember the last time I checked mine. What a surprise when I saw that mine had just expired days before on August 14th. After a lot of talk and thinking about what could happen when I tried to reenter the U.S. I canceled my trip.
After 5 days off the water on Tuesday I was scheduled for a catch and release day so we headed out to my favorite Pike and Bass Lake. Much to my surprise after 1 and 1/2 hours the only fish we had was a 6 inch Largemouth. With the action that slow we pulled the boat and went back to Minocqua and launched there. We did manage a couple of nice Bass and John lost a really big fish that we never saw. This was the poorest day I have had this year.
Just when I think there can't be any more surprises I was off the water for the day and just not feeling up to par so after some encouragement from my wife I took a home covid test and of course it was positive. WHAT NEXT? It was with a lot of disappointment that I sent emails to the 5 anglers that were booked for that week telling them what happened to me and tried to find them guides to fish with. I was put on Paxlovid that day and by day 3 the fever and most symptoms were gone. I will be isolated another week then start fishing again for the month of Oct.
That's it for now folks . This is the time of year I concentrate on fall Walleyes. These are eater size fish, not wall hangers but the best eating you can find. Good luck fishin' and remember
KEEP YOUR LINE TIGHT AND A BEND IN YOUR ROD
DAVE LANG
9/14/22. Hi from the shores of "Kennedy Bay" on Lake Minocqua. Once again I find myself playing catch up since my last report. August 30th, I had the pleasure of fishing with 3 ladies from Texas. We stayed on Minocqua and had a great morning ending up with 5 Bass and a dandy Pike.
September 2nd & 3rd, I fished with John Mlnarik. John & his son fished on day one, they were staying at the Beacons so I picked them up at the Beacons dock and fished Minocqua. John had 1 nice Walleye that he released and they had 5 nice Bass for a fish fry. Day two it was John, his wife and daughter. I picked them up at the dock again and stayed on Minocqua. We ended the day with 4 Bass and a dandy Pike. Good mornings.
Sunday the 4th, I fished with Tim Grittnger and his son, we stayed on Minocqua another day. The guys fished catch and release all morning catching 2 Perch, 4 Bass, 2 Pike, and the surprise of the morning a nice Dog Fish. A great morning.
Monday and Tuesday I fished with Bob Garbutt. Bob and I had fished numerous lakes in the area but he had never fished on the Minocqua Chain so that is where we spent the 2 mornings. Once again it was all catch and release boating a nice mixed bag of Pike, Perch and Bass.
Wednesday September 7th, I fished with Tim Ward and his buddy Gregg. We headed out to the reservation to one of my favorite Pike lakes. It was one of the days I dream of. 15 minutes into the morning, I quit fishing. The guys kept me busy netting fish. At the end of the morning they had 1 19" Walleye and 9 nice Pike. A great morning.
Steve Nitz and a couple of his buddies and I headed back out to the same lake. Once again it was catch & release, the guys boated 5 Pike, 1 Perch. 1 Largemouth, 3 Smallmouth, and a Rock Bass. Another good morning.
Friday Mike Heroux and I fished our last morning of the year. We have had numerous good days this year but this wasn't one of them. We boated a few fish, most of them small and only a few decent size. Everybody has a day like that once in a while but we all hate them.
I had a few days off then fished yesterday and today With Dell Schledewitz and his son Marcus. We spent a day fishing Walleyes last year and thought we should do the same yesterday. I found the Walleyes just starting to move onto the rock humps when I pre-fished last week boating 3 keepers and 1 small one. Our day didn't go as well only getting one keeper and 2 small ones. Not a good morning. Today Marcus was filled with high spirits and we changed lakes. Marcus caught a Pike on the first cast, then we fished under the curse of the first cast fish for a while. Action was slow, we would boat the occasional fish but they really were working at it. By the end of the morning they did a great job putting together a great mixed board with 9 Pike, 2 Perch, and a nice Largemouth.
It made up for the day before. We had a fun couple days and look forward to fishing together next year.
Except for the one day fishing humps for Walleyes, which we did vertical jigging Large Fathead minnows, we fished Red Tail Chubs on 1/16 oz. jiggs. These fish are all in shallow weeds in 6 to 10 feet. of depth. I expect the Walleyes to get more active in the next week or so, once again these are eater size not wall hangers. I am going to leave for my annual trip to Lake of The Woods musky fishing with my son & a few of his buddies for a few days. Report to come next week. That's it for now folks good luck fishin" and remember
KEEP YOUR LINE TIGHT AND A BEND IN YOUR ROD. DAVE LANG.
8/27/22. Hi from the shores of "Kennedy Bay" on Lake Minocqua. It has been an interesting week beginning Saturday when my client did not show up. This is only the second time in twenty years this has happened, what makes it even stranger is that I had fished with Robert in June of this year and talked to him the afternoon before. I never received an answer to my 2 calls or a text that I sent that morning strange is strange.
Sunday was back to normal when I fished with Brett Rankey and his father Dean , we headed out to one of my favorite Pike lakes. We had a decent morning getting enough for a fish fry ,not great but decent.
Monday and Tuesday I had blocked off to fish with my son David and grandson Lawson. We decided we wanted to do a fish fry Monday night so we opted out to stay on Lake Minocqua , planning on small Bass for our catch. At the end of our day we kept 8 Bass and 2 Perch for our dinner DELICIOUS. Lake Minocqua remains catch and release only for Walleyes so we released the 8 Walleyes we caught along with some Pike, some larger Bass, and a couple Perch. According to Lawson we caught between 20 and 30 fish. A great day. Tuesday the guys needed to be on the road around noon so Lawson could get back in time for football practice, so we stayed on the chain but fished Lake Kawaguesaga. We had another good morning catching Bass and Pike.
Wednesday I fished with Scott Granick and his son Bobby we headed out to LDF putting together a nice mixed bag of Perch, Smallmouth, and Pike including a dandy 30 inch Pike that Bobby caught.
Thursday was my last trip of the year with Mike Heroux. We headed back out to LDF. We had a difficult day missing a lot of bites releasing a few small fish but only boxing 4 Pike. It was our worst trip of the 2022 season.
Friday I fished with Greg Armuth and his son Jake. We got to the Willow landing only to be greeted with fog, You couldn't see 100 feet, it was a long slow ride halfway across the willow. We fished hard hitting a lot of spots, at the end of our trip we caught and released 3 beautiful Smallmouth Bass a 16, a 19 , and a 20 incher a great morning. The really strange thing was we never boated a Pike, that is the first time that has ever happened to me on the Willow. After picking my way across the Willow in the fog I told the guys we would be back to the landing in a quarter of the time it took us to get out and they would get to see some great scenery. With my foot in my mouth 5 minutes into our way back to the landing I found a boulder hiding just under the surface, another first for me. After a new prop and with a chunk out of the skag and I am up and running.
Today I fished with Kin and David Stiegleiter, celebrating their son Mason's 17th birthday. The weather was not our friend, we were fishing under cold front conditions. They did a great job of sticking it out fighting wind and cold temps until it started raining so hard we had to quit with only a half of our morning in. We did manage 3 Pike and 1 missed Smallmouth at the boat. They had a good time but pretty disappointing to me.
A difficult week but that happens, I am sure the action will pick up with some better weather. That's it for now folks good luck fishin' and remember
KEEP YOUR LINE TIGHT AND A BEND IN YOUR ROD DAVE LANG
8/19/22 Hi from the shores of "Kennedy Bay" on Lake Minocqua. I can't help but laugh at myself when I think back when I used to give my friend and mentor, Tommy Zinda a hard time about not getting fishing reports published. Being a couple of weeks behind in getting a report published, I am going to change this from being so specific to being more of an overview of what I have been doing. Then covering the action by posting current pictures of the last two weeks action.
I spent a number of mornings on the Minocqua Chain including Lakes Tomahawk, Minocqua and Kawaguesaga. Action was good on all three, producing nice mixed bags of Bass, Pike, Perch, and Walleyes. Walleyes remain no harvest.
Another third of the mornings we spent out on the reservation on one of my favorite Pike lakes. This lake also produced mixed bags of Pike, Perch, Largemouth & Smallmouth Bass, and Walleyes. Walleyes have to be 18" to harvest on this lake.
The rest of the time I was down on the Willow Flowage. The water level has been about 6 feet below full, I am seeing stumps, boulders and some small islands that I don't remember ever seeing . USE EXTREME CAUTION. That being said, the action has been good, producing good mixed bags.
All of these waters are producing the best results with 1/16 oz. weedless jigs
tipped with Redtail Chubs. I know Redtails are the most expensive minnows but even on the Minocqua Chain where the target is Bass that are on the small size the added bulk of Redtails seems to help. I continue fishing weeds in water 6 to 10 feet deep. That's it for now folks good luck fishin and remember
KEEP YOUR LINE TIGHT AND A BEND IN YOUR ROD. DAVE LANG
8/7/22. Hi from the shores of "Kennedy Bay" on Lake Minocqua. August started off just like July with decent weather and good action from the fish. Monday the 1st, I fished with Jason & Nick Anderson, Ryan Oettinger, and John Dillon, we headed out to LDF to one of my favorite Pike lakes. The fish were active and at the end of the morning the guys had a great mixed bag of 9 Pike, 2 Bass, 2 Crappie, and a dandy 19" Walleye. We also released a short Walleye and a couple small Pike and Bass, a great morning.
Tuesday I was down on the Willow with Bob Stanko and his buddy Ed Duquette. At the end of the morning we had 6 nice Pike in the box and released almost as many. We missed a couple of Walleyes and boated a couple of Dogfish.
Wednesday I fished with Todd Smith and his son Ryan, we headed out to the reservation to one of my favorite summer lakes. Action was good and we ended up with a nice mixed bag of Pike, Perch and Bass, Walleyes continue to be hard to come by. A good morning.
Thursday I had the pleasure of meeting Michael and Kelly Caluori. We fished the Willow and caught some nice Pike. These were Kelly's first game fish and she had a great time. The only down time was when Kelly had a beautiful Smallmouth up to the boat and it got off just before I could get it in the net.
Friday I was on the water with Mike Heroux and we headed back out to the reservation for Pike and hoping for a Walleye or two. Mike landed our first fish a nice 17 1/2 inch Walleye. Problem is on this lake they have to be 18" to keep. We finished up the day with 8 Pike and two nice Perch. We had to fish hard, lost a lot of bites but it was a good day.
Sunday and Monday I had the pleasure of fishing with Craig and Scott Challoner after not fishing with them for a couple years. Sunday we headed back out to the reservation, Craig started the day off with a couple of nice Pike th
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