June-08 — John Gillespie's Waters & Woods

June 2008

Episode 23
Down River Bass
Show Date: June 7th & 8th, 2008
Location: Wisconsin River (Between Wisconsin Dells & Portage)
Guide: Pro Guide Big Dave Ehardt [414-803-7160]
This week we head down river from rivers edge resort to experience some of the best river small mouth bass fishing we have ever seen. We are guided by Big Dave Ehardt, and are also joined by Ted Takasaki of Lindy Little Joe. When you head down river from the Dells you really feel like you are in the middle of nowhere, it looks like Canada or northern Wisconsin all around you.

Drifting slowly down the shorelines we are looking for schooling baitfish. The bass will be under these schools of baitfish feeding – it’s just after the spawn on the river. We usually find the most fish when we are fishing the rock flats along the shoreline. Although, since the water had dropped significantly the night before we arrived, some of the fish had moved closer to the channel. That means that some of our strikes came very close to the boat in 3-5 feet of water.

It was a great trip, catching upwards of 70 bass, and a lot of them quality fish. Defiantly worth the trip to the Dells.

Episode 24
Boat Loads of Bass
Show Date: June 14th & 15th, 2008
Location: Walworth County, WI
Guide: Pro Guide Eric Haataja [414-546-4627 | wibigfish.com]

Eric Haataja always has a knack to put us on big fish without heading 6 hours north. That being said, he does it again this time within an hour of Milwaukee and Chicago, in Walworth County, Wisconsin. We have a good crew too, Tisma Juett from Bass Pro Shops, Matt Bichanich from Uncle Josh Baits, as well as John and Eric.

Eric calls this time of year “peak bass time,” because the bass are at all different phases of the spawn. This gives us a good chance at good numbers of large and small mouth bass. We also have a good chance at pre-spawn females that can easily be upwards of 5-6 pounds. Looking for shallow weed flats is where we plan on catching our fish, and we don’t have to look very long. Another bennifet of this time of year is that we can use any multitude of baits and presentations to lands these bass. We are throwing spinner baits, using the wacky worm style, and also using Gulp on a jig. All these methods work, and it makes for a great day of sport fishing.

Episode 25
Trolling and Casting the Bay
Show Date: June 21st & 22nd, 2008
Location: Green Bay, Wisconsin
Guide: Pro Ice Guide Larry Smith [920-361-4996 | walleyeguide.com]

Larry Smith takes us along on a guide trip onto the bay of Green Bay for big numbers of big walleye.

We first set out trolling on a windy cool day in mid-June. We are trolling weed flats in 4-7 feet pulling Lindy spinner crawler harnesses. Using either a bottom bouncers or split shots will work, we mostly used split shots to put our bait down around 4 feet. Larry tells us that the fish will come up to hit it.

Later in the day we set up for a few drifts to cast for these same fish, and surprise, they nail our flicker shads too! We set up our drift up wind from where we were trolling, and the fish did the rest of the work.

Episode 26
Lake Superior Super Crappies
Keweenaw Bay, Lake Superior, Michigan
Show Date: June 28th & 29th, 2008
Guide: Charter Captain Eric Haataja [414-546-4627 | wibigfish.com]

Charter Captain Eric Haataja take us to a few of his honey-holes in the area where he vacations with his family. We are fishing on Keweenaw Bay, a bay of Lake Superior. Hitting little inlets along the way, this up north fishing is a grab bag for bass, pike, walleye, and crappies.

This trip we zero in on some very nice bass, and some extraordinary crappies. For the bass we are drop-shoting using Gulp, and casting over weed flats. For these beautiful crappies we are bobber fishing around the docks and boat houses that dot the landscape.