May 2013 — John Gillespie's Waters & Woods

May 2013

Episode 18
Peshtigo Monster Walleyes
Show Date: May 4th & 5th, 2013
Location: Peshtigo River, Peshtigo, Wisconsin
Guide: Pro Ice Guide Larry Smith [920-361-4996 | walleyeguide.com]

Each spring walleyes make their way from the bay of Green Bay upriver to Peshtigo Wisconsin to spawn. This pre-opener bite is a wonderful time for any angler to get their boat out onto the water for the first time of the season. The Peshtigo River is beautiful as well, if you head down river you won’t find much that is man-made.

This bite is always hot, so long as you are their at the right time. Our setup is relatively simple, we anchor and cast out into the current. We’re using either Gulp, Powerbait, or Kalens grubs. The key is to keep bottom contact, and have a slow presentation. If you can’t do both of those, you’ll find yourself behind in the fish count compared to your buddies in the boat.

Episode 19
Spring Won’t End...
Show Date: May 11th & 12th, 2013
Location: Sand Bay Beach Resort - Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin
Guide: Pro Guide Dale Stroschein [ 920-743-5731 | wackywalleye.com]

Just when we thought that the ugly spring was starting to be in the rearview mirror, the wind picks up and won’t let us finish our fishing trip. However, the beginning of our trip was truly wonderful. We are guided by pro guide Dale Stroschein, who is going to show us where the massive walleyes are ofter the ice is gone. We are also joined by Pete Maina, who was escaping a fresh foot of snow in Hayward when we filmed.

As stated, the weather was absolutely wonderful when we first started out, and the fishing was hot as well. We were casting Gulp! and Vibrato’s along breaklines near rocky shorelines. Spawning walleyes will slide to deeper water during the day to feed, right where the rock meets the sand. A few hours into our blissful trip on the bay the wind picks up, and we need to retreat - slowly. Day 2 isn’t any better, in fact its gotten worse. So we head to where we’ll be protected, and where we’ll catch some fish, the Peshtigo River.

Episode 20
Beautiful Day on the Willow Flowage
Show Date: May 18th & 19th, 2013
Location: The Willow Flowage, Oneida Co., Wisconsin
Guide: Pro Guide Jeff Winters [715-385-9313 | jeffsguideservice.com]

It’s finally staring to fell like spring as we head out to fish the beautiful wilderness that is the Willow Flowage, in Oneida County Wisconsin. Jeff Winters is our guide, and he’s been fishing the flowage for many years, and has a stockpile of spots for any species of fish.

Our presentation is very slow for this time of year, because of the still un-seasonably cold water temps. We are exclusively fishing gravel along shorelines. Walleye will spawn on wind-swept gravel, because the eggs need to roll, and the wind makes that happen. The walleye are also here because the bait gets pushed in by the wind as well.

Episode 21
Northern Wisconsin Crappie Explosion
Show Date: May 25th & 26th, 2013
Location: Various Lakes, St. Germain - Vilas County, Wisconsin
Guide: Pro Guide Rob Manthei [715-477-2042 | robmanthei.com]

It’s that time of year again, though it’s happening later than ever before! The crappies are biting right when they should be, a few days after the ice goes. This year however, the ice stuck around for about a month longer than normal. Our guide is Rob Manthei, and he tells us that you can’t just look at a calendar to determine when the fish are biting, especially this year. “You can’t look at last year, you have to look at surface temps.”

We love Vilas County, because there are so many lakes, so close to each-other. We demonstrate on this show when we head to a second lake for walleye after we get our fill of crappie excitement.

Our favorite lure for crappie is plastics, don’t tell anybody, because we usually out-fish anglers who are using live bait. We are fishing old weed beds that are still around from last year, these fish are looking for anyplace they can find to hide.