LAND O’ LAKES — My wife, Judy, and I spent the last week in the Northwoods of Wisconsin.
We stayed on Mamie Lake, which is one of 15 lakes that make up the Cisco Chain just west of Land O’ Lakes and on the Wisconsin and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula border. We’ve been going there for more than 40 years to enjoy the fishing in many of the area’s lakes.
Fishing was good for walleye, largemouth and smallmouth bass and northern pike.
The weather, however, made the fishing a challenge. A major cold front came through early in the week. Temperatures higher than 90 degrees fell to the upper 40s in a matter of hours. Most anglers know that this puts a real damper on the fishing.
Knowing that, I fished some smaller lakes. Lakes that are about 200 to 400 acres are a bit warmer and have better weed growth at this time of the year. So my choice was to fish the shallow water weeds and logs with hopes to find fish taking advantage of the cover.
Most of the fish I caught were exactly where they were expected to be: in heavy cover that was in less than 8 feet of water.
The baits that I used for largemouth and smallmouth bass were eighth-ounce jigs tipped with craw body plastics. If the bait was brown or green, it worked. And if the jig wasn’t dragged tight to the cover it was a wasted cast. I caught bass from 2 to 5 pounds.
The walleyes were a bit different. They were in the shade of weeds. Small weedless jigs were tipped with 3-inch sucker minnows and retrieved so they would touch the weed tops on occasion. Weed patches that were in about 8 feet of water held a lot of walleyes. Pike were in there, too.
No big northerns were caught. Most were from 20 to 30 inches long. The walleyes were from 16- to 22-inch keepers.
I learned from the locals that the bigger lakes did not produce well after the front moved through last week. That made me feel pretty good about my success on the smaller lakes.
We can’t let the weather get the better of us. Trips like this are often planned months in advance, and to change the date because of the weather is usually not an option. All we need to do is change the way we fish and try some different lakes.
When the weather plays tricks on you, talk to the people in the bait shops and resorts to see what you can learn about what’s happening on the water.
When fronts move in, go to a smaller lake and your trip can be saved.
Don Dziedzina is a contributor to the Chicago Tribune. His blog is at IllinoisOutdoors.com. Lodging expenses were paid for by Angler’s Isle Resort.
