The Milwaukee Is High

I went down to the Milwaukee Saturday with my daughter.  It was like seeing a friend you haven't seen in a while.  She was higher, dirtier and faster than I had expected, and some of my favorite structure had washed away-- not a great way to greet an old friend.

The first cast was made to the head of a pool, it got hung up and the line broke.  This became the day's recurring theme.  I explored my other favorite spots I can access from shore with no results, unless you count tree branches-- I landed a few of those.

After exhausting my favorite pools and cover, I explored new cover.  The streamside vegetation hasn't really came in yet and access is (mostly) easy.  It was in one of these spots that I saw a fish rise to a blade of grass floating on the surface.  My next cast went a yard or so ahead of the rise, and the fish struck my jig and quickly came ashore, a tiny smallmouth bass.

My little girl called the fish "pretty pretty," and started to mimic the fish opening and closing its mouth by sticking her tongue out.  The most adorable thing I have ever seen.

I can't wait to get this little girl her first fishing rod, I think she'll be a fine angler.

My First Carp

Monday, 4-12-10, 8:10 a.m.

I forgot, my Monday class starts at 8:30, not 8:00.  So I got to class a half hour early.  Oh well, I've done stupider things.

I went fishing yesterday afternoon.  I went near the yacht club.  I saw a few really nice bass, but they were mostly uninterested in what I was offering.  One showed moderate interest in a Wildeye Bluegill.  I caught a big carp on the same Wildeye Bluegill.  Hooked him right in the mouth!  I thought I snagged him, but he was legal.  I saw a walleye laying motionless on the bottom, I could not get him to bite anything!  he looked to be a good size too!  I'd say bigger than 18".

I Can't Figure Technology Out

I was just looking through my phone and I came upon a lot of pictures of fish going back quite a ways.  I don't have a very smart phone, and I just learned how to get photos onto my computer by texting them to my email.  I need to delete some pics to make more room for pictures of my baby girl, so here's a bunch of random pictures!

I caught this carp in October
2011 on a black Mister Twister

I found this wild melon growing streamside just
before halloween.  I knew what I had to do.

This is the coho that broke my rod

That was a beautiful fish.  Does it look
like a steelhead?

Many salmon in the Menomonee that day

My Little Cleo watches crows fly over

My father in law takes it all in

Really? Budweiser?  this is Miller country!

I took this kid from work fishing I think I lost
2 that day.  I think he was using Thundersticks.

All the fish pictured that I caught were released, but the kid kept his two.  The Budweiser salmon probably died of natural causes and had the beer bottle added later.  There were many dead salmon at that particular spot for a long time.  That coho was probably the hardest fighting fish I caught all season.

My Favorite Fishing Trip of 2012

My dad makes a trip to Magician Lake in Dowagiac, Michigian with some family every year.  The trip usually happens in the middle of June, but this year it was bumped up to the end of May.  I have always wanted to make this trip, but I was never able to because of work, school, or whatever else.

This year, with our little one being just two and a half months old, we decided it would be a good practice trip for our much longer upcoming trip to Minnesota in July.  It should have been around a three hour drive, but it turned into a five hour drive with all the stops our baby needed us to make for her.

We got to the cottage, hauled in stuff, hugged and greeted family before I put together my fly rod, strung it up, selected one of my size 6 olive and grizzly bead head buggers and made for the end of the dock.  My cast had become rusty because I didn't get much of an opportunity to fish the year before.  There was a stiff breeze, so I tried to use it to my advantage and cast with it a good twenty yards or so and started stripping back.  I couldn't believe it when I had a strong strike on the first cast, and neither could anyone else.  My 5 weight had a nice bend in it as the fish took a little line, but it tired quickly and came in.  It was one of the biggest, brightest sunfish I had ever caught, probably close to ten inches!  I had another hit on my next cast, and a foot long largemouth bass cleared the water and broke my tippet.  I decided to stop because I had not yet purchased my license.  When my brother finally showed up, we took a trip to the intersection that the locals refer to as "town" and got our licenses.

The next day we didn't hit the water until late morning.  My wife and baby relaxed in the grass with some books while we were out.  My uncle Paul played the role of the drunken guide.  We drifted in circles and fished for a few hours, everyone caught fish-- mostly on Bass Stopper worms.

My dad and brother Shane

Uncle Paul, brother Kyle and aunt Lollie

Baby and mommy relax

Shane always crashes hard

Later that evening, I paddled out to the raft in the paddleboat and fished with a worm under a bobber with my spinning rod, and cast buggers with my fly rod.  I landed some sunfish and bluegill on the spinning rod and lost some nice bass on the fly.

The following day we hit the water much earlier.  Paul's brother Lloyd played the part of a much more professional guide on this outing.  Only my dad, Kyle, Lloyd and I were going out, so we all piled into one boat, and we were on the fish right away.  Between the four of us, we kept like fifteen bass!

Nice sized bullhead, we all laughed about that

That bass is smaller than the lure!

That's a little better

Dad with his two biggest bass

It sure was hard to leave for Wisconsin, but I'm sure we'll make it again.  Lily cried most of the way home, but she slept some too.  She's much better at car rides now.

I can't believe how tiny she was!

The Straight Talk on Curly Tail Grubs

My collection.

The first lure that every angler needs is the Mister Twister Curly Tail Grub.  Mister Twisters are very natural appearing soft plastic and the slightest movement in the water will cause lifelike motion in the tail.  You can get a package of 20 Mister Twisters for around $3.00, there are also variety packs with several colors.  You’ll need to buy jig heads as well but those are also super cheap.

Since you have to rig Mister Twisters yourself, they are highly customizable.  You can get heads painted in colors that stand out from the color of the lure, or heads that have eyes painted on them.  I usually get very small unpainted jig heads.  Mister Twisters come in many colors, with the most effective being chartreuse flake, pumpkin pepper, purple, and black, but they are all good.

purple, pumpkin pepper,
and chartreuse flake.  I
ran all out of black.

When rigging, make sure the hook
goes the opposite way of
the tail.

Rigged like this, the tail is more
likely to get hung up 
on the hook.

The most amazing thing about Mister Twisters is that they catch just about anything!  Here is a list of fish I have caught on them.

• Bluegill
• Sunfish
• Crappie
• perch
• rock bass
• bullhead
• creek chub
• smallmouth bass
• largemouth bass
• northern pike
• walleye
• sucker
• carp

When fishing in a bass stream or river, I like to use the smallest jig head I can cast.  Cast them up and across the current to the head of a deeper pocket, or just alongside cover likely to hold fish.  The lighter head makes the lure sink very slowly and naturally in the moving water.  I retrieve the line just fast enough to keep it tight while my lure bounces across the bottom, and if the line goes tight, set the hook!  In the Milwaukee, I’ve caught many smallmouth, some nice rock bass, one 24” carp, and even walleye using this method.  One day earlier this summer, my dad and I caught about 40 fish in the Milwaukee River in just a few morning hours.  My dad borrowed my spinning rod and used Mister Twisters, I used my fly rod and Woolly Buggers.  It was seriously like video game fishing!

Smallmouth on a hand tied Woolly Bugger while
fishing with dad.

One of dad's smallmouths on a
Mister Twister

Nice one!

Nice sized rock bass on the fly.

Beautiful fish.

Rock bass on a Mister Twister.

Chartreuse flake FTW!

When I lived in Michigan, I would fish the rocky walls of the Muskegon Lake Channel using Mister Twisters under a float with good success.  In this situation, a bigger jig head can be used.  The float would go about 4’ above the lure, then cast almost parallel to the rock wall.  The ebb and flow of the water between Lake Michigan and Muskegon Lake will keep your float and lure moving along the rocks while the waves give it vertical motion.  The lure will present itself to spaces between the rocks and dark hollows where panfish, largemouth bass and rock bass love to hide.  If your float disappears under the water, set the hook!  This technique also works along the rocks in Veteran’s Park in Milwaukee, or out on the rocky section of the breakwater, and even right in front of the Milwaukee Art Museum!  Don’t be afraid to climb out on the rocks, find one that looks fairly level and sturdy and make it your home.

A dreary summer day under the Art Museum

The wings of the museum close and open at noon.

This big perch took a black Mister Twister

The rocks along Veteran's Park with
the breakwater in the background.
So much cover for fish.

When I'm in Michigan, My dad, my brothers and I would go out in my dad’s fishing boat and fish in inland lakes.  Most of the time we’d go to Twin Lake on weekday evenings.  Twin Lake is close to home and not too big, so it doesn’t get a lot of fishing pressure during the week.  On the water, you simply cast your line out, then let the breeze push the boat.  You can give your lure some twitches by lifting the tip of your rod occasionally, but a lot of times, that isn’t even necessary.  Largemouth bass or northern pike won’t hesitate to suck up a purple Mister Twister just crawling by at a snail’s pace.  When Kyle, my youngest brother was just a little toddler, we wanted him to feel like he was fishing.  What we did was gave him a yard sale kid’s rod with a brown Mister Twister on a huge orange jig head (we called them “pumpkin heads”) and let his line drop about 8’ below the surface, just to make him feel like he was fishing.  The waves kept his lure moving up and down, and wouldn’t you know it, he caught the biggest bass of the day “pretending to fish.”  It must have been 17” long!  Poor little boy, it scared the crap out of him!  I still remember him crying out “Put that whale back!”  

Magician Lake.  Kyle's all grown up now.  My dad and my other
brother Shane in the background.

If you don’t have access to a boat, fishing from shore is still a lot of fun.  Cast toward docks, lily pads, downed trees, anything that gives fish cover.  You can also just cast out and steady retrieve your line back in, big bluegill will give chase!

Because of their affordable price and effectiveness for so many species, if you are only going to fish with one artificial lure, Mister Twisters are the one.  But i’m betting, once you get into fishing with artificials, you’ll be hooked!