May 15th 2012

The heat is here and the blue gills and bass are now in the shallows getting ready for the spawn. This is a welcome sight because the muskies will be moving back in with the bait fish. Huge schools of perch are set up on the weed edges and the gills are on the inside edges looking to spawn. This has the muskies loaded in the weeds from the outside edges to the shallows. It's time to get on the water and enjoy the action. I have not fished as much as usual due to an accedent I was involved in this past winter. But I have been on the water checking out all the weeds and fish locations for my clients. This past two days the migration of gills and bass into the shallows has been incredable. The water temps have came up a few degrees and the fish activity has also increased. Look for the Top Water bite to heat up as well as the bucktail bite. The western half of Pewaukee Lake is now in the low 60's and the eastern half is in the mid 60's. Floating weeds from all the boat on the lake last weekend chopping them up is going to be a small problem. The Pewaukee Classic, a large bass tournament and lots of recreational boaters out Saturday along with Sundays great weather made Pewaukee Lake a mess with all the chopped up weeds floating everywhere. It's going to take a good wind to blow all those weeds to one side of the lake and make it clear for us to enjoy some clean casting areas.

The Pewaukee Classic had a great turn out with lots of people fishing, showing up for dinner, raffles and silent auctions. Only 3 muskies were caught, 34, 33 and 32-inches. The story's of the ones that got away far out numbered the fish caught. I fished with my daughter Krystina until she had to be dropped off for a brides maids shower at 1pm. By 1:30pm I had a large muskie hooked on a Suick. I tried to catch it solo but it came free as I was working to get the net, boat and fish into position while attempting to net it myself in strong winds. All was going good until the muskie did a twist, roll, power dive and came free. I just stood there and stared at my lure floating on the surface in disbelief. That would have won the tournament for me but that's the breaks of fishing tournaments. I am not sure how the bass tournament went but I am sure plenty of bass were caught,I got two myself while fishing for muskies.

May 22nd is the next meeting for the Milwaukee Chapter Muskies Inc at the Elks Club in Waukesha. I hope some of you can stop out and catch my seminar on "Learning Pewaukee Lake Patterns and Seasonal Movements for more Consistent Muskie Success". The cost is under $5 bucks to attend and the club gives away something valuable to one of the lucky non club members who attend. This will be a fun night filled with information for all of you to learn from. Our club is growing and would like to show everyone how our Muskies Inc group can be a great club to join and get in on all the fun we have. Contests, outings, drawings and other fun stuff is just part of what our club brings to it's members. Please check out the club and my seminar to see what you can be part of. The cost is next to nothing and you will leave with plenty of info and maybe even a few new friends. Muskies Inc is the future of our fish, we put lots of muskies into the local area lakes for all of you to enjoy. Stop by May 22nd and see what our club is like.

My guide schedule is open for the 4pm to 9pm evening guide trips. From now till about the 3rd week in June the casting bite will be going strong. By the end of June I will be getting into the trolling bite and that will last until September. Then its casting and trolling until the end of October. If your looking to get out with me this season or thinking about it please e-mail me to get something set up soon before the dates are filled up. My guide schedule is not every day. I can only do 5 days a week max because of my other jobs and family. If you have never hired a guide before please check into every guide before you hire them. I have heard of plenty of bad guide story's from my clients about discounted guides that tell good story's. Please check on your guides success and lake knowledge before you hire them. You can check my TESTIMONIALS link to get a idea of what I can do for you.

Ready or not the muskie season is here and the action is heating up. Get in on it or just enjoy reading the reports I try and post for everyone to enjoy. Please feel free to e-mail me at rockinranger620@aol.com or text me at 414-640-1642 for more info on Pewaukee Lake and area lakes.

Opening Day/May Report

Well it's Monday and the Southern Opener was slow and cold due to a cold front that pushed through Friday. Saturday mornings clouds gave way to clear sky's thanks to a high pressure system that pushed in. The early morning bite was slow from what everyone was saying but the 9am to 11am hours were good to my brother Greg and I. Glide baits and twitch baits were the best producers for action on the opener. Perch and Golden Shiner was the hot lure patterns we used. The first muskie I had follow up was on a Phantom glider worked over the top of the weeds. This 37 to 38-inch fish was hot on it and followed it around a few times at the boat but lost interest. The second fish was about the same size and in that same area. The third fish came blasting in from a little deeper water and missed the my lure completely. My brother Greg saw what had just happened and we both laughed as I kept the lure working to the boat. The muskie was still hot on the lure and followed it around a few times at the side of the boat before losing interest. After I was sure it was gone we both laughed at how far that fish jumped out of the water trying to eat the lure. It was like a movie in slow motion watching the muskie miss the lure, rainbow over it and back into the water only to turn and chase it back to the boat. Now that's exciting to watch but aggravating that the fish was not caught after all that effort to eat my lure. The fourth fish I had going was the biggest and over 40-inches. She came up on the lure looking for a easy meal. After she got caught up to my Slammer she was snapping at it but never opened her mouth to eat it. She took one turn at the boat and checked out the sucker I had hanging over the side, then sunk out of sight. That was a good two hour window of action but no fish pictures. After a two hour shore lunch of bluegill's and beer we hit a few other spots to see what they looked like. One more follow by a mid thirty's muskie and we decided to hit the launch. I was surprised to hear of very few muskies being caught by all the people targeting muskies. The Quad county boys from Illinois ended up catching two muskies and our Milwaukee Chapter caught only one muskie. All three fish were 34 to 38-inches from what I was told. All in all a very slow opener due to the conditions. Strong east winds with dropping water temperatures had the fish somewhat negative.

The cold East wind with gusts up to 15mph made fishing some areas hard. The spots we had our best action was getting pounded by the wind all morning. Boat control was critical because drifting with the wind had the boat going too fast and going straight into the wind all day would burn up batteries before the end of the day. So slip drifting was the best option to work areas slowly and effectively. This method lets you use the wind and your trolling motor to move your boat around. I always like to use the wind as much as I can because stealth is best. I set up my drifts and only use the trolling motor to adjust the speed of the drift or direction. Keeping the front of the boat pointed into the wind slows the drift down because the boat with not draft good backwards. So as you drift sideways take your trolling motor and kick the front of the boat almost into the wind just after you make each cast. By the time you get your cast back to the boat you will be ready to do it again. This can be a pain in the ass but it allows you to control your speed and save battery life so you can fish all day.

The areas we targeted this opener were different from previous openers because I wanted to get as much time on the eastern half of Pewaukee Lake as possible before the weeds got too high. By how tall the weeds are already, this year is going to be as bad as last year or even worse. A very mild winter, early ice thaw, followed by a March pre Spring warm up has all the variables of a very weedy season. Look for all the weeds to have a jump start this season. The milfoil is already growing to the top of the water in lots of places on the eastern end of Pewaukee Lake. Finding the edges of the thick weeds to scattered weeds and the river channel will be very good this season. I have spent all my time so far this season on the east end plotting openings and edges so I can come back and work them with clients. The one thing that is consistent on the eastern half of Pewaukee Lake is the weeds will change every year. Just a few years ago I plotted a great weed edge that ran east to west. The south side of my way points were open areas and the north side was so think with weeds you couldn't even cast over the weeds. This year the south side is packed with weeds and the north side is wide open. Crazy how that works but every season I spend the first few weeks of the season checking out all the best areas plotting the areas I will be fishing.

The water temperatures are in the high 50's on the eastern half of the lake and 55 to 56 on the western half of the lake. This is about average for opening day. The early warm up in March and April has the muskies, walleyes and pike finished spawning and the post spawning slow time is over. Once the water and weather warms up next week the action will get good real quick. Because the spawning happened weeks ago the slow time after the spawn was before the opener. Every muskie I saw was very clean and had no spawning marks on them. This tells me the spawning has been done for a while. Look for the action to heat up very soon on the area lakes with the next warm up.

The Pewaukee Classic is May 12th and a great time. If you have never attended the Pewaukee Classic you are missing out on a great fund raiser and tournament. Everyone attending gets a meal, a door prise and a hat. This is our only fund raiser of the year and it's proceeds go to stocking the area lakes. Please consider fishing this event with about 100 others who fish it every year. It's always the second weekend in May and a blast to fish because almost everyone in the tournament is so low key and having a blast. It's not a hard core tournament at all but a bunch of people getting together to fish and support the local fishery. If you have any questions about the Pewaukee Classic please feel free to call me, text me or e-mail me. My number and e-mail info is at the bottom of every page on my website. I will be glad to help you out with lure choices and areas to target on Pewaukee Lake. This is a fun tournament and plenty of great information can be learned while attending this fundraiser. Please consider joining us on Saturday May 12th for the tourney.