Summer Fishing Up North

I normally do not take very long trips, for fishing, because there is so much good fishing in Kentucky and Indiana. However every year Peter my boss likes to take a trip in his boat and I get to go pick him up. The nice thing is that at the other end it means that I get to take a day and go fishing some place I normally would not get to fish.
2 years ago that trip was to the Gulf Coast of Alabama. We fished for a day and caught quite a few flounder, and got some good crabs. Even had a crab boil when I got back. This years trip was a bit different. I decided that I would leave a day early and try some fishing in Wisconsin since I was going to pick Peter up in Minnesota or Wisconsin on the Mississippi River.

I looked at the map and figured out the best way to go and what lakes would be nearby. I decided to chose Lake Mendota and Lake Monona. They are 2 lakes that have always fascinated me when I looked on a map. They seem to split the Capitol City of Madison Wisconsin with a small isthmus of sorts between the 2 lakes and a short creek joining them.

The lakes are part of the Yahara River Chain of Lakes that drain into the Rock River which flows south through Illinois into the Mississippi River. I looked around the internet and found a nice young man named Joel Okada and gave him a call about a fishing trip on the lake. Joel has been fishing the lake for several years and just started guiding this year.

He immediately told me that Walleye and Bass were slow, but that bluegill and perch were biting pretty good. I made an appointment to meet him at D&S Bait and Tackle in Madison around 9AM on a Thursday Morning in July. The store is right on Lake Mendota the other lake I mentioned, but since fishing was slow we were going to Monona which had a good population of 5 to 9 inch bluegill with occasional catches a little larger.

We picked up some spikes, ( I later learned these are really maggots) which are tuff little white worms that really look small but boy do they stay on a hook. Toughest live bait I have ever seen. I am hoping to try these little devils on an ice fishing trip in the winter.

We got on the lake about 11 AM and well the fishing was great. Joel really new where to find the fish. He located fish on a lake that has no real markers other than shore cover to help you find your way and the shore in some places was over a mile away. Lake Menona is almost circular and surrounced by expensive homes on one side and the Capitol Building on the another.

Our fist stop was a grass line near a causeway. We caught several fish but not quite the quality that Joel wanted to catch. Joel decided to move and when we did it was to almost the middle of the lake. Here is where I caught my first perch. I had seen many of them, but never caught one before. Our Southern Waters do not have many of these critters and what few we have are in parts of the state I do not fish often. They are really fascinating fish. They are Green and Yellow which is very different from what you see in southern waters for fish coloration.

I lost track of the fish I caught, there were quite a few. I had to leave around 4 PM so the day was not real long. I did enjoy a relaxing day of fishing, and catching and I hope to go back in the winter and try some of that Ice Fishing.

The temperatures on the lake were quite reasonable for a mid summer day. Since the lake waters were only in the 75 to 78 degree range the wind off the lake helped to make the 85 degree day quite nice to fish. If you like to fish cooler weather and cooler water in the middle of July, I highly recommend a trip to Madison Wisconsin. There is a BIG town there with plenty of things to do and the lakes have populations of Walleye, Musky, Bass, Crappie, Bluegill, Perch and the State Record Yellow Bass came from Menona Lake. It was way back in 1972 and weighed 2 lbs 2 oz. It was apparently caught through the ice since the records indicate it was caught in January.

Lake Mendota is well known across the midwest for producing good catches of Perch, but the catches the last 2 years have depleted the year classes so it will be a couple of years before the lakes produce the kinds of fish they did in the last 2 years.

Winter Ice fishing season normally starts in Late December, but has started as early as November 22, but the last time was well over 100 years ago. Most seasons last from around the first part of January to the end of March.

You can contact Joel Okada through D & S Bait and Tackle. (608) 241-4225

Fishing Hot Line for the latest reports at (608) 244-3474