Wisconsin Fishing Club

(Photo courtesy Blue Ribbon Files)
Wisconsin Fishing Club, Ltd.
http://www.wisconsinfishinclub.com
Our 46th Year
January 9, 2012

Since the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel didn’t print our meeting press release, we only had one welcomed guest.

FISH REPORTS

Mark Krmpotich recently has fished local waters. Jerry Opicka and Treasurer Dan Freheirr fished Fox Lake, in Dodge County. Both members caught crappies, bluegills and a few perch.

Surprisingly for this time of the year, our anglers were fishing Lake Michigan and with good success. German brown trout were in 25- to- 30- feet of water off the Milwaukee breakwalls. Also fishing the big lake was Dan Day who used white jelly plastics on jigs to take his brown trout.

A fine out-of-state fishing report was given by a member who fished Pigeon Fords in Tennessee. He caught 25 trout.

Secretary Larry read the minutes from the last meeting of 2011. They were approved as read.

Treasurer Dan said we have $1,464.93 in our checking account. His report was also approved.

A member brought up the idea of our club taking about ten disabled vets fishing every year. Per President Cliff, Gary Gerdman had originally brought up this fine idea. The membership present voted to pursue this agenda and a committee will be formed.

President Cliff stated that he is changing our meeting dates from two to one per month. This was met with immediate opposition by Secretary Larry who said he can’t do that without discussing this with the Board of Directors. After some discussion, a member asked some questions about the procedure for a member bringing up having one meeting a month. He was told that he must bring it up at the new business portion of a Board of Directors meeting. The member missed the word “Board” and proceeded to push through a present membership vote at this general membership meeting. While it appeared there were members who favored dropping to only one meeting per month, this vote was advisory at best. There was no advisory vote held for staying at two meetings per month. We will again bring up this topic at our upcoming, month away, February 13 Board meeting to be held an hour before our next general membership meeting .

Wayne Avery, our Kids Fishing Clinic Coordinator for both WFC and the statewide WCSFO, went over what was needed and who would do what for our upcoming Kids Ice Fishing Clinic at Wilson Park.

President Cliff handed out the fish contest prizes for our 2011 contest. Two officers fared well as did two general members.

President Cliff had a first place yellow perch by catching a 14½” perch from Green Bay.

Vice President George took first place in crappies with a nice 13½” black crappie from Crescent Lake.

Member Al Hutchinson boated a 44½” musky from Oconomowoc Lake for 1^st place

Member Tim Lowrey landed a 1^st place, 34” northern pike from the Onion River. Many members will recall that this trout stream was rebuilt just below Plymouth a few years ago, and the coverage was shown by past speaker Dan Small on Outdoor Wisconsin on PBS.

President Cliff asked that more members participate in the contest in 2012. Hopefully, we will give this contest more internal public relations in 2012.

Strikemaster , http://strikemaster.com,   has bibs for $95.00 and a jacket for $95.00 on their site.

Guide Andy Stuth, cell 920-554-2665, website: http://doorcountycharter.com, was our guest speaker. He talked on white fishing through the ice in Sturgeon Bay.

Stuth has made a few updates from his past talk, as he continually refines his techniques and tackle. He’s had success with a #12 Mosquito fly within 1 foot of the bottom. Some of his customers are using jigs upside down. The jigs are tipped with waxworms. He has another rig using a slip sinker below the jig. The sinker creates the action and sound, and the jig catches the fish.

Andy uses 5# PowerPro (braided) line, http://www.powerpro.com/publish/content/global_fish/en/us/power_pro_v2.html, with a 2# fluorocarbon leader. Others use a 4# fluorocarbon leader. He finds that there are days when heavier line produces fewer fish. Braided line makes for quicker hook sets.

When using Swedish Pimples, http://www.swedishpimple.com, he adds waxworms. Red is always popular. On the effective scud flies, he does not add waxworms.

An HT Enterprises, http://www.icefish.com/catalog/inventory.php?fam=112, rod with a flimsy tip and a strong backbone helps to set the hook and tire the fish.

When fishing for white fish feeding on zebra mussels, fish in about 50-60 feet of water near an underwater hill. Last year, he stated that white fish feeding on gobies are shallower. Walleyes are in the shallower water too.

The limit is 10 white fish, and there is no size limit. He recommends keeping the fish that are at least 17” long.

Respectively submitted,

Larry Van Veghel

WFC & WCSFO Secretary and Media Director & U.S. Navy vet

http://www.examiner.com/x-15565-Milwaukee-Fishing-Examiner

WFC Meeting Minutes Aug. 8th 2011 Minutes President Cliff opened our meeting at 7:02 p.m. with numerous fish talks.

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Fish Reports: Lake Michigan has active steelhead. Walleyes are slow on Green Bay off of Oconto. In Waukesha County, Pine Lake has produced small fish. Nearby on Lake Nagawicka, the most fished lake per acre in Wisconsin, action is slow. River anglers are taking bullheads near Xonia. In Madison, lots of small bluegills, but some fish to 9” are being taken. All kinds of worms are working. Rock Lake, in Lake Mills, usually has deeper suspended bluegills. The fish are 17’ to 22’ down. The bluegills are reaching 9 inches, and they are taking red worms. Long Lake, aka Keg Nong Go Mong, gave up lots of bluegills on Berkley Honey Worms for Secretary Larry. White Dick Smith Panfish Grubs without any live bait also worked. The fish were everywhere along drop-offs having healthy, green aquatic plants where no algae was present. Sgt-at-Arms “Big” Dave trolled the Wisconsin/Michigan border Menomonee River mouth for pike, walleyes, smallmouth bass and catfish. Wading worked too. The black-and-silver Shad Rap was also effective. Little Muskego, in Waukesha County, produced lots of bluegills. The fish are a little smaller than in recent years, but keeper fish are still present. Berkley Gulp Leeches took these fish. On Winnebago, out from Kalvis on Kalvis’ Reef, a limit of walleyes and numerous sheepshead fell for 1/8 oz. green jig tipped with leeches. Fish the reef tops when there is a chop. The perch are active a, and they range from 7” to 11”. Use as worm or a small piece of nightcrawler. Green beads or ice fishing jigs worked best. Lake Delavan, one of Wisconsin’s favorite “up north” lakes for Illinois anglers, is producing lots of bluegills. The fishing boats are right next to each other. In general, lots of bluegills are coming from lakes in southeast Wisconsin. On the big lake, Vice-President George and his son landed 2 rainbow trout, a nice 30” king salmon and 9 coho salmon. While in Canada, George caught northerns to 36”, a ton of walleyes between 18” and 22”, but none bigger than 23”. The fish were on the bottom, and a barrel sinker 8” up from the bait on a 3’ long leader worked best. George used chartreuse hooks with a small piece of nightcrawler in 25’ to 30’ on Donald Lake in Caribou National Park. The hot bait was treated Emerald Minnows from Cabela’s. Art Schmitt, a WWII veteran, travelled to Minnesota’s Leech Lake where he used nightcrawlers and leeches for big bluegills, plus he caught perch, crappies, largemouth bass and northerns.

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The minutes were read by secretary & media director Larry. The minutes were approved as read. Treasurer Dan said we have $1309.00 in our account. His report was also approved. Members are urged to improve their computer skills and to read our informative newsletter. Our club picnic is August 20, stating at 3 p.m. in President Cliff’s back yard. We took in $46.00 from our raffle. President Cliff talked about fishing for suspended summertime panfish on Lake Monona. He said to look for large clusters of fish, and use a GPS to mark the spots. Bluegills are found over the deepest water. This is 40’ and deeper on this Madison area lake. Put a couple of spikes on a small jig tipped with a small plastic grub or you can use Jerry Opicka’s effective method of using a dinner of 6 spikes on a pink-and-white Mini Mite by Cubby, http://www.cubbylures.com/. I use a baitless, plain white Dick Smith Panfish Grub having the yellow head with black eyes. President Cliff said he prefers Daiwa or Shimano reels on light 7’ to 9’ rods having a slow action tip and hook setting backbone. Good spots to try are the drop-offs by the rock bars off of Squaw Bay. Give the southwest shore some musky casting time. Respectively submitted, Larry Van Veghel WFC & WCSFO Secretary and Media Director http://www.examiner.com/x-15565-Milwaukee-Fishing-Examiner