Lake Geneva 5/27/12 through 6/3/12
Happy Memorial Day weekend. The official start of summer is here! Fishing has been very good. The water temperatures have been consistently rising. We’ve gained 4 to 7 degrees in surface temperature in the last week.
The smallmouth bass are starting to spawn. They are on their spawning flats. The best location is by Elgin Club, the Military Academy and Belvidere Park. The fish that are spawning are in 8-10 ft of water. They like the sand bottoms with scattered weeds. Most of my success is coming while casting hair jigs, pink head with white hair are the best. I work the bait, swimming it back to the boat. There are people who are catching them on the beds while sight fishing. Calm water is the best aid to success for that method. White or chartreuse tubes are catching a lot of fish. For novice anglers a Kahlin grub slowly retrieved back to the boat is also very effective and easy to fish. I like avocado pepper or smoke on an 1/8 oz darter head jig.
Largemouth bass are in and around the boat docks. The best location has been in Geneva Bay or by Trinkes. The best depth is 3-4 ft of water. You basically want to be inside the docks casting almost to shore. The best presentation has been a nightcrawler with a split shot. Some of the bass I caught last week were over 20 inches.
Rock bass seem to be everywhere. The most constant bite is in the 8-10 ft depth range. My best success has been coming by Belvidere Park. The fish seem to be biting hair jigs and nightcrawlers equally. With the warmer water, I have stopped taking fat head minnows along. Some of the rock bass I caught last week were over 12 inches.
Lake Trout has been spotty. The fish that are being caught are within a couple feet of bottom. Nickel and green or nickel and blue spoons in 120-130 ft of water seems to be the ticket. As always the morning bite seems to be the best.
Bluegills are preparing to spawn. They are in tight to shore in 3-4 ft of water. The best location is by Trinkes or in Geneva Bay. Some good action is coming off the piers in Williams Bay for shore anglers. Leaf worms fished on a bobber seem to be producing most of the action.
Good luck and I hope to see you on the water. For guide parties, please call Dave Duwe at 608-883-2050
Daily Reports
5/27/12 - Delavan Lake, sunny and 80 degrees, light winds, Water temp 64 degrees. Caught 11 largemouth, 4 were legal,and 3 smallmouth. Spent a lot of time trying to locate bluegills. Most of the gills were in 3-4 ft of water and ended up catching about 14 of them. Nightcrawlers and leaf worms seemed to catch the most. Tried to fish crappies but only caught 2. The crappies are on the weedline in 12-15 ft of water. I found that out after I got off the lake, I was fishing in 6-8 ft of water.
5/26/12 - Lake Geneva, Thunderstorms and rain, temperature about 70 degrees, Winds out of the East at 15 mph. Water temp 63 degrees. Caught 6 largemouth, 2 were legal and about 20 bluegills. We were fishing a depth of 3-4 ft of water. All fish were caught in about 2 hours as the rain and thunderstorms chased us off the lake.
5/25/12 - Lake Geneva, sunny and 75 degrees, winds W at 10 mph. Water temp 61 degrees. Caught 5 smallmouth, none were legal and about 60 rock bass. We were using white hair jigs and split shot rigged nightcrawlers. Fished by the Military Academy, Belvidere Park and Colemans Point.
5/23/12 - Delavan Lake, 75 degrees, winds SW at 10 mph. Water temp 64 degrees. Caught 13 largemouth, 3 smallmouth, 1 walleye and 15 crappies. The crappies were caught on small fat head minnows fished beneath a slip bobber in 6-8 ft of water. The best location was by Willow Point. The game fish were caught on nightcrawlers on the weed line in 12-15 ft of water. We caught 2 that were over 20 inches.
5/22/12 - Lake Geneva, 72 degrees, wind NE at 10 mph. Water temp 64 degrees. Caught 4 legal smallmouth and 40 rock bass. Fished white hair jigs and split shot rigged nightcrawlers. The best location was by Belvidere Park and by Colemans Point. Worked a depth of 6-10 ft of water.