Lake Geneva 6/9/14 through 6/15/14
Lake Geneva fishing has been really good overall. It’s a great time to take young kids fishing as the rock bass bite is almost constant. Both the largemouth and smallmouth bass are active as well. With the cooler than normal water temperatures, the pleasure boat traffic is still relatively light as well.
Walleye fishing remains on the slow side, however last Saturday someone caught a 28” fish on a crankbait in 10 ft of water. I’ve spoken to several people who have been out at night and the success has been limited. Once the water temperature increases to about 75 degrees, the bite will warm up as well.
Rock bass remain everywhere in the 10-12 ft depth range. They will aggressively bite anything thrown at them. I use leaf worms or a split shot rigged nightcrawlers. My bigger rock bass have come by Elgin Club or Big Foot Beach.
Smallmouth bass are in some stage of spawning, but they are readily chasing lures. I’m catching them on white hair jigs and split shot rigged nightcrawlers. Once I catch one, there are usually several others in the area. There have been a lot of fish chasing the hooked fish back to the boat. Look for them east of the Elgin Club and Belvidere Park in Fontana. My largest fish last week was 19 inches.
Largemouth bass are about 1 week away from their heavy spawn, however they are starting to show up on every guide trip. The best approach is a Wacky rigged Senko or a green pumpkin jig worm. Split shot rigged nightcrawlers work as well. The largemouth I’ve been catching are mixed in with the smallmouth near their spawning flats. I haven’t focused on them exclusively yet, but I will in a week or two.
Lake Trout are still active in the main lake basin. They are still tight to the bottom, over 100 ft down in 114-120 ft of water. Nickel/blue and nickel/green spoons have been producing most of the fish. The trolling speed is 1.5 to 1.8 mph.
Bluegills and Sunfish have not spawned yet and are very pregnant. The best concentration of fish has been in Geneva Bay or by the Military Academy. The bigger fish have been coming off of split shot rigged nightcrawlers in 10-12 ft of water.
Good luck and I hope to see you on the water. For guide parties, please call Dave Duwe at 608-883-2050.