Lake Geneva Fishing Report 9/27/15 through 10/4/15
Lake Geneva has been mediocre lately. One day they are biting and the next the large and smallmouth bass seem to have disappeared. We’ve settled into a stable weather pattern with warmer than average temps and it seems to be making fishing just a bit more difficult. The best action on the lake has been smallmouth bass when you can find them.
Smallmouth bass are concentrating on deep water structure on the hard sand or rock bottoms. The best depth has been 22-25 ft of water. Look for the fish by South Shore Club, Coleman’s Point and by Yerkes Observatory. Most of the success is coming from either drop shotting four inch finesse worms or lindy rigging nightcrawlers. As the water cools, the smallmouth bass will be following the pods of mirror shiners throughout the water column. With cooler weather, the fishing will start to turn on.
Bluegill fishing has been very good in the 22-25 ft depth range. The fish are by Elgin club or by Gage Marina. They can be caught on giant red worms or nightcrawlers fished on the split shot rig. A lot of the fish that I’ve been catching in the past week have been in excess of 9 inches.
Crappie fishing has been starting to improve. The best location has been by South Shore Club in 14-16 ft of water. The fish are being caught on small smoke colored plastics or chartreuse plastics. You want to fish the small plastics on a 1/32 oz jig head, either slowly trolled or by drift fishing.
Largemouth bass fishing has been good in Trinkes Bay or in Geneva Bay. The fish are being caught on Texas rigged plastic worms in black or green pumpkin colors. Try fishing the scattered weeds in 12-16 ft of water. While fishing smallmouth bass, I’m catching an occasional largemouth in 22-24 ft of water. They are being caught in the deep on lindy rigged nightcrawlers. The size of the deep water fish has been relatively small.
The big rock bass have started to bite in 22-24 ft of water. They are associating with deep water structure just like the smallmouth bass. They can be either caught on extra large fat head minnows or nightcrawlers. The fish are very tight to the bottom. They can be fished straight beneath the boat or lindy rigged. If you are going to use lindy rigs, the preferred leader length in 24 inches.
Good luck and I hope to see you on the water. For guide parties, please call Dave Duwe at 608-883-2050