Lake Geneva Fishing Report 9/30/13 through 10/7/13
With the unseasonable warm weather fishing remains steady overall. Most of the fish are still in deeper water, over 20 ft. The best bite remains bluegills and smallmouth bass.
Smallmouth bass fishing has been great. They can be caught on anything from medium suckers, fat head minnows and nightcrawlers. The best approach is lindy rigging in 20-28 ft of water. The bigger fish seem to come off of the medium suckers. Look for the fish by Black Point, the Military Academy and by Fontana Beach. This bite will continue probably until mid-November.
Bluegill fishing has been very good. The best location has been by Knollwood and by Fontana Beach. The best action is coming off of leaf worms fished straight beneath the boat with a single hook split shot rig. I found the best depth to be between 18 and 22 ft of water. Occasionally I have been catching some as shallow as 15 ft of water. The overall size has been very good with Pumpkin Seeds being the larger of the two species.
Northern Pike are starting to show up in the mid depth range. I caught a couple nice fish last week in the 20 ft depth range on medium suckers and on fat head minnows. As the water cools, the pike will move shallower and be easier to catch on slip bobbers. The best locations I’ve found have been in Williams Bay or by the old Military Academy.
Largemouth bass fishing has been spotty. Most of the action is in 18-20 ft of water. I’ve been finding most of my fish on the weedline at Trinkes and to the west of Linn Pier. They can be caught while drop shotting small plastic worms or on nightcrawlers. The average size of the fish has been a bit small, about 13 inches.
Rock bass fishing has been slow. I’ve been getting them periodically in the deeper water with the smallmouth bass but this time of year I’m catching two to three smallmouth per rock bass. The best approach has been small fat head minnows.
Good luck and I hope to see you on the water. For guide parties, please call Dave Duwe at 608-883-2050
Daily Reports
9/28/13 - Lake Geneva, sunny, 65 degrees, S wind at 15 mph. Water temp 66 degrees. Caught 13 smallmouth, 5 largemouth and bluegills. Today the best bait was fat head minnows fished on a lindy rig. We were catching the fish from 18-22 ft of water. The best spot was by Yerkes Observatory.
9/27/13 - Lake Geneva, sunny, 63 degrees, SW winds at 5 mph. Water temp 68 degrees. Caught 15 smallmouth and 3 largemouth. The best bite was nightcrawlers fished on a split shot rig, the best depth was 20-25 ft of water. Fished the whole west side of the lake.
9/26/13 - Delavan Lake, sunny, 65 degrees, SW winds at 10 mph. Water temp 68 degrees. Caught 2 largemouth bass and 1 northern pike. Fishing was tough, I had a new customer who just wanted to learn the lake, but we still tried to catch fish but it was very limited success.
9/23/13 - Lake Geneva, sunny, 65 degrees, SE winds at 10 mph. Water temp 68 degrees. Caught 10 smallmouth and 3 largemouth. The best depth was 21 ft of water. Fished by the Military Academy. Fishing was rather slow, we went out mid-day which may have been part of the problem.