Lake Geneva Fishing Report 5/20/12 through 5/27/12
Fishing on Lake Geneva has been improving daily. The water temperature is starting to creep up and the fish are starting to become more active. The lake is covered with green slime on the bottom which makes bottom fishing tough. For the best success you want to fish 2-3 ft above bottom.
Rock bass are starting to be very active in 8-12 ft of water. They can be caught using fat head minnows, nightcrawlers and small hair jigs. Most of my success has been by Belvidere Park or by Elgin Club. A slow drift seems to be the best presentation.
Smallmouth bass have been improving. The water is still a bit cold for them to begin spawning but they are starting to prepare for it. The fish I’ve been catching have been on small hair jigs around the pods of bait fish. I’ve been fishing the main lake points, like Black Point and Conference Point. In the next week or so, we should see some of the best smallmouth fishing on Lake Geneva for the year.
Bluegills are active in the shallows. You want to fish 3-4 ft of water. The best success has been in Abbey Harbor or in Geneva Bay. Small slip bobbers tipped with an ice jig and a red worm seem to do the trick. You want to fish around the boat docks with scattered weeds.
Largemouth bass are in and around the boat docks in Geneva Bay. They can be caught on a swim jig or a nightcrawler fished on a split shot rig. The best docks are the ones with heavy weed growth on the north shore. With the cold water, the spawn is about 2 weeks away.
Perch still remain in the 6-7 ft depth range. Look for the fish by Cisco beach or Rainbow point. The best presentation is a fat head minnow fished on a bobber.
Good luck and I hope to see you on the water. For guide parties, please call Dave Duwe at 608-883-2050
Daily Reports
5/20/12 - Delavan Lake, 83 degrees and sunny, SW wind at 10-20 mph. Water temp 64 degrees. Caught 5 walleyes, 6 smallmouth bass and 12 largemouth bass plus a few crappies. We caught the fish on the weedline in 13 ft of water. The best approach was a split shot rigged nightcrawler. The crappies were caught on small plastics.
5/19/12 - Delavan Lake, 80 degrees and sunny, SW wind at 15 mph. Water temp 63 degrees. Caught 1 northern pike, 5 largemouth bass and a few bluegills. For whatever reason, fishing was very tough today. The bass were caught on split shot rigged nightcrawlers.
5/18/12- Lake Geneva, 65 degrees and sunny, SW wind at 15 mph. Water temp 57 degrees. Caught 1 smallmouth, 6 largemouth and a bunch of rock bass. The smallmouth bass was caught on a small white hair jig. The largemouth and rock bass were caught on split shot rigged nightcrawlers.