Lake Geneva Fishing Report 7/23/12 through 7/30/12
Fishing on Lake Geneva continues to be excellent. The fish are in their mid-summer pattern. There are ample opportunities for both large fish and a good fish fry.
Lake Trout fishing continues to be excellent. The fish are in the main lake basin. I’ve been catching most of my fish 90 ft down in 110-120 ft of water. Nickel and blue or nickel and green spoons are producing most of the action. I find the fish most active in the early a.m. I go out at sunrise.
Walleye fishing has been good at night when there is wind. Large Rapallas trolled at approximately 2 mph have been producing most of the fish. The best colors are fire tiger or chrome and black. The best location has been by Abbey Springs or by Aurora college. I find the best fishing is when there is a slight chop on the water.
Bluegills are located in 16-18 ft of water. The best location is by Elgin Club or by Abbey Springs. They can be caught on a split shot rigged leaf worm about 6 inches off bottom. You need to move around a lot to find an active school, but once you find the school you will catch a bunch of them. The rock bass can also be caught inter mixed with the bluegills.
Smallmouth bass have been kind of slow. The fish I’ve been catching are on lindy rigs in 20-25 ft of water. The best location is by the Military Academy or by Linn Pier. Most of the fish are being caught on nightcrawlers or jumbo leaches.
Northern Pike action has been improving. The pike are in 30-32 ft of water on the thermocline. They are being caught on medium suckers fished on a lindy rig. The best location is on the north shore of the narrows or Fontana Beach. Due to the virus the fish have had the past few years, the numbers are still lower than they were in the past. A good trip is 6-8 fish in 4 hours.
Largemouth bass have two patterns going. The early morning / dusk pattern is top water lures over shallow weeds. You want to use a chrome/blue or chrome/black chug bug. The other pattern is the deep weedline bite. Carolina rigging green pumpkin lizards in 20-25 ft of water does the trick. The best locations are those with gravel under the weeds. Typically this time of year, the fish will school up making catching good numbers relatively easy.
Good luck and I hope to see you on the water. For guide parties, please call Dave Duwe at 608-883-2050
Daily Reports
7/22/12 - p.m. Delavan Lake, partly cloudy, 82 degrees, SW winds at 10 mph. Water temp 79 degrees. Caught 6 largemouth and kept 18 bluegills. The fishing was a bit slower than the a.m. and the boat traffic was intense. All the fish were caught on split shot rigged nightcrawlers. Fished mostly main lake points.
7/22/12 - a.m. Delavan Lake, sunny, 75 degrees, SW winds at 10 mph. Water temp 79 degrees. Caught 9 largemouth and a whole bunch of very large bluegills. The bluegills were off the weedline in 16-18 ft of water. The largemouth bass were on the weedline. Moved around a lot, fishing was a bit slow, however, in the last hour, I caught a 7 lb bass which is the largest of the year.
7/21/12 - Lake Geveva, Sunny, 80 degrees SW winds at 10 mph. Water temp 79 degrees. Caught 4 Lake trout, all around 4 lbs., 3 smallmouth bass and 2 largemouth bass and a bunch of rock bass. The lake trout were in 115 ft of water, 90 ft down. Every spoon we put down caught a fish. The bass and panfish were caught by the Military Academy on a split shot rigged nightcrawler.
7/20/12 - Lake Geneva, sunny, 90 degrees, Winds SW at 12 mph. Water temp 79 degrees. Caught 3 Lake Trout, each was 3-4 lbs. Best depth was 90 ft down in 110 ft of water. The best location was near Fontana. Nickel and blue spoons caught all of the fish.