Turtle Flambeau Fishing Report
By Professional Guide Jerry “Jerkbait” Hartigan
Well I am finally able to do a fishing report again after two computer malfunctions that put me out of business for a while. The last three days I have been out on the Turtle Flambeau Flowage each day. The walleyes have been in about 12 ft. of water on flats with scattered wood. Minnows and weedless jigs seemed to be producing the best for me, but a few other guides are still using crawlers.
The last few days have been high skies with little wind so the fish seemed to be tight to wood. At the beginning of the week some of the walleye we were catching had small grey leeches in their mouths, so I tried mud flats and did well with some bigger fish. By late in the week the fish did not seem to be in the mud at all. Yesterday the best spot I had for walleye was near the 12 ft. flat, but had a nice drop off that went to 16ft. That's where most of the fish were.
Big bluegill have been very active in deep wood with most of the fish in about 10ft of water. 16th oz. jigs with a piece of crawler worked best. I did manage to get a bunch of crappies through the week on weedless tinsel jigs with a crappie minnow on the back, but they were all less than 10 inches.
Smallmouth have been very slow, but I have not fished for them at all. I will be back out tomorrow so as long as my computer does not blow up I will let you know how we do.
On a side note, I took Dave Duwe, his brother, and his son out a few days ago. Dave is a guide working both Delavan Lake and Lake Geneva and will be doing some articles for On Wisconsin Outdoors and also Lake Links, so keep an eye out for them.
Jerkbait Hartigan
Guide
Flambeau Flowage Sports