Winnebago, Boulder Junction Fishing
7-18-2013
Our planned Tuesday assault on Lake Winnebago walleyes was postponed a bit by friend Jim Olsson due to the intense heat settling over Wisconsin this week. We’ll be on the road instead well before the dawn breaks this Sunday. The heat should break by then too. We’ll be drifting and working bait under Jim’s tutelage and shooting up a lot of still camera shots and video that we plan to show you in a few days on this site.
But the hot weather also rekindled a good memory of another Winnebago trip that I wrote about in 2005. We’re posting it here under “Dick’s Trips” with a bunch of photos. Sweltering weather is not necessarily a bad thing. Especially when a slight breeze kicks up and you have a friend like John Volkman running the show who has fished the big lake for years and reads a breeze as foretelling a very good change on the winds.
Back in 05’, we went from dead still and nothing on the line trolling the mudflats to a great bite with 30 strikes or so over two hours of throwing floating rapalas in just two to six feet of water. The fish were mostly in the 17 to 20 inch class. But you’ll read all that in the column, with the photos to prove it. So there.
Last weekend, I headed north to Boulder Junction with Lori and lifelong buddy Larry Calvi and his daughter Lindsey. Lindsey is nuts about fishing and she is good at it. Along with my wife we had two good looking school teachers on board who I hate to say caught more fish than Larry and me. That’s a little like saying they caught more than the rock on shore. We’re not that impressive. But, Lindsey caught five species of fish herself throwing lures and bobber fishing, and we had the opportunity to take in the otters, eagles, loons, turtles, does with fawns and overall wildlife scenes of Rice Creek, the Manitowish River and other tucked away spots on the Manitowish Chain.
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| Lindsey Calvi showed the boys how it’s done last week on the Manitowish Chain. | |
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| A family of three otters entertained the Ellis group in Rice Creek last week. | |
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There wasn’t much to the fishing, a lack of thinking or stress that was just what the Doctor ordered. Mostly, drift or anchor and watch bobbers or throw Rapalas and Mepp’s spinners. Even old guys need to return to their youth once in a while. Is there really anything more soothing to the soul then a pop…pop….popping bobber before it slides under the surface, you tug at the critter and a bluegill or a perch tugs back at your rod and your heart? I know we didn’t keep a fish all weekend but it sure was fun. Larry and I retold his daughter and my wife all the great moments of our high school athletic careers, and after that minute we mostly just soaked in sun and relaxed.
Under “Inland Fishing” this week, look for columns and fishing reports posted by OWO writers John Luthens and Jerry Kiesow. Kiesow’s column is just a relaxing read about a man who readies the cabin for the arrival of his wife and daughter. Luthens unveils some surprises about fishing the Milwaukee River. Johnny will also entertain you regularly.
Fishing reports and other tidbits on what to do when and where around the state came in from Ashland, Hayward Lakes, Polk County and surrounding areas, Sparta, Minocqua, Price County, Richland County, Delavan Lake, Lake Geneva, the Wisconsin River, the Chippewa Flowage and other areas of Wisconsin. Look for it all under “Inland Fishing”. It’s fun to be on this side of the OWO news wire when local fishing experts like Wayne Morgenthaler send reports and photos like this 6-pound, five ounce bass caught by his son on the backwaters of the Wisconsin River in Richland County.
Kevin Morgenthaler scores on the Wisconsin backwaters.
It’s fun to wait for guides like Phil Schweik on the Wisconsin and Dave Hraychuck in the great northwest, Minocqua’s Kurt Justice, John Carlson in Price County and on and on to show us what they caught the previous week. It’s not so fun to wish that I knew how they and all of our other guides do it week in and week out. At least I can write about it and shoot the photos when I tag with them. Also see what happens when a novice Illinois trout angler who doesn’t have a clue of what he’s doing out there….(he should be a publisher) gets a little help and some pity from a Wisconsin angler who does know what he’s doing out there, in Richland County.
Don’t forget to connect with “Outdoor News” and “Firearms” to read about a lot of news items posted this week, and anywhere else you wish to browse on this site online. Check under “Deer Hunting” for hunting tips by Bob Mercier, and check too under Archery and Bowhunting for the next column by our youth columnist, Jenna Heil who knows her way around an archery course.
Thanks for connecting with On Wisconsin Outdoors. Shoot straight. I hear the Winny walleyes calling. Hopefully next week, more photos and a success story from Wisconsin’s largest inland lake.
Dick