Hayward, Wisconsin Fishing Report 6-15-14

What a Father’s Day weekend it’s been!  Matt Tande from Elk Mound, WI along with his brother Dylan and father Gary from Mondovi, WI kicked it off in grand fashion on Friday.  Matt is a big time deer hunter and camera man for The Hunt With Greg and Jake.  We’ve shared many hunting camps together and it was an honor to have his family in my boat for a day of chasing walleyes.  Predictably, we started off a little slow as water temps had dropped 10 degrees from a nasty front that had blown through the day before.  The water warmed up throughout the day, and the bite kept ketting better and better.  We landed lots of 17″ – 21″ fish as well as a long 28″ spawned out female that Gary put in the net.  It was his personal best and a great battle.  Slip bobbers and leeches and jig/minnow combinations in 12′ – 16 ft of water over emerging weed beds caught everything, and we moved around a lot to find active fish.  Once we did, it was game on!  A bonus 30″ pike and 19″ largemouth added to an already impressive catch.  Water temps ranged from 60 – 65 degrees throughout the day.  Great job guys.  That was an awesome day!

Friday brought about another unexpected change in plans, and I ended up back in the boat with my partner Terry Peterson for a day of crappie fishing.  We were doing some recon on a lake that’s been “on our list” lately, and the pieces of the puzzle are starting to fall into place.  We blasted the slabs up to 13″ throughout a cold, wet, and windy day in 8′ to 12′ of water on slip bobbers and plastics.  If you’ve never had the opportunity to watch Terry catch crappies, you’re missing out.  The professor put on his usual exhibition, and I did my best to keep up.  Our original thought was that these would be post spawn fish, but many of them were still carrying spawn.  So, it’s a bit of a head scratcher…  I’ve heard of crappies absorbing their eggs if they miss the right opportunity to spawn, so maybe this was an example???  Whatever the situation, they were hungry and super aggressive.  Just how we like it!  Water temperatures held at 65 degrees, and we left satisfied with the results of our mission and the information it provided.  It’s always good when a plan comes together!

Father’s day was spent with my brother in law Joe O’leary from Evanston, IL and his boys Jack (age 7) and Charlie (age 6).  Grandpa Jim even tagged along for good measure.  Jack and Charlie improved upon last year’s performance with a crappie beat down that included many nice fish up to 12.5″.  Those poor crappies didn’t stand a chance as they reeled in fish after fish.  My two nephews also learned about stealth and how to take charge of those fish!  I was a proud uncle, and it was a great day spent with three generations of Evans men in the boat.  The weather man threw the book at us as we encountered wind, rain, sun, and everything in between.  The boys stood tall however beat the odds to bring a nice fish dinner home to mom.  Water temps held at 65 degrees, and our fish were caught on slip bobbers with plastics in 8′ – 9′ of water.  I’ll tell you this also…  They need to bottle up what those boys have and sell it.  Now that’s energy!  Thanks for the great day Jack and Charlie.  You did great!

Happy Father’s Day to all of the great dads out there.  You deserve it!!!