Hayward, Wisconsin Fishing Report 7-9-14

We’ve been invaded by Hoosiers!!!  Long time customer, friend, and CEO of Big Tine Mike Bassett from Rockville, IN arrived on Sunday with wife Kathy and our good friend Joe LaMantia from Mid-States Distributing in St. Paul, MN.  We spent a few hours in the afternoon  on Sunday chasing walleyes and found some good fish in 14′ – 16′ of water using slip bobbers and leeches as well as jigs and minnows.  Water temperatures were consistent at 70 degrees.  We caught fish up to 21″ and had to move around quite a bit to find a few keepers.  It was extremely windy which made it tough to hold on certain spots, but the effort was well worth it.  Mike and Joe did an excellent job putting fish in the boat while Kathy soaked up the sun reading her book.  What a crew!  It’s always good to have our old friends back on their annual vacation, and we were off to a great start.

Mike and Joe were back in the boat on Monday.  We had an interesting morning landing lots of pike and largemouth bass but only one walleye.  Since the boys were interested in eyes, we made a switch in the afternoon to a different body of water.  It proved to be a good decicion.  With storm fronts rolling in all around us, Mike and Joe put some nice walleyes up to 23″ in the boat on slip bobbers and leeches as well as jigs and minnows in 14′ of water.  Joe did one heck of a job landing the largest fish of the day as it followed his jig to the boat, and he executed perfectly.  Water temps ranged from 70 – 71 degrees, and we had to call it quits a little early as thunderstorms rolled in.  Better safe than sorry!  Although we had to cut it short, we were more than satisfied with the day we had put together despite challenging conditions.  It had been an incredibly fun couple of days on the water, and I was sad to see Joe head back to the Twin Cities.  Thanks for another great trip Joe!

Last August, we lost our dear fiend Rusty Bogue from Paris, IL in a plane crash.  Tim Jones and his wife Marnie from Crawfordsville, IN were kind enough to buy a trip with me that was donated at a fundraiser for Rusty’s family.  Tim and Marnie hopped in the boat with me on Tuesday for a day of chasing crappies after spending the previous day on an ATV adventure with my father Jim.  Marnie took a page out of Kathy Bassett’s book and spent the day reading while Tim and I worked over the fish.  Hey…  I’m not going to argue with this formula!  North winds pushed several storms by us , but we managed to avoid most of them.  Marnie was a trooper, and we put together a nice day with lots of fish in the 10′ – 11′ range caught on slip bobbers and plastic jigs in 6′ of water.  Water temps held steady at 72 degrees.  Tim did a really good job of learning how to work the slip bobber, and Marnie was great support as we put some nice fillets in the livewell for them to take home.  Despite a valiant attempt, I wasn’t able to get Marnie to fillet a crappie at the end of the day.  Maybe next time!

Tim was back in the boat with me on Wednesday, and Mike Bassett joined us as well.  Apparently Marnie and Kathy had better things to do!  Well, we made the best of it without the girls…  High skies and cool temps had set in after the storms had rolled through the day before.  Predictably the walleyes were a bit stubborn, but we managed to put one heck of a day together by being persistent.  I decided to make the switch to dragging nightcrawler harnesses as the leech bite had begun to slow over the past few days.  We pulled crawlers over weeds in 13′ – 18′ of water throughout the day and caught several nice fish up to 23″.  Water temps held around 70 degrees.  Mike has been coming up here for over 20 years and claimed that he’s never had an average size of fish like he caught this week.  I can’t argue.  It’s been pretty impressive.  I’d also like to think that Rusty had a bit to do with our success today…  Thanks to Tim and Marnie for purchasing this trip for such a great cause.  I had a blast, and look forward to doing it again.  Farewell to the Bassetts as well.  It’s been a great week as always, and we’re looking forward to seeing you in the fall!!!