Chequamegon Bay & Hayward, Wisconsin Fishing Report 10-12-14
It’s almost the middle of October, and I’m slowly realizing that we don’t have many days of open water left… This is definitely a bittersweet time of year for me. I absolutely love fishing in the fall, but I hate to see it come to an end! Amy Magnor from Monona, WI and Ed Armijo from Gallup, NM fished with us in July and returned for a fall smallmouth adventure on Chequamegon Bay. This time there was a twist… The crew from Road Weary Productions was with us to film the entire experience. Ed and Amy couldn’t have handled it any better, and we had an outstanding day. The morning bite was a bit slow before we got into a good flurry right before lunch. The PM shift was a different story however. Amy was very generous in letting Ed have the lucky pole, and
it quickly became the Ed Armijo show!!! He couldn’t drop his line in the water without having a fish on!!! Amy did her part as well to contribute as we had lots of fish up to 21 1/2″ including a great double that we were finally able to execute after several attempts. All of our fish were caught on minnows with live bait rigs, slip bobbers, and jigs in 12′ – 18′ of water. It was a cloudy and cool day, but winds were manageable compared to what we have been dealing with. Thanks to Amy, Ed, and the crew from Road Weary for putting together one heck of a day. Great memories!!!
Road Weary Productions was back with us on Saturday to film a guided trip in the Hayward Area. Dan and Amber Dillon from Eau Claire, WI fished with us back in August on Chequamegon Bay, and they decided an inland smallmouth trip would be a good change of pace. Well, we found some excellent smallies as well as a bunch of bonus walleyes to go with them. The weather was absolutely perfect with light winds, warm temps, sunny skies, and fall colors peaking to go along with it. We couldn’t have had a better stage to put smallies up to 20″ and walleyes up to 17″ in the boat. We started and ended slow, but the mid day bite was great as we caught fish on minnows with live bait 
rigs and jigs in 13′ – 20′. Water temps ranged from 48 – 52 degrees. Dan and Amber were both very gracious in allowing the production crew to invade our boat, and it was great to see them land some awesome fish with the cameras rolling. All of the fish we caught were gut busters and couldn’t have been any heavier. That’s one of the great things about fishing at this time. Everything you catch looks as good as it ever will!!! Thanks to Dan and Amber for another memorable day, and thanks to the crew from Road Weary Productions for all of your efforts. What a great couple of days!!!
Jon Schlussler from St. Paul, MN and Steve Leach from Maplewood, MN returned for another Chequamegon Bay smallmouth trip on Sunday. The one day break from the wind was nice, but it was definitely over… We started out the morning with manageable seas, but by noon we were rocking and rolling again! I don’t ever remember a stretch of windy weather like this. It just keeps blowing!!! Regardless, we caught fish at a fairly steady pace throughout our trip. They weren’t jumping in the boat by any stretch, but we were able to put a pretty impressive day together that included smallies up to 20″ and a bonus 24″ walleye landed by Jon. Since Jon absolutely loves walleyes, we sure were happy for him!!! These two guys are a ton of fun to have in the boat, and we always have a lot of laughs. Everything
we caught was on minnows with live bait rigs or slip bobbers in 12′ – 20′ of water, and water temps ranged from 47 – 49 degrees. Jon and “Screaming Steve” did a great job despite the tough conditions, and it was great to see them catch some very nice fish. If you ever need advice on how to set a slip bobber, Jon is you man… He’s full of tips!!! Thanks for the great time guys. I had a blast!!!
