Lake Geneva Report 09/12/08

[Lee Borgersen]

Wednesday 9/10/08 report 
 
The morning started out with patchy heavy fog banks with the air temp at 47 degrees and water temp at an even 70 degrees. Calm winds left floating vegetation on the surface. Made a few laps in 10 to 16 ft with spinner baits having no results.

 
Figured it was time to change to a deeper running bait and I then trolled in 16 to 21 ft resulting 5 pike landed over a 40 minute span. The sun high enough in the sky to produce a negative pattern along with a lack of clouds an chop, so it was time for a change in strategy.
 

Up until 10 am the smallmouth fishing was spotty at best and then just as during the last couple weeks the bite started to improve along with the chop on the water. They were running in schools and the bite was on.
 

 One important note is if your anchored make sure that you and your crew keep your offerings in the water at all times when the smallies are there. If you have tackle problems ( defugalties) quickly get another rod in. The smallies will move on with lack of bait being offered. We even throw reject or half chunk crawlers/leeches over the side to keep them interested while we untangle or retie hooks.
 
Lately most smallies are only running on average of 14 to 17 inches with some bigger smallies finding their way into the area during the course day. I've noticed for years most anglers are to antsy to sit and anchor so they stay on the move and miss out on some good action when they are running thru an area. On the other hand many anchored folks don't cover enough area when the well runs dry.

 
The smallmouth action today was a lot of fun with a lot of fish being caught and the water temp made it's way up to 71.3 degrees by noon. Last year according to my log it was 73 degrees on 9/12/07.



See ya on the water,


Lee



*** The first rule of successful fishing tackle retailing is – first catch your fisherman. This rule is based on a simple premise – the better a lure or fly looks to the angler the more likely it is to be bought. The paint jobs on some lures are so good you could swear they could be floured, battered, fried, and served with fries. But what is eminently edible to our eyes is not necessarily mouth-watering to a fish.