The Return of Jigging Notes by Stan Nichols

Yahara Fishing Club May 2017

Editor: Tom Raschke [email protected] Club Web Site: http://www.yaharafishingclub.org

The Return of Jigging Notes By Stan Nichols

“Always jig for walleyes on a tight line”! If you an area before you drift over it. Keep the rod tip learned nothing else from Dave McCoy at the April high and let the lure fall slowly. A 7-foot medium meeting, this will put more walleyes in the boat. action rod with and extra fast tip, 10-14 pound braid However, if you listened close and took notes fast, and a 3-5 foot fluorocarbon leader works for this you learned a lot more. technique. Reel the lure in slowly Dave divides walleye fishing into two seasons- Jigging spoons include Cicadas, Echotails, Gold the cold-water season and the warm-water season Buddies, and Hopkins spoons in gold, chartreuse and there are techniques that are season dependent on red, and purple-silver-blue. A 7-foot, medium so it is important to understand the seasonal as- action rod, with 6-10 pound braided line works well pects of walleye fishing. Techniques are season with these lures. and equipment dependent. Generally the techniques Swimbaits include Ringworms, Paddle Tails, are applicable to all waters. Even though Dave and Moxys. Favorite colors are chartreuse with an talked primarily about fishing Green Bay waters, the orange core and purple. These are hooked onto techniques were pioneered on the Mississippi River. Precision Jigs heads and either quarter cast or Cold-water techniques will generally work in warm “pulled” upstream. Quarter casting means casting water but the opposite is not true. Warm water tech- 90-degrees or greater to the current flow. Don’t niques uses more speed so they don’t work on more cast upstream-remember no slack line. Use lethargic cold-water fish. enough weight to hit bottom and lift and drop the The techniques Dave discussed for the cold- jig. For pulling, troll upstream at about 0.3-to-0.6 water period was what I call traditional jigging, using miles per hour. Cast at least 50 feet behind the lipless crankbaits or blade baits and jigging spoons, boat. Use enough jig weight to hit bottom. Pull the and using swimbaits. For warm water Dave talked jig forward and then let it set back. If your arms get about swim bait casting. tired you can just let the jig drag on the bottom. For traditional jigging Dave likes Precision Jig Use 8-10 pound mono line for this method. Braid- Heads in Ford blue color. Precision Jigs are tear- ed line is too fast and can pull the jig out of the drop shaped and fall to the bottom better than tradi- fish’s mouth. All these techniques depend on feel. tional ball shaped jigs. In cold water walleyes will I don’t know if these jigs and plastics can be bought generally be within six inches of the bottom so you locally, but they can be ordered online at Cus- only need to lift the jig four inches off the bottom. tomjigs.com/bfishn-tackle/. Walleyes will feed down and pin bait to the bottom. The last technique is for warm water and uses When dropping the jig, do it slowly so there is no large bodied swim baits. The one Dave suggested slack in the line. For this technique Dave uses an at was a size-1or 2, Shiver Minnow. A Shiver Minnow least 6.5 foot rod with an extra fast tip, with 8-pound looks something like a jigging Rapala and that is braided line and six feet of 6-to-8 pound fluorocar- another lure that could be used. This technique bon leader. I don’t have in my notes what Dave works in deeper and warmer (50-degree plus) wa- baits the jig with. I am sure minnows would work but ter. A stiff rod and cadence is important. Use a Dave said he hasn’t used a minnow in five years. I sharp snap on the up stroke and a slow drop so the assume you could use plastics that are discussed lure glides. A 7-to-8 foot rod with an extra fast tip later. and monofilament line is recommended. Fish usu- Dave recommends number-6, blue-chrome Rippn ally hit on the glide or they might just be there on -Raps for casting lipless crankbaits. Use number-7 the upstroke in the summer and the Tennessee Shad color would As a final note, Dave is a big fan of side scan be good for Lake Mendota. Use a long rod to make sonar. He said many of the professional no longer long casts. Place the boat crosswise to the wind and use traditional sonar. I don’t have one so have no cast with the wind at your back. That way you fish experience using it. 1 Yahara Fishing Club Outings

Want to go on an outing? Want to get to know other club members? Want to fish locally or new lakes out of town chasing the hottest bite? Have a place you want to go to? Then you simply need to sign up to say you’re interested in going on any or all of these outings. An outing can happen with enough interest but if no one signs up then the outing can’t happen. Outings without exact dates are either weather dependent, river levels and based on the timing of the bite. Once you’re signed up you will get more specific details of the trip.

May: We are still trying to do this outing as soon as the weather cooperates and the water levels come down to fishable levels. Watch emails for this upcoming outing. Lake Wisconsin crappies and walleye. Nothing happening so far but the water will warm soon and this could be a great local trip for slab crappies.

May: Again we will do this outing with less wind so watch for emails about this. Lake Michigan out of Mil- waukee Harbor or Oak Creek for lake & brown trout and possibly some coho. This trip is weather depend- ent with winds of 10 mph or less ideal for small boats

May 6th Lake Mendota: We will be going out on the opener. Sign up if you haven’t already. Let’s use the information learned from recent speaker Eric Haataja to catch smallies, walleyes and more!

May 19-21, 26-29 or anytime during the week 15-19 & 22-26: Still time to sign up! Big Bay De Noc small- mouth outing. Come to Nahma, MI and have a fantastic trip with us!

June 10th that weekend or during the week of 6/5 -10 likely: Sturgeon Bay smallmouth outing- spend a day or a few days chasing big bronzebacks

Louisiana: We have club members wanting an outing chasing redfish and tuna. Contact me if interested so we can set this up!

Lake Michigan: Salmon charter fishing trip out of Port Washington. We have at least 4 club members want- ing to go so this will be happening for sure. Join a group of club members for a great time. Please contact me if interested

Lake Erie: Want to go on a walleye, smallmouth or perch outing on Lake Erie this summer? Contact me.

Canada- I just booked my Canada trip for July 2017 how about you? f you want to go to Canada NOW is the time to prepare! We have a trip going to Eagle Lake again in July but you can go at ANY time with sev- eral resorts to choose from. How about Rainy Lake? Lake of the Woods? Lac Seul? Get excited and let’s start planning a trip of a lifetime! USA- Canada too far or other reasons? How about traveling within the US to the Minnesota sides of Lake of the Woods or Rainy Lake? Devil’s Lake? Lake Oahe, SD? Lake Gogebic, MI? How about our Big Bay de Noc outing? Green Bay?

Guided trips on local lakes, Green Bay/Sturgeon Bay or others: If anyone would like to learn a lake better or techniques with a guide, join other club members to get a better rate. Contact me if interested.

All outings above are open to club members, our Rock Valley Angler friends, your family and friends! We need members with boats but you can participate even if you don’t have one. Sign-ups will be at club meet- ings but look for a new link out on our website soon. As always you can contact me at any time to sign-up or if you have questions or just want advice.

If you have any outing ideas please let me or anyone on the board know!

Jim Pankratz 608-709-6442 or [email protected] 2

Yahara Fishing Club Notes From The Prez

As I sit in my kitchen writing this short article, it’s techniques and bait, not to mention a virtual uni- the end of April, and a very gloomy, cold, and wet verse of new and tempting ways to rationalize Sunday afternoon. Even so, I find myself wonder- spending money on acquiring just the right kinds of ing: where did the winter go? fishing rods, reels, and other gear! I retrieved my fishing boat from winter storage As we in the Club ponder getting out on the Madison about ten days ago, and it’s sitting in my garage, area lakes to pursue the many kinds of fish which ready to go for the season. I’m contemplating get- are found there, let’s keep in mind a couple of Club ting it launched and over to the Village Marina for sponsored activities in which we can be involved the summer, very soon. My gear is stowed, the this summer. I refer to the Club’s Kids’ Fishing Day batteries have been reinstalled, and I just have to event, scheduled for the first Saturday in June, find a couple of hours this coming week to get the (June 1st this year) and to our traditional summer on boat in the water. Happily, this all signals that the -the-water meetings. We want to see lots of Club resumption of the open-water game fishing sea- members in attendance for Kids’ Fishing Day, help- son in our area lakes is only a few days away ing the kids with the rods, reels, and bait which the (May 6th), and that thought makes me smile. Club provides, and with using their new gear to catch fish in the Warner Park lagoon. As for the on- Looking back at the winter months, I keep thinking the-water meetings, we tentatively plan to have, as the time went by rather quickly. I did very little ice per usual, our traditional three meetings, to be held fishing, but I kept a focus on fishing in other ways. on the second Wednesdays of June, July, and Au- That included a lot of activities related to the Ya- gust, on Lakes Mendota, Monona, and Waubesa, hara Fishing Club, including Kids’ Ice Fishing day respectively. The meetings will start at roughly 6:00 in January, our annual Club auction of donated p.m., and there will be food to purchase, and during fishing gear and the Madison Fishing Expo in Feb- dinner, a short business meeting, leaving plenty of ruary (not to mention the Club outing to Sturgeon time to get out on the lakes and fish. So, mark your in search of the elusive, at least for me, whitefish), calendars, and stay tuned for further details. and opportunities to hear a number of very accom- plished fishing experts making presentations on Now, if we can just order up some better fishing our favorite subject at our Club meetings and at weather starting with the first weekend in May! other events. I’m primed to apply all that I learned about techniques for catching more walleyes, bass, and panfish. Gard Three weeks of vacation in the Florida panhandle (a.k.a. the “forgotten coast”) helped, too. I fished in the Gulf of Mexico every day, and I learned a lot about ocean fishing from other fishermen, from bait shop owners, and from articles in local maga- zines and newspapers. Ocean fishing is a differ- ent ballgame, with entirely different fish species, and its own range of options for equipment and

3 Yahara Fishing Club 10 Years of Yahara Fishing Club Newsletters on the Website

All of the previous newsletters are now on the website, all the way back to April 2007. You can pick them by going to the “Members Only” page, and entering the password for members. All club officers and many oth- ers know this easy to remember password. You then are at the screen displayed below left. Click on “Previous Yahara Fishing Club Newsletters”. The screen below on the right then comes up. Just click on any issue and it should pop up. The next step is for a club member to create an index to the articles, so that you can search on a topic and see the articles. We will post the index where it is open to the public as an enticement to join the club. Let me know if you are interested in working on this. Tom Raschke

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Pattern Fishing

So do you practice “pattern fishing?” Pattern fishing is a term that Babe Winkelman uses to describe all the variables that go into catching fish. When you go out fishing are you thinking about the 7 factors of fish location to help you decide on where to start? The nature of the fish, season of the year, available structure, available cover, food balance, local weather and unnatural influences all have an impact and are not necessarily the same for different species of fish. What tools and techniques do you use when you find the fish? Babe talks about the tools as being your electronics, lake maps, boat and trolling motors and then the obvious rods, reels, line, lures, terminal tackle and or live bait. Do you match these tools to the fish species, location, depth, cover and structure? Do you have these tools mastered?

Do you own all the right gear but still don’t catch many fish? Why is that? Babe thinks that’s because we either are not aware or forget about the most important part of fishing which is the technique. Just thinking about our last club meeting when Dave McCoy was talking about the different techniques he was using to catch tons of wall- eyes on the Fox River in Depere when most around him were not should make a lot more sense. Are you using different techniques to put fish in the boat or the same old jig and minnow? With lures you need to consider the depth, speed, size, color, ac- tion, vibration, text and scent. You then need to master these for your species of fish after using your tools to find them along with the factors of fish location. WOW fishing sounds a lot more complicated than it’s often made out to be! Babe says that tech- nique separates skill from blind luck and that good fisherman understand this well.

In conclusion the next time you go fishing you just may want to work on developing a pattern to catch more (or any) fish. Now to watch this classic episode from Babe Win- kleman talking about “pattern fishing” click on the link in our newsletter email. The video is 6 minutes long.

Jim Pankratz

Mary Regel Helps Us Again

Once more Mary has donated $500.00 towards the Kids Fishing Days from the Rod Regel Memorial

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Kids Fishing Day, June 3, 2017 Where: Warner Park Lagoon When: June 3rd Time: 9:00am to noon

The Yahara Fishing Club takes great pride in our commit- ment to introduce young people to fishing. Each year the club hosts two kids fishing events where we purchase and give away fishing rods and reels and instruct kids on both open water and ice fishing techniques. Our main charity raffle event, based around the Wisconsin Fishing Expo, supports the club’s efforts in this area.

The first 300 kids receive a free fishing rod and bait along with help from our members. A free lunch of hot dogs, chips, and soft drink will be provided after the fishing. All members are encouraged to show up early to prepare the rods and other gear, and to hang around to help the kids and their parents, many of whom have never fished be- fore. It is quite a bit of fun. Karlette Schoen is coordinat- ing this project. She will be glad to answer any ques- tions.

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PLACE STAMP HERE

Yahara Fishing Club Membership Form

P.O. Box 3271 Madison, WI 53704

Annual Dues are from January 1 to December 31. Please print. *** ESSENTIAL

Name *** ______

If Family or Youth, Additional Names ______

Email ***______@______

Street Address ______State __ Zip ______

Phone Number and Area Code *** ______- ______- ______

Individual…………… $35.00

Family …………….. $45.00

Student……………….$10.00

Youth Members are free with other paid membership

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The next YFC meeting is Wednesday, May 10th, 7:00 pm at the 301 Cottage Grove Road VFW Hall. Speaker Daniel Oeleo from the WDNR

Calendar of Upcoming Events

May Events

. May 10, 2017, Regular club meeting . Daniel Oeleo DNR Fisheries Manager

June Events

June 3, 2017, Kids fishing Day at Warner Park

June 14, 2017, First On The Water Meeting, 7:00 pm at Warner Park Launch

Board of Directors and Officers

Gard Strother, President Tom Wilke, Speakers Tex Torgeson

Phil James, Vice President John Pribek, Secretary Mark Riederer

Gerald King, 608-513-8573 Roger Matiasek Larry Reed

Ken Terrill 608-358-0453 Jim Krause Karlette Schoen, Treasurer

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