2020 Outing Reports
January 4, 2020 - Nielsen’s Channels/Fox Chain
Outing canceled due to no ice
January 25, 2020 - Wooster Lake
Seven club members ice fished Wooster Lake on Saturday, January 25. The temperature was mild, but wet snow made it a little challenging for us. The fishing started out slow, but picked up later in the morning. Five largemouth bass ranging from 13.5” up to 17.5” were caught on tip-ups. Dave Busscher had an excellent outing—he caught the 17.5"-incher to win big fish for the outing, and he caught two more for 15 total points! A few guys spent some time jigging for panfish and four bluegill big enough to score points were caught, including a 9.25-incher caught by Gregg Stockey.
February 8, 2020 - Eagle Lake
Nine club members and two guests fished Eagle Lake on February 2. A local pub was having an ice fishing derby on the lake so it was CROWDED, but we managed to get a spread of tip-ups out. It was chilly at the start of the outing, but by late morning the sun was out and it was quite warm.
We fished the same area that four club members pre-fished last weekend, and got the same result: two northern pike caught. Jason Cashmore landed a fat 30-incher mid-morning that won him the outing big fish contest and puts him in the lead for big fish of the year. About an hour later Jeff Sannes caught a 26-incher that puts him in the lead for multi-species master. Both fish were caught on some of the shallowest tip-ups we had set.
Although only two fish were caught there were several other missed opportunities. A few times we had flags go up and, when the tip-up was checked, several feet of line had been taken out but the bait had been dropped. Lou DiNicola was using automatic fisherman and they went off with a fish clearly on the line, but it got off before Lou could get to the pole.
February 22, 2020 - Lake Delavan
Six club members and one guest fished Lake Delavan on February 22. The original plan was to fish the southwest end of the lake, but the parking was already overflowing with vehicles when we got there. We parked at the public park on the northeast end of the lake and fished an area near there. Two hours of fishing resulted in zero bites, so we decided to pull out of Delavan and spend the rest of the morning at Lake Como. We had five flags at Como, and they were all definite fish strikes, but only one small northern pike was caught.
March 26-29, 2020 - Fox River, DePere, WI
Canceled
April 4, 2020 - LaSalle Lake (unsafe weather back-up date: April 11)
Canceled
April 25, 2020 - Fox Chain
Canceled
May 9, 2020 - Lake Michigan
Canceled
May 16, 2020 - Forest Lake
Canceled
May 30-31, 2020 - Green Lake
Canceled
June 13, 2020 - Private Bass Lake
Canceled
June 27, 2020 - Lake Delavan
Eight members fished Lake Delavan in beautiful weather—sunny and warm with a light breeze. There was a lot of recreational boat traffic, but the fish were biting. Thirty fish were caught that scored club points, most of them largemouth bass. The biggest bass were smallmouth, though. Ken Haney caught an 18-incher and Jeff caught a whopping 20.5” smallmouth! Most bass were caught on plastics. Northern pike were also biting. Several were caught, but only two scored points. Dave Busscher caught a 27-incher and Jason Cashmore caught a 30.25” pike that is currently leading for big fish of the year.
July 11, 2020 - Brown’s Lake
Eleven members fished Brown’s Lake in Burlington, WI. The lake was crowded with fishing boats early. Brown’s is a no wake lake until 10 am. After that, the powerboats came out and it got pretty choppy out there. 33 largemouth bass were caught that scored on the club’s points system. The largest was a 17.5-incher landed by Al Silcroft. Most of the bass were caught on plastics—nail worms, drop shots, and tube jigs. Many northern pike were also caught, but none reached the minimum 24” necessary to score points.
July 25, 2020 - Lake Elizabeth
The schedule originally had us going to Lake Geneva, however, we were worried about the boat launches filling up, so we switched the outing to Lake Elizabeth. Eleven members fished the outing.
Many small fish were caught, but the following scored club points: 17 largemouth bass, 11 bluegills, 1 crappie and 1 perch for a total of 98 points. Big fish winner was Jeff Haug with a 15-1/2” largemouth bass. There was no discernible pattern—some boats did better on plastics while other did better on nightcrawlers. Some boats did better early and the bite died at about 9:00. Other boats caught more after 9:00 than they did before. The only common theme is most of the fish caught were short and skinny.
August 8, 2020 - Round Lake
Nine members and two guests fished our first outing at Round Lake. Fish were caught, but it was a little slower than it had been pre-fishing. It was a warm and very breezy day, and boat control was quite difficult.
Fifteen largemouth bass, one smallmouth bass, one crappie, and one pumpkinseed were caught that scored club points. That comes out to an average of 9.1 points per fisherman. Jeff Haug won big fish of the outing with twin 17” largemouth bass he caught in the last half hour. Most of the largemouth we caught were small, though. Jason Cashmore caught a 15.5” smallmouth off a rock pile. Wacky-rigged senkos and nail worms in natural colors produced best.
August 22, 2020 - Silver Lake
Nine members and two guests fished the the Silver Lake outing. Four boats launched from the marina on the south end of the lake and two kayaks launched from the public ramp on the west side. The day started out cool and calm, but ended up hot and windy.
We caught 18 largemouth bass, 11 bluegills, and 4 rock bass that qualified for a total of 105 points. Live bait was a producer, with the panfish being caught on worms and quite a few bass caught on minnows. A lot of bass were caught that were under the 13” minimum size for points. Jason Cashmore won big fish with a 17" largemouth.
September 12, 2020 - Lake Geneva
Due to slow fishing lately and an ugly weather forecast, only Jeff Haug and Jeff Sannes fished this outing. Jeff Haug caught five largemouth bass casting plastics, the biggest being 17”. He scored 25 points to move him into first place. Jeff Sannes tried trolling large muskie baits, but didn’t get any bites. He switched over to panfish and caught a 8.5” pumpkinseed that puts him in first place for the multi-species master.
September 26, 2020 - Private Walleye Lake
Twelve members fished this outing and caught 54 yellow bass, 5 bluegills, and 1 walleye for a total of 64 points. The fishing highlight of the day was at 6 am when Kayak Ken hooked a creature that towed his kayak around until his hook straightened. The big one that got away... Gregg Stockey won big fish with a 15" walleye.
October 17, 2020 - Fox Chain
Nine members fished the Chain outing on a very windy day which made boat control a challenge. We all primarily fished Lake Marie. Using blade baits and jig/minnow setups we caught 2 walleyes, 2 crappies, and 18 white bass for a total of 37 points. The highlight of the day was Jeff Sannes' 25 3/4" walleye which took the big fish prize.
November 7, 2020 - Lake Wisconsin
Only six members fished this outing. Ordinarily a weekend trip, this year it was shortened to 7am-4pm on Saturday. Conditions were windy, but it was unseasonably warm and the fish were biting.
Sauger outnumbered the walleye this year, and as always there were a lot of short fish caught. One walleye and 14 sauger were big enough to score club points. Gregg Stockey caught nine of those sauger, but per club rules could only count a maximum of five. Gregg caught most of his fish using a jig and a minnow. The outing’s big fish contest was for walleye or sauger and Jason Cashmore won with a 15.5” sauger. That fish and a 15-incher caught by Gregg were the only two legal sauger caught. No legal walleye were caught. Jason caught some fish with a jig and minnow, but also caught quite a few on a silver blade bait, including a white bass, a crappie, and a yellow bass.
There were some surprise catches. Jeff Haug caught a smallmouth bass, Gregg Stockey caught a 22” sturgeon, and Jason Cashmore caught a 33-3/4” sturgeon. Both the sturgeon were caught on a jig and minnow in the late afternoon.
December 5, 2020 - Lake Michigan
Ten club members fished the outing. Eight fished from the docks at North Point Marina and two went out of Milwaukee harbor in a boat. Those of us at North Point Marina were mainly targeting northern pike, with a little effort towards panfish as well. Two pike were caught, but they were under the minimum 24” for club points. One perch was caught as well, but it was also too small to score points. The two in Milwaukee harbor were met with large waves and didn’t catch anything.
