2023 Outing Reports

January 7, 2023 — Nielsen’s Channels

Canceled due to no safe ice.

January 21, 2023 — Secret Pike Lake

Canceled due to no safe ice.

February 4, 2023 — Silver Lake

Eight club members and two guests fished in windy conditions. It was cold early and warmed up as the morning progressed, but the wind made it tough out there. Only four fish were caught for club points: two largemouth bass and two northern pike. We had several additional flags where line was taken out (so not wind flags!) without hooking up. Dave Busscher caught the two bass. Ward Aldrich caught a 27.25” northern pike early, but Jason Cashmore won the big fish contest with a 28” pike just 20 minutes before the outing end.

February 18, 2023 — Lake Como

Canceled due to no safe ice.

March 4, 2023 — Lake Michigan Harbor

Seven club members fished the outing. Unfortunately, though we tried everything from live bait to dead bait, artificials, and even a hot dog, only one fish was caught—Dave Busscher caught a fat 28” pike that won him the outing big fish contest.

March 18, 2023 — TBD

Canceled

April 1, 2023 — Rock River (Fort Atkinson, WI)

Five adventurous club members braved the rough weather for this outing. Weather forecasts were calling for storms, and although it wasn’t that bad, it was windy with snow mixed in at times. Fortunately we caught a few fish to reward our efforts. Dave Busscher caught two walleye. The biggest, a monstrous 14.25”, won him the outing big fish contest. Although it wasn’t the target species, Jason Cashmore was pleased with a 27.25” catfish he caught.

April 22, 2023 — Fox Chain

Thirteen club members and two guests fished the Fox Chain on a chilly morning. The fish were biting early and slowed down by mid-morning. Jig and minnow caught most of the fish, but some nice walleye were also caught using blade baits. We caught a variety of walleye, bass, and panfish. Dave Busscher and Lou DiNicola each caught 21.25” walleye to tie for the outing big fish contest.

May 6, 2023 — Lake Michigan

Thirteen club members fished the outing in windy and wavy conditions. Ten of us fished from boats we launched at Waukegan Harbor and dealt with 1.7-2’ waves. Fortunately, the coho were biting so we were able to catch our limit and get off the water. Most fish were caught on dodger and fly, with green and gold flies working best. Al Silcroft caught the big fish of the outing, a 24.5” coho.

May 20, 2023 — Private Walleye Lake

Fourteen club members and two guests spent a beautiful morning on a small private lake we are lucky enough to have access to. Club members caught 37 walleyes, 12 largemouth bass, 23 yellow bass (many around 11”), 17 crappies, and 5 bluegill. All the fish caught totaled 369 points under the club scoring system. Several guys had banner days, but Terry Ocheltree stands out. He won the big fish contest with a 24.5” walleye and scored 75 points to put him in the lead for Fisherman of the Year! Well done, Terry!

June 10-11, 2023 — Green Lake, Jay Hall Memorial Outing

Sixteen club members fished a disappointing outing. Pre-fishing on Friday was decent. Some people struggled, but others caught good numbers of smallmouth and largemouth bass. Our usual assortment of plastics did the trick, with no single color standing out. The bite turned off on Saturday, though. Despite the fact that weather conditions seemed better for fishing than Friday, the fish were close-lipped. One angler had luck chasing largemouth under shallow docks in the bay, but most of us were there for smallmouth. A few guys managed to grind out some smallies, but it took all day. Saturday night a cold front moved in and the bite turned off. Very few fish were caught on Sunday. Overall, 344 points were scored, consisting of: 27 smallmouth bass, 12 largemouth bass, 1 northern pike, 39 rock bass, 3 white bass, and 4 bluegills. Four smallmouth were over 17” and scored 10 points each for the fishermen who caught them. The big fish contest was won with a 18.5” caught by Jason Cashmore. The northern pike barely reached the 24” necessary for club points, but the Green Lake white bass and rock bass were as large as usual.

June 24, 2023 — Private Bass Lake

Nineteen club members fished our private bass lake on a beautiful morning. The bass were active early on and hitting soft plastics. In total, we caught 45 largemouth (including seven 10-pointers of 18" or better), 2 bluegills, and 2 crappies for a total of 264 points. Mike Kett and Jeff Haug tied for the big fish contest with twin 20-inchers.

July 8, 2023 — Brown’s Lake

Eleven club members fished in cold and rainy conditions, but the fish were biting. We caught 215 total points, which calculates to 3.55 points per person per hour. Nail worms, wacky-rigged senkos, and swim baits caught a variety of fish. A few fishermen tried topwater lures, spoons, spinnerbaits, and trolling crankbaits. Most of the bass caught by the boat fishermen were small, 13-14”, with a couple pushing 15”. Hosts Mikey Olszewski and his dad Big Mike fished from their dock using live bait and found the lunkers. Mikey’s fish included a 24” northern and an 18” largemouth. Big Mike won the outing big fish contest with a 20” largemouth. Great job, guys!

July 22, 2023 — Round Lake

Fourteen club members fished Round Lake on a beautiful morning. The action was not hot and heavy, but most of us were able to grind out some fish throughout the morning. We caught 34 largemouth bass and one smallmouth bass that qualified for club points. Most were caught on our usual plastics—nail worms, wacky worms, and swim baits, with many different colors producing fish. Dave Busscher and Jeff Haug caught 18” largemouth that counted for 10 points each and tied for the big fish of the outing.

August 5, 2023 — Delavan Lake

Fourteen club members fished our first Delavan Lake outing in several years. The weather was perfect for fishing—mild temps, mostly overcast, and low wind. The lake was crowded, but that’s no surprise for a summer weekend on Delavan. We scored 167 total points on 15 largemouth bass, 2 smallmouth bass, 74 bluegill and 4 rock bass. Most of the group spent the morning targeting bass with plastics, crank baits, and night crawlers, but the bass bite has been slow on Delavan lately. The big fish contest was tied by Dave Busscher and Jeff Haug with 17.5” largemouth. They were fishing together and Dave caught his early, but Jeff tied him with just 5 minutes left in the outing. We can all imagine how Dave felt about that! One of our boats found a school of keeper-size bluegill and spent some time catching them with worms on drop shots and jigs.

August 19, 2023 — Powers Lake

Eleven club members fished Powers Lake on a windy summer morning. Although fish were caught, few were large enough to score points. In total, 140 points were scored on a mix of largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, rock bass, warmouth, and one northern pike. The outing’s big fish contest was largemouth bass, and Mike Kett won with a 15.75-incher, to paint a picture of how small the fish were.

September 9, 2023 — Lake Michigan

Six club members in three boats trolled Milwaukee Harbor all morning and collectively caught one king salmon. We marked fish and did have a few bites we couldn’t hook up on, but it was very slow.

September 30 - October 1, 2023 — Lake Koshkonong

Sixteen club members fished in warm and blue sky conditions. The fish were biting on jigs/live bait with some also caught on blade baits. We caught 95 walleyes and 7 saugers, our main target species. There was also an excellent panfish bite—we caught 32 perch (including several jumbos!) and 21 white bass along with a few bluegill, rock bass, and yellow bass. Roger Krueger caught a 36” northern pike. The outing big fish contest was walleye or sauger, which Michael Hall won with a 20” walleye.

November 4-5, 2023 — Lake Wisconsin

Sixteen club members and two guests fished the outing. We did very well pre-fishing on Friday, and caught the following fish for points during the outing on Saturday and Sunday: 95 saugers, 30 walleyes, 1 smallmouth bass, 1 northern pike, 2 sturgeon, 17 white bass, 6 crappies, and 2 perch. Like the past several years, the saugers both outnumbered the walleyes and were bigger. Mike Hall and John Medved tied for the big fish contest with 19” saugers. John also caught a fat 30-3/4” northern pike. We caught three lake sturgeon over the weekend, including two during the outing that counted towards our contests. Jason Cashmore caught a 53.5” sturgeon Sunday morning that took 30 minutes to bring to the boat on 6 lb. test line. All the sturgeon were carefully handled and released. Minnows produced the most fish, either on a jig or a crappie rig. All of the sturgeon were caught on crappie rigs baited with minnows. A few guys tried nightcrawlers and also caught some fish on them. Our favorite lure on this lake is a blade bait and several guys were successful using them. Brighter colors seemed to produce best, and the fish wanted less movement on the baits and lures.

December 2, 2023 — Lake Michigan

Jeff Haug caught a nice rainbow trout within minutes of the outing start, but we caught nothing the rest of the morning.