Best Fish of 2020

It has been a weird year, to say the least! While lakes in Wisconsin and Minnesota saw record amounts of fishermen this year, we had to cancel, change, or reschedule many of our outings. In spite of that, we managed to do some fishing. Here is a look back at some of the noteworthy fish we caught on club outings.

Largemouth Bass

The average size of largemouth bass caught during outings was down for us this year. Although several 19+” fish were caught pre-fishing, on the actual outings the biggest fish were often 17”. The only largemouth bigger than that was a 17.5-incher caught by Al Silcroft on Brown’s Lake in July. This fish shows why they are nicknamed ‘bucketmouth’!

Smallmouth Bass

They say when one door closes, another opens. I guess when the big largemouth bass door closed on us this year we walked through the door that opened, and turns out it led to big smallmouth bass. Believe it or not, we caught multiple smallmouth bass that topped our biggest largemouth this year! The biggest was a 20.5-incher Jeff Sannes caught on Lake Delavan in June. If Jeff ever asks you to go bass fishing on Delavan, you say “YES!”

Walleye

It was a very slow walleye year for us. To be fair, we had to cancel some good walleye outings. But, we still fished good walleye water like the Fox Chain and Lake Wisconsin. In spite of few walleye being caught, one was a beauty. Jeff Sannes landed this 25-3/4” fatty at the October outing on the Fox Chain. Another great fish, Jeff!

Northern Pike

This fat 30” Eagle Lake northern pike caught by Jason Cashmore is the most noteworthy pike of the year. Although Jason caught a slightly longer fish In June on Lake Delavan, it didn’t come close to the girth of this fish. Plus, it’s always extra fun to catch them through the ice!

Sturgeon

Some years there is a surprise fish caught at an outing. In 2018 it was a 44” flathead catfish. In 2012 it was a 44” musky. This year, Jason Cashmore caught a 33-3/4” sturgeon at Lake Wisconsin in November! Jason was fishing the main channel, and mostly catching sauger. Jason had caught a lot of drum throughout the day, so when he hooked something heavy and stubborn he was thinking big drum, but hoping big walleye. After a five minute battle he got it to the surface and saw it was a sturgeon! It was Jason’s first sturgeon, so he was pretty excited about the catch.