Friday, July 22, 2011

Good fishing, even if it is elbow to elbow!

Today I switched gears from trout again and decided to do a bit of warm water fishing.  With only a few hours to fish my friend Bryan and I wanted to go somewhere that we could catch some fish without much planning or preparation, so headed up to the Prairie Du Sac Dam on the Wisconsin River.  It was about 1pm and the shore was getting pretty full already.  We walked up to the base of the dam and talked with one of the guys fishing there and according to him, they weren't biting, but he insisted that we fish there next to him.   We stayed out of his way and told him that if we caught any fish we weren't planning to keep that we would give them to him.
We started fishing and within minutes we caught a sheepshead, the man wanted to keep it, so I tossed it in his bucket.  I personally have never eaten sheepshead, nor do I plan to ever eat it,  do they actually taste very good at all?  I may never find out!   Back to fishing.   A few more minutes pass and a few more sheepshead are caught then I hook something a little bigger.  After a very nice fight a decent channel catfish comes to hand!  The man also wanted to keep the catfish, so we let him.  it was about 3:30pm now and still no signs of any smallmouth bass or walleye.
After a long cast and a few jigs I started reeling in my leech.  BOOM, fish on!  The first smallmouth of the day!  He was huge, well actually he was tiny, about 8 inches.   I casted back to where the bass hit since smallmouths tend to sit near other smallies, and sure enough the 2nd, and last smallie of the day, another one about 8 inches.   After several more catfish and sheepshead my fiend hooks up and lands the only walleye of the day at about 4pm.  He was under the 18inch limit so back into the drink he went after a nice picture.   The people started to pack into the spot and we decided to leave.  Not a bad afternoon of fishing, and the other fisherman who invited us to fish along side of him should be eating good for quite a while!  When we left he had roughly 5 catfish and 10 sheepshead in his bucket!
Our tally for the day- Bryan: 1 walleye, 4 catfish, 9 sheepshead
                                  Blake:  1 Smallies, 4 catfish, 7 sheepshead  
6 people in this photo alone! 
The only walleye we saw today

The first and largest cat of the day!

The hot weather hasn't really helped the fishing too much, but it had helped me focus on rod building!  Started and finished a rod in 2 days! (other than the glue, which takes 24 hours to dry)  Pictures should be up tomorrow after it's dry!

3 comments:

  1. Looks like a good time with some rod-bending action. Can't beat fishing with a good friend.

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  2. any walleye is a good walleye in my book, tight lines this weekend

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  3. An excellent day out Blake. Sheephead are supposed to be very good eating though most people can't get past their smell.

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