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Posts: 227
Location: Southeast Wisconsin | With the exception of the last few days, musky fishing has been very productive for clients and myself so far this year. I have been booked almost every day so far this season and most clients are at least hooking a fish (the ones that listen that is) So far theres been 32 (IL,WI) fish in my boat from 30-44 inches and too many undersized to count. One thing I noticed this year is the ridiculous amount of follows without strikes,especially from larger fish. On many occasions we are raisng low-high 40s fish that wont even turn on the bait. I spend allot of time on the water and have never seen such skitish fish. Even when water temps were ideal for sucker fishing, they wouldnt even grab live bait! Although we havent had any figure 8 converts on suckers this year,we have had 10 hit the float sucker and all 10 were boated, thanks to Finadk Quickstrike Rigs! These are the easiest and most effective sucker rigs on the market! Most of the bigger fish we've raised have been following G-Trains or an erray of gliders and most of the time Im working the G-Train like a glider. Regardless, I will keep plugging away at it on a daily basis and let you guys know how the season plays out..
Good luck on the water!
Ben
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| So Far I have 7 of the 32. biggest is 42" on a sucker. |
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Posts: 227
Location: Southeast Wisconsin | Its gotta be that "saltwater hookset" champ! Coulda really used it in the boat tonight...
Just pulling off the lake after a very "trying" day on the water. Fished with regular client Ernie today from 1-10pm. last year Ernie popped a nice 40" and his buddy lost a nice fish on a sucker, so the pressure was on to put him on some fish. Around 2 we had a fish grab the sucker, but dropped it before we could set the hook. Not too long after that, on the next spot we had another fish hit the sucker. Ernie set the hook exactly how he should of, but only got a pair of rigs flying back in his face. If I had to blame that one on anything, it would be the 20 mph gusts that made it impossible to figure out which way to set the hook. We fished a couple more spots,raised 1 mid 30s on a spring dawg and switched lakes around 5. We didn't have any action till around 7:00 when Ernie had a fish hit his crank bait on the first few cranks of the reel. After almost 7 hours on the water with only 1 follow, I cant blame the guy for missing this fish because I would of missed it too. 5 minutes later and exactly where Ernie just missed the fish, are sucker rod started going off. After a few agonizing bobber reappearances, I determined that the fish still had the sucker. Ernie set the hook like a champ, but left a little bit of slack in the line which allowed yet another fish to kick sand in are faces. How big was it? Well, lets just say that I saw the bend in the rod,Ernie felt the fish and we both agreed that it would be better if we never mentioned it AGAIN!
Spoke with my PM client for tomorrow who told me that he would be happy catching 3 or 4...Hahahaha! I just couldn't break it to him over the phone.Should be veeeeery interesting.
Pick your career choice wisely..
Ben
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Posts: 227
Location: Southeast Wisconsin | Fished with clients yesterday from 3-10. I boated an undersized ski half way through the day and raised 2 on a different lake in the evening. First follow was low 40s and the second was barely legal. SUPER slow day,but we still had a blast.
Fished this morning with a buddy from 6-1. I raised one small one, my buddy lost a low 30s and I boated a low 30s.
Should be turning around here anyday....Right?
Ben
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Posts: 227
Location: Southeast Wisconsin | Fished yesterday from 5am-9pm with a couple buddies. Eric stuck two undersized fish (30,25) and we raised a total of 3, all over 40. The second fish we had to the boat in the morning was a for sure 50" The big daddy came in on a glider, a mid 40s I raised just before that came in on a G-Train and the last fish(low 40s) followed up a twitch bait. Too many bass and pike to count..
Taking a brief nap and then heading out to a different lake tonight before the storms roll through..Let you know how I do.
Ben |
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Posts: 227
Location: Southeast Wisconsin | Fished last night from 2-midnight, all by my lonesome. I started casting open water for the first few hours and had a nice,thick 40 up to the boat that decided to chase my crank bait backwards (I zigged she zagged) on the figure 8. After another hour of open water probing, I moved up to the structure (weeds) missed a fish and raised a mid 30s on a Bulldawg. I fished a few more spots but didnt see anything else. Around 10pm I decided to hit a few "guaranteed" night spots. I strapped on my old workhorse (tripple d) and started working some mid-lake structure. At 1030 and only 5 minutes after I started on the spot, I set the hook into a super thick mid 30s. After a nice fight and a few nevous jumps, I had her in the net. I didnt measure the fish but the girth on it was enormous so I set up the timer for a few pics. Didnt see anything else after that. I stayed till the moon broke the clouds and scooted out.
Heading out later if the rain breaks a little..
Good luck!
Ben |
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Posts: 227
Location: Southeast Wisconsin |
Hit the lake today with friend/client Dale from 11-6pm. Dale popped a 34 at 1:00 on a crank bait.I preceded to loose a 38+ about a half hour later that did a 4 foot aerial about 10 feet from the boat and defiantly earned the escape. At 230 Dale lost a 36+ at the boat and also missed one on the figure 8 about an hour later. We raised a total of 2 fish.
Dale split at 6 and i headed home to work on the website. At 8 I jumped back in the boat and fished till 10. On the first spot,only 5 minutes after I set up shop, I had a 34" appear from know where and annihilate my lure at the boat. I pulled off the miraculous one handed net job and put number two in the boat for the day. Not 20 minutes later I had a 36" hit on the retrieve that also fell victim to the one handed net job. I fished a topwater for awhile, had one hit and called it a night.
I lost the biggest fish, but 3 fish over 34 isn't to shabby of a day.hopefully the pattern sticks around for a day or two.
Back out tomorrow..
Ben
Edited by Ben Kueng 6/16/2006 1:17 PM
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Posts: 227
Location: Southeast Wisconsin | Hit the lake today with first time clients Mike and his girfriend Amy from 4-11pm. Amy got it started at 430 with a nice 36" that smacked her lure after she ripped it out of a weed. On the next spot Amy lost a mid 30s at the boat and we each raised a fish. From 5-11, Mike pretty much took over, boating 5 (29,30,32,34,35) and loosing 1! We also had 2 other hot fish up to the boat that didnt srtike.
After today Im up to 46 fish in the boat for the year! All thats missing is a couple over 45"...If only they would quit following and open there mouths already..
Back out tomorrow
Ben
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Posts: 7087
Location: Northwest Chicago Burbs | Any chance you can let us in a little on how you're doing so great on the water. We all love to hear about fish caught, but this is a community for knowledge sharing and helping each other. As much as we appreciate the input into how YOU'RE doing, I'm sure people would really appreciate at least information about general patterns that have you on fish. |
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Posts: 227
Location: Southeast Wisconsin | Fished today from 4am-10am and 8pm-10pm. Stuck a mid 30s this morning on a crank bait and raised two other small fish.
Tonight we had one blow up on a topwater and rescheduled the trip when the N-NE winds started kickin.
Fishing has continued to improve and should only get better as the weather stabilizes. Fish are starting to show up in there summer spots and have been very active during early morning and late afternoon.
Back out tomorrow..
benkueng.com
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Posts: 227
Location: Southeast Wisconsin | Slamr,
The patterns I’m running are really nothing special .I pretty much follow the fish and let them tell me what they want. We have caught fish from 1 FOW-50 FOW and everywhere in between on every lure imaginable, so far this year. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people who fish the same lakes as I do who read these reports and I happen to make a living guiding. I wish I could be more specific, but I spend WAY too much time on the water trying to put it together to lay it all out on the Internet. Thanks for your recommendations though, in the future I will try to add a few more specifics to my reports.
Fished today from 12-10pm. Popped a 30" right off the bat and raised two. Switched lakes around 3:00, Had 3 fish (30-35") to the boat and missed another. Switched lakes again around 7 and missed two mid 30s at the boat.
Rough day for boating fish, but the pattern is still there..
Back out tomorrow
www.benkueng.com
Edited by Ben Kueng 6/20/2006 10:50 PM
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Posts: 227
Location: Southeast Wisconsin | Fished today from 8-2pm with Dale J. At 8:30, not 20 minutes into the trip, I lost a mid 30s on a crankbait. Dale followed up with a 31" that didn't shake the hooks till she was safely in the net. For the next two hours we raised 3 mid 30s, all on crank baits. Around 12 Dale had a low-mid 40s chase his crankbait to the boat, but unfortunately it had a clump of weed hanging off the back trebile and the fish wasn't interested in a vegetarian meal.In the last hour I had a mid-high 30s follow in a topwater but turn off at the boat and Dale lost a shorty on the 8.
At 3:00pm my afternoon client arrived and the hunt was on! Chad and I pretty much left off where Dale and I finished, but didn't raise any fish. I decided to hit some shoreline spots and Chad had two low-mid 30s come in on a bucktail that never even turned on the bait. We switched back to the deep weed edge and right away I missed one on a crankbait. By this time, it was close to 6 (moon set) and I was thinking about the nice fish that Dale raised earlier. Sure enough, she was still in the exact same spot and smashed Chads crankbait within the first few casts. unfortunately, Chads lure was hooked around the leader and he never got hooks into the fish. I turned around and fired a cast right at the fish and she came screaming in on my topwater, but shot off like a bullet when she saw the boat. 3 strikes and we were out! 20 minutes later the winds stopped, switched to the north east and picked back up to 25+ mph, which put an instant hault to the fishing.
All in all a good day on the water with some great guys, but the fish definitely won this round..
Back out tomorrow..
www.benkueng.com
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Posts: 227
Location: Southeast Wisconsin | Fished yesterday morning from 5-10. Popped a 35" around 7:00 and raised two. Pretty poor day since I watched two other boats stick decent fish right in front of me-which ROCKS when you do it to someone else,but SUCKS when they do it to you! LOL
Fished the evening from 6-1030 on a different lake. My partner missed a fish on a topraider and I raised one super small one.
Fishing has been pretty slow the last couple days and the fish seem to be scattered everywhere, not holding to any specific spots or pattern. One thing I have noticed, is that the larger fish seem to be up shallow, while the smaller fish are on the deep edge. Stupid fish!
Thinking about taking the day off today, but it will never happen..
Take care
Ben
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Posts: 227
Location: Southeast Wisconsin | Fished today from 4-9pm with first time clients Bill and his 19 year old son John. From 1-4pm I was out by myself, trolling schools of baitfish over deep water with no success, so the plan was to cast wind blown shorelines and outside weed edges. I drove around the lake for a little while setting up a milk run in my head and then headed to the launch to pick up my clients. After getting the "musky formalities" out of the way, we were ready to attack are first spot. I was just starting to question my decision to fish this particular spot first, when all hell broke loose! I still cant remember what Bill said to get my attention ( I think he just made a noise LOL) but whatever it was, it made me look down just in time to see Johns crankbait being engulfed by a gigantic skie! I couldn't even see the lure in its mouth when she broke the surface and started shaking like mad. I told John to keep her down and proceeded to burn my lure back to the boat and grab the net. I could tell this fatty wanted to make some serious runs, but it wasn't going down like that. I had her in the net quick, before she had a chance to ruin my day. 47.5" and definitely on her way to 50! For a 47+ she had a super huge head. unfortunately, the storms scared us off at 9 and put an end to are musky hunting for the day.
Good ole Mr faithful Minn Kota took a crap on me today, but who cares!
Out to the garage to fix my trolling motor..
www.benkueng.com
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| Way to go mike jooonnneess>yeah
bret
give me a buzz |
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Posts: 227
Location: Southeast Wisconsin | I fished with John and his buddy Kevin today from 3-10pm. Things started off really slow, not seeing a fish for at least 3 hours.The fish finally came around and Kevin scored first with a 30" shorty on a bucktail. A couple hours later he boated a 42" on a different bucktail and John popped a 30" on a bucktail about 30 minutes later. We raised two fish and john and I each missed a fish,mine on a topwater. I told my clients, that it wasnt going to be a matter of if it was going to happen as much as when. They did a great job staying on point and reaped the rewards.Thanks guys!
Take care..
www.benkueng.com
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Posts: 227
Location: Southeast Wisconsin | I've been having some mechanical problems and havent been out a ton the last few days. My tilt/trim has been giving me problems and I think I finally have it fixed.
I boated a 35" today and a 32" yesterday on bucktails in shallow water. The 32" hit as I was demonstarting to a friend in another boat how my client was fighting the 47.5" last week. as I was telling him the story and pulling my lure through the water the fish came up and inhaled my bucktail. My buddy and I both stood there stunned for a minute and then almost fell out of are boats laughing. Thats the second time thats happened to me..
Running trips the rest of the week into the weekend, so I should have a little more to report.
Good Luck!
Ben
www.benkueng.com |
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Posts: 382
| "Any chance you can let us in a little on how you're doing so great on the water. We all love to hear about fish caught, but this is a community for knowledge sharing and helping each other. As much as we appreciate the input into how YOU'RE doing, I'm sure people would really appreciate at least information about general patterns that have you on fish"
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| Ben I enjoy reading your reports , but they do have somewhat of a self promoting smell to them. Just saying SE wisconsin is way vague. If you notice every other post in this section actually specifies specific lakes. I live just outside Chicago in Indiana and would love to know what some of the different varieties of lakes in SE wisconsin have viable Muskie populations. I would be much more likely to hire a guide such as yourself.
I'm not asking you to give up big secrets or anything but being more specific would be helpful. If you think mentioning lakes will get them overun with musky fisherman and ruin your business, thats backwards thinking. I'll give Mike Hulbert as an example he's always been very open on his site about which lakes, spots and tactics he's using and that attitude and openess is what prompted me to happily hire him to guide us for a day. Now because of Mike's information more fisherman are catching more fish than ever and I think Mike would back this up, Him and his clients are catching as many fish as ever.
You would likely be shocked to see how many muskie fisherman there are on our small lakes at any give time here in Indiana and we all still have plenty of success. I can't even think of the last time we've gotten skunked.
There may be many here that think keeping lakes secret is the way to go. But I think theres proof that the opposite can be true, the more the resource is utilized the more benifit it will receive. More fisherman = more $=more clout =more lakes getting stocked =more business for the guides =more fun for all. |
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| 420 and HOOSIERTECH .... Totally agree . |
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Location: Racine, Wi | Guys, Ben's a good guy, and I don't think he is trying to come across as self promoting. As far as lakes that have good fishable populations down here, there is Silver Lake in Kenosha, Pewaukee, Okauchee, Oconomowoc, and LaBelle in Waukesha. I think Ben fishes up in the Elkhart area as well. There are a few lakes up that way as well.
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| I think he is giving everyone plenty. He is telling you that they are biting, so get out there. How much help does one need? Keep it up Ben. Your making people jealous......nothing wrong with that. |
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Posts: 227
Location: Southeast Wisconsin |
Thanks for everyone’s input.
I think the big difference between me and other people reporting, is that I’m reporting almost every single day so my reports may seem repetitive after awhile. I can guarantee you that there are NO guides anywhere, on any website posting exact spots.
To be honest, I am a very humble guy. Yes, I report on different websites to gain business and get my name out there, but in no way am I bragging.
I think its kind of presumptuous to say that posting the lakes I fish isn’t going to bring excessive pressure, when you have no clue what lakes I fish. If you don’t think that posting the name of a 300-acre lake on 6 different websites isn’t going to be harmful to the fishery, than you really don’t have a clue.
Please tell me what you want me to tell you. Spots? Lakes? Lures? Time of day?...What’s your definition of sharing info?
I wouldn’t be shocked at all to see how many people are on Indiana lakes because I already know. I fish there, as well as Il on a regular basis. If that’s how you guys want it there, then that’s your prerogative. That’s not how I want it on the lakes I fish.
As I sit here and write this, I wonder why I’m even wasting my time. If I were posting spots and exact info, I would be sitting here defending myself to the people who think that I was harming the fishery. I just realized that no matter what I post, I will never win.
Best of luck fellas!
Ben
www.benkueng.com
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Location: Northern Wisconsin | hey thanks for the reports, i check them all the time. i am hopefully going to south eastern wisconsin
this weekend for a day. not sure which lake im going to, pewaukee, okauchee, or oconomowoc.
are there any general patterns this time for the year that i can apply to each one of these lakes or
is each one alot different and what are the patterns. any info on catching a muskie on these lakes
will help.
thanks,
steve |
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Posts: 2691
Location: Pewaukee, Wisconsin | Joel said it when he named the lakes around here. Most of these lakes have lots of preasure and long detailed reports will increase interest in these lakes.
I for one don't mind helping most people with more details because the patterns change as the water temps change.
For info on Pewaukee Lake please see my web site.
I will post from time to time on the Pewaukee report but time on the water after work keeps me working , giuding or sleeping. I wish I had the time to do all those reports like Ben does. I see them all over the internet when I get some time to brouse.
Ben a few hot baits, weedlines or break lines and time of day the fish are being caught are more important than the lakes and spots.
I'll throw a bone here and say that the Pewaukee Lake bite has been great in the morning to mid afternoon. I got 10 fish this week from 41 to 32 3/4-inches. Almost all were on crank baits.
Now thats not giving up the world but a few guys will dial right in.
You got to toss a bone from time to time to keep the interest.
I guess I could post more on my thread, I had to post here sooner or later.
Get your butts out fishing. The water temps are in the hight 70's and the fish are going.
See http://www.mikekoepp.com for more info.
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Posts: 227
Location: Southeast Wisconsin | Your best shot at boating one would probably be Pewaukee. Okauchee has some decent numbers and it seems like every fish I see out there is over 40" Oconomowoc has the fewest muskies of the three, but also has the least amount of pressure and is one of my favorites. There are huge fish in all 3 but Okauchee takes the cake for big fish.
Okauchee has a slight bloom right now but is still pretty clear. Oconomowoc is gin clear so I only fish it at night. Both lakes are fairly easy to fish, but not as easy to catch a fish. Theres ciscos present in both but not in very high numbers (from what I know) Pewaukee has stained water and two seperate basins. East bay is one shallow 5-10 foot flat and the west basin is a deeper bowl with a defined weed edge. Pewaukee is a very easy, boring lake to fish when its slow because most of the structure your fishing is the same. Put your boat in 10-12 FOW and cast the weeds.
Honestly, it seems like the patterns are day to day and the fish are usually too scattered to establish any type of pattern at all. If your headed up for only a day, buy a hot spots map and beat the community spots to death. I will usually put my boat in 20-30 FOW and cast towards the weed edge while someone else is probing the deep edge with a crankbait or Bulldawg.
As for lures, I usually live or die by a few ceartain baits- Bulldawgs, G-Trains, Depth raiders,Triple Ds, Shallow Invaders and Mantas. I have multiple colors of each lure and use them all depending on cloud cover and water clarity..
Good luck if you make it up and let us know how you do..
Ben
www.benkueng.com |
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Posts: 227
Location: Southeast Wisconsin | 3 days of fishing, 3 fish boated (32,34,35...And thats about IT. No follows,misses or losses.Weird!
One very interesting thing is that all 3 fish came within 10 minutes of moon rise and smashed the bait on the retrieve.
2 were caught on shallow running crank baits while fishing shallow weed flats/edges (5-10 feet) and the third was caught on a bucktail on the same type of wind blown structure.
I have to do some real work for a few hours and then its back to fishing for the evening bite,if there is one..
later
www.benkueng.com |
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Location: Northern Wisconsin | Thanks guys for all the info. just got the boat out of the garage and hopefully it will be ready soon.
if i go ill let you know how i did. |
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Posts: 2691
Location: Pewaukee, Wisconsin | Very wierd day today. Only one fish boated today, that I know of, on Pewaukee Lake.
9 boats trolling and one 32-inch fish.
The trolling pattern was so good going into today that I thought with the increased wind and pre-moon phase it was going to be a free for all. All of the people I talked to that were casting didn't even see a fish today.
The last 3 days have been 2 or 3 fish days out of my boat and today all we got was a walleye and snagged a perch from the school he was hanging with. Two wallyes Thursday night also.
I guess I have to go back out and try tonight. That way I will know where to start with my Sunday morning clients.
Wind, weather and full moon phase = Big Muskies.
See ya...... |
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Posts: 7087
Location: Northwest Chicago Burbs | Me, Esoxaddict and Pointerpride hit Oconomowoc for a few hours on Saturday. The water was a bit darker than expected, and the weeds were pretty prominent. With winds blowing we hit spots pretty quickly, but did manage one aggressive follow (brown/gold bucktail) and a boat side hit on a black/orange medium dawg. Both fish came with us casting right up into the break with the boat at about 12ft. of water.
Good luck out there, and I would seriously consider Oconomowoc, less boat traffic, the water isnt that clear on the main lake, and the fish are definitely there. |
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