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Posts: 49
| My family has a cottage on shawano and i been out there a bit tossing baits and been having trouble locating fish.... The west side is mostly shallow and thrown baits from small 5s to show girls and mag dawgs, top water seems hard to use due to have boat traffic causing cut weeds.... Been fishing over the top of the shallow weeds by webers pt and and off the weed breaks and only have caught northerns and have yet to raise a ski, had a nice pike on a mag dawg by the flat where u can see hwy 22 kinda by the island (farthest im traveling on the water because our cottage is by american marina on the lake) .... Any tips on the west side i hear the cecil side produces but not much about the west side.... Tried to get in contact with the musky club but they were pretty much no help for some reason ( even offered to join the club) ..... I dont understand y ppl are so tight lipped about shawano, cant find much info even on the forums
Thanks for the help |
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Posts: 1937
Location: Black Creek, WI | Shawano is a weird lake. It changes every year. Sandbars move, milfoil dies and grows in new places each season. Thus, every year is a new year out there. What worked last year... or even last week will change. That may be partly why you have not gotten much response from your inquiries.
My advice is to fish the shallow weeds (cabbage) early and late in the season. Once milfoil grows up and dominates the lake (and chokes out the cabbage), fish the deeper 12+ft milfoil edges.
There is a lot of wind driven current in this lake as well. During peak water temperatures, look for areas where current is drawing deeper, cooler water up onto shallow structures. This is your best way to find fish in less than 10ft of water during summer.
Good Luck |
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Posts: 49
| Thanks for the info... Thats what i decided was the best method was the 10ft breaks but hasnt produced anything yet and nver notice anyone else musky fishing the west side much at all, that spot by 22 seemed really nice weed edges all around a nice break but u notice the gas draining in ur tank lol, hoping to hear of some closer spots, i mostly tried webers point alot because thats where over the years our big pike came out of before i musky fished, the breaks off the reed bed in the middle of the lake in front of the airport if you know what im talking about lol, and the breaks off the reed beds too the east of webers pt....... Is shawano mostly a big bait lake? I was using big stuff to avoid the million tiny pike, mag dawgs and cowgirls mostly |
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Posts: 300
| Shawano can be very fickle. I've been fishing it for a few years, and only have two fish in the boat from there. Every time we go out, it seems to change a little. jlong knows this lake very well. We use a lot of double 8's, jerk baits and cranks. I've always been told, if you catch more than one pike, it's time to move, deeper or shallower. Good luck! |
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Posts: 49
| Thanks for the info will be out for the holiday coming up in a few weeks hope to at least raise a fish... Either way just being out on the water throwing baits is good enough just thought id see if i could get a little more info |
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Posts: 1937
Location: Black Creek, WI | Ranger,
Not sure how sophisticated of an angler you are, but GPS is a critical tool for fishing Shawano. Mark the inside and outside turns of the breaklines and weedlines... and target them.
If you don't have GPS, it seems that most good panfisherman out there know exactly where these spots are. They tend to anchor on them (and block your spot... heh heh). Perhaps watch where the bluegill guys are working hard... and fish those areas to start?
The only reason the east end gets more musky pressure is because it has more traditional structures... or defined structures. The west end is flatter, but has plenty of fish. I've always done well with smaller lures. 6-8" Cranks and Jerks. Smaller bucktails.
Good Luck. |
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Posts: 49
| Thanks again for the info.... As far as how great i am on my electronics, im not, i bought a 587 hd di i had for 2 seasons now and getting alittle better with it but not that good on it, usually i just position the boat out side a weed edge that i know is there and try to maintain casting distance away from it and cast towards the edges. ill have to do some more scouting next time and try to mark some more stuff, i spent alot of time trying to find any cabbage i could that wasnt over ran by milfoil but during summer months seems like thats hard to find so thats y i turned to fishing the breaks, if the cut weeds and boat traffic wasnt so bad ive always thought that top water could be the answer but im only usually out on the weekends so that nvr works out........ Ill try to mark some turns and try to focus more on those and see if it produces |
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Posts: 620
Location: Seymour, WI | Shawano has been a tough lake for me too. I've fished it for a long time now and caught a few fish there, but nothing I can really go back to. The fish I have caught have come on spinner baits and Suicks banged off of the weeds. I would have loved to have fished this lake before milfoil got in there, I'm sure it was beautiful. |
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Posts: 81
Location: NEW | I go to Shawano whenever I want to LOOK at muskies... |
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Posts: 49
| Ha ha id take just looking at a few at this point if they decent sized |
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Posts: 80
Location: Clintonville, Wi | Repeating what everyone else has said. Shawano can be a very tough lake. It’s what I’ve called my home water for around 15yrs. I live only a few miles away. I used to terrorize the water out there 5-6 days a week, now after some life changing priorities I still manage to fish 1 or 2 couple hour stints a week.
There are some very big fish in there and they also carry a lot of weight. It has changed a lot over the years. Like everywhere else, pressure has increased tenfold just in the last 4-5yrs. A few things I notice about the fish out there now are, for one, the feeding windows are very short and not as frequent. Being what I call a fairly new musky fishery in the early 2000’s the first few major stockings from mid-90s were coming of age and were fairly dumb to lures. There also were only a handful of anglers targeting them. Now it’s nothing to see a dozen or so boats throwing musky stuff. I remember it seemed if you could follow a weed line you’d see fish anywhere along it. Now they seem to be more “spot on spot” specific. Coupled with short feeding windows it can make for a tough bite. Like Jlong said the west end is flatter and more of random weed edges and pockets. Not having a GPS is a real handicap. My best advice would be to drift and cast. Pick weed flats that are closer to 12-15FOW and throw big buck tails over them, and or rip shallow running cranks thru. Some of the best spots out there seem to be where random cabbage is a buffer between thick milfoil and deeper water. Some days they will be tight to milfoil and others they’ll be in or off the edge of cabbage. I like to make multiple passes thru spots like that or if you have a partner cast in opposite directions. If you get a follow or catch one make sure you stay put there are usually more than one fish in a spot.
As far as bait choice I usually throw buck tails to cover water, but all baits work out there. Color preference can change daily. The loud colors use to be my stand by but the last few years natural stuff has been getting bit more often. Good Luck
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Posts: 49
| Thanks for everyones input i think ill have some better luck now that i have some more ideas, i do have a gps on my locator im just not a pro by any means with it. |
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