White bass

Spring is in the air, and the white bass are spawning in the Yahara! Went up to the river yesterday to see what was biting and found a big group of white bass that were more than willing to go after my lure. Used a small mepps spinner with a silver spoon. Also caught logperch, perch, largemouth bass, bluegill, and pumpkinseed. Great multi-species day!

The white bass came home for dinner. We did a fish fry with half of them, and the other half went in the freezer for a day when we get skunked.

Coho salmon

Back for a surprise post! Visited my friend Terry in Milwaukee last weekend and managed to squeeze in some early morning fishing in between beer tastings, a movie, and a house warming party in honor of Terry's first house. It was a nice day in the city, but once we got out on the water it felt much colder. Coffee took a while to kick in. We trolled a half mile outside the harbor, and after about an hour pulled in a nice little coho salmon in about 50 feet of water. We were marking plenty of fish on the depth finder, so hopefully more were on the way! Unfortunately, the fishing slowed down as soon as the sun came out, and we didn't get another bite for several hours. Other boats were having similar luck as us, and one by one we watched them head out to deeper water. We didn't want to stay out all day, so we stayed by the harbor and made sweeps past the areas where we marked fish. Finally, after 3 hours of waiting, one more fish! Terry pulled this one in; it was slightly larger than mine. Didn't measure them but they were probably 20 inches, 5 lbs-ish. After pulling in the second fish, we put away our gear and headed in. +1 to my life list!