Action at the dam

The dam at the end of Lake Wingra was the place to be tonight! It wasn't very crowded, which was nice. On the lake side we had a hispanic guy and myself. He was bobber fishing with worms and I was using a medium sized spinner. On the river side was a a black guy and three black ladies, all using bobbers and worms. The hispanic guy was real nice, and we talked the whole time while we fished. He probably caught 50 bluegill during the time I was there. He also caught the pumpkinseed in the first picture. I did a fine job catching bass on the spinner. My first one is a new Madison PR at 17 inches. He put up a good fight too! Two casts later I caught a 13 inch one, and later I caught a couple that were 10-12 inches. The black guy caught an interesting fish. If google is telling me right its a freshwater drum. See the pic below. He was super excited about his fish, and wanted me to take a picture of him with his fish and my bass. Later another guy showed up and caught the 25 inch walleye in the last picture. He didn't keep it, saying he didn't really like the taste of walleye!

Dang carp! What do ya'll want to eat?

What works for carp bait? I went out to that same spot on the bridge again last night, this time armed with quite a concoction. Half a loaf of white bread, maple syrup, brown sugar, lots and lots of brown sugar, peanut butter, and flour. I stirred it all up in a frying pan until it thickened up into a playdough consistency. I had 2 poles in the water with balls of the stuff wrapped around treble hooks. Didn't get a single bite all night. I did see some 20-30 lb carp swimming through the area though.

Any ideas?

Is there a sport for snapping turtle fishing?

My fishing yesterday wasn't spectacular, but I did come home with an interesting story. I caught a few largemouth and bluegill throughout the afternoon. As the sun was going down I headed over to the bridge where the lagoon in Vilas Park starts. I was hoping to catch my first carp, using pieces of a peanut butter sandwich rolled up into a ball as bait. There were 4 or 5 big carp swimming around the area, but I couldn't get any of them to take an interest in the bait. I saw something else moving towards my bait though, a big snapping turtle! He was probably 2 feet long! I should have pulled my bait out of the water at that point, but I couldn't help but sit there and stare. He headed straight to my bait and bit on to it. I hooked him, ran to the end of the bridge, and pulled him in to shore. The funny thing was, he didn't fight me, he actually swam towards me! I wasn't sure what to do at that point. I didn't want to put my hands anywhere near that mouth, but I definitely didn't want to leave a treble hook in there either. I shook the line back and forth a couple times (while carefully watching my toes), and luckily the hook came out. He swam back out in front of the bridge and proceeded to clean up all the pieces of sandwhich that came off my hook earlier. Guess it the ordeal didn't bother him that much, lol.

I was a little disappointed that the carp never went for my pb sandwich. They were swimming around together in a pretty tight pack. Maybe they were spawning or something?

An excellent fisherman

Remember the picture I put up of the kid in the blue shirt holding up a catfish? Of all the people I've seen fishing Lake Wingra and Wingra Creek, he's the best I've seen so far. I ran into him for the third time yesterday down by Fish Hatchery. He was at the exact same spot where I caught the 18" northern earlier in the year. He said he was going for bass, but almost immediately after saying that he got a hit from a northern. He got it in and I measured it for him. 26.5" (the limit is 26") I took a few pictures and then he took off on his bicycle holding the fish over the handlebar.

Aquarium pics