Northwoods Bass Fishing Report – May and Early June, 2018

Hi all! Sorry for the delay in publishing the first official report of the 2018 season. Too much fishing, work, and a 1-week vacation to Florida in between has resulted in very little available writing time for me. I have lots of information, stories, and incredible fish pictures to share from the month of May through early June.

The week prior to season opener, I remember we were all freaking out about ice melt. Even I was getting a little concerned too, as Minocqua lake and many of the area’s larger lakes were still completely ice-covered as of Monday May 7th. But even during the final stages of ice-out, options are always available as places opened up quickly and delivered awesome fishing immediately. Those big lakes all melted within a few days after, and we were already bass fishing on them immediately.

Winter then led to summer, within 3 days.

^ First day out from storage. YAY!

Unfortunately this winter did some serious damage to the bass populations on many smaller, shallow, weedy eutrophic lakes. Fish kills were reported all throughout the region and decimated the nice largemouth bass I catch from some of these lakes. Reports all over the place about fish kills from shallow small to medium size seepage lakes; as small as 20 acres to as large as 300 or more acres. What is usually clear water is reduced to 2-3 feet of visibility from massive amounts of decaying weeds. Extended, deep ice coverage with a good amount of snow can lead to this. Hope that it isn’t as bad as it looks, who knows how many are dead on the bottom of the lake. Very brown, dead looking water. Pike, largemouth bass, and panfish. This definitely put an end to my plans in wanting to fish such lake types this year, and in upcoming seasons too.

Meanwhile on the waters that don’t winterkill…..

May 2018 was one of the best BIG bass fishing months in my boat’s history. Nowadays, customers and I seem to prioritize big fish versus numbers and action. May didn’t deliver many numbers days due to our fishing preferences. What it did deliver however, was dozens of 20 inchers that we all lost count of the number we actually caught. There were a handful of days we also didn’t bother taking pictures of 18’s! A typical day of fishing was 20 to 40 fish, most of them being 18’s and bigger. Some days did see numbers of 50-60+, depending on which waters were visited.

Besides the bass, I did more walleye fishing this spring than any year I could remember. Lots of excellent fishing was enjoyed for walleyes in between bass trips; several slot fish released and excellent average sizes caught. I predominantly did my walleye fishing during evenings and nighttime hours. I love covering water and casting crankbaits to shorelines and ripping plastics.

Crappies were great also. So too were largemouth bass in the limited time I spent fishing them during the first week of May. Even a handful of 20″ largemouth bass were caught and released too.

What led to such good fishing this spring was stable weather, a good warming trend, and warm water temps. Additionally, bass and most other species were in spawning and feeding overdrive, as by May 18th bass were already beginning to spawn on many area lakes.

This May 2018 report is lengthy and long. I apologize to everyone as it’s very difficult to condense an entire month’s worth of angling in one single entry – but I will do my best if you continue below.

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Between May 06 through May 18th, and again May 29th through June 5th, I logged a total of 23 days on the water.

The late ice-out this spring was a non-factor for my spring lake selections. I was already fishing the flowages, and many mid-size lakes during that first week following opener. Flowages and natural lakes were the best options and those were the waterbodies fished most. Flowages probably had the hottest fishing and best action.

The second week of May following opener was the best numbers fishing we’ve had this spring. As I mentioned, our smallmouth trips produced huge average sizes, several 20’s, and even a few megafishes, including a re-capture of my personal best fish from last August @ 22″ and 7.5 lbs.

^Bubby Butler with one of his monsters during our 3-day trip.

^ John Brophy with one of our 45 fish during a full trip at one of the flowages.

^ The largemouth bass bite was extraordinary also. My second day on the water this season produced three fish 20″ or better!

^ Jeff Butler is a phenomenal stick, and landed several 18-19’s like this guy.

^ Jeff also landed this 18″ frisbee of a smallmouth. How about this melon? I forgot to weigh it (doh!) but it was a no-doubter 5 pounder based on weights of the hundreds of thousands of smallmouth I’ve handled over the years. This fish went viral on Jay Kumar’s BassBlaster.

^ And if you haven’t heard by now for almost half a month, I re-captured my same PB fish again. More on this far down below – so keep on reading!

So, where to begin: Spring 2018 was incredible. Awesome. Fantastic. I have the best job in the world and fish with the most enjoyable people type of stuff!

The bass this spring were in a feeding and spawning overdrive. Bass have a crazy sixth sense as they can predict the incoming climates and conditions, and I truly believe they were feeding hot and heavy ASAP because they wanted to spawn quickly.

As soon as the ice went after May 5th, water temperatures quickly went from the mid 40’s to 60 within a week. This warm fluctuation was as perfectly steady of a warming trend as you want in spring.

As I write every March and April, fishing the warm water sources early on generally leads towards best results. Like most spring seasons when fishable and water levels allow, the Wisconsin River system and all lowland flowages in the north provide outstanding bass fishing opportunities when weather and natural lakes all run cold. This spring it was not the case. I couldn’t buy a fish from the rivers due to very low water levels – which in turn did not bring any fish upstream into them. Flowages and my swampy, boggy eutrophic and late mesotrophic lakes on the other hand were excellent spring venues as usual.

First, here’s some typical flowage fish. Nice spring days often deliver fast action, strong numbers, and a few good bites. Even miserable wind and bad coldfronts will produce also, as it did on our first trip of the year, with Randy and son Evan.

May 10th – First guide trip of 2018 equates to first smallmouth bass of the year. Brutal coldfront on this day produced 20 total for a half day effort. Water temps all over the place, 45 at cold end to 53 warm end depending where you go. Fish were enticed with downsized X-Raps size 8 on the long pause. They wouldn’t touch crankbaits or any other style jerkbait.

May 15th – I had another flowage trip also, a few days later, with John from Rhinelander. The fish were active, as we boated upwards of 45 smallmouth, plus a handful of walleyes and pike (all released).

When we launched at 730am, surface temps were a normal 56-58 degrees accompanied by a brisk east wind and steady chop. When trip concluded at 5pm, surface temps were baking and fish were roasting underwater at 66-68 degrees. There was no wind at any point during the afternoon. Coincidentally, our best bites of the day took place between 8am and 1pm. Throughout the afternoon, bites became fewer and it seemed as if the fish went into thermal shock and a major period of inactivity.

In other early season pursuits, largemouths were running wild too.

For me personally, I begin each season immediately targeting largemouth bass. Time and time again they prove to be the best bites during early May and in colder water.

Largemouth bass have become a very underrated resource, and are now mostly disregarded up north with an open harvest season year round. While harvest of overabundant 12 to 14 inch fish is encouraged, I preach the release and conservation of our trophies, 18 inches and larger, as these are the specimens to build healthy, trophy fisheries. I like to largemouth fish when smallmouth fishing goes tough, when dealt with spring coldfronts and poor weather. Huge largemouths still abound on many of our lakes. As largemouths spawn later, they are an awesome alternative angling option. They also deliver some of the best fishing of the season during the first week following opener.

The early season theme each year is to fish lakes that warm quickest – could be mud bays, emerging weeds, or wood & brush. Due to the rough winter and weed decay, water clarity on most largemouth water was very poor. However, fish were active and found my baits.

Search lures were catching the most fish. Strike King RedEye Shad and Silent Square, Super K Swim Jig with paddletail trailer, Super K Jig with craw trailer, Storm WildEye Shad, and Freedom Chatterbait caught everything with equal frequency and effectiveness. Cover water, cast tight to cover, and reel it in as quickly as possible.

My banner day came on Tuesday May 8th. No obvious pattern was had, other than seeking warm water spots and near-shore habitat & vegetation, finding big staging bass in deeper water preparing to slide up shallow, and to cover water with these aggressive search lures. About 30 fish boated, several 16”+, and 3 over 20”. Top 5 bass went for 22 lbs. If I didn’t have Trokar TK300 and TK310 treble hooks on my lipless and silent square cranks, my 20 inchers wouldn’t have been landed.

Here’s what’s been working for largemouth. Each week I’m fishing I post my weekly “Bass Bling” on Facebook to showcase baits I throw and what’s working:

The above is what I was throwing throughout early May during the pre-spawn period. Search lures dominated for largemouth, highlighted by Super K Jigs and Freedom Chatterbait.

Majority of the largemouths in May favored reactionary baits. If it moved, it was eaten. Bass were chasing, angry, and hungry.

In May, smallmouth bass fishing our lakes is the most popular and frequent draw – it’s also the most requested bass fishing trip I receive. I thought 2017 was very good, 2018 has been even better!

Excellent fish were caught all throughout the month. What’s impressive about my fishing is I don’t fish or host trips for spawners and bedders! Wisconsin has grown and maintained incredible bass fisheries on the inland northern waters.

Warm weather brings warming water temps which leads to the first good smallmouth bite of 2018, which happened on May 14th. Sunlight is smallmouth’s best friend, year-round.

The next three days after, I hosted the Butler boys from Quincy, IL. Their trip was perfectly executed and timed well. They experienced the peak of pre-spawn smallmouth fishing with me between May 16 thru 18th.

On day-1 of their 3 day trip with me, we knocked out several early home runs. I started the outing quickly with the first 20 incher of the day, followed by one for Bubby and one for Jeff. We each hit our 20’s in early morning and the rest of the day was focused on more quality fish and action. Throughout the day several 19’s, 18’s and 17’s were caught and released. A truly remarkable day of fishing considering the waters we fished aren’t known for trophy specimens and rare abundance like this, but rather action — but trophy specimens do exist and live in most lakes.

We worked on two lakes during the day. During guide trip from 7:15am until 3:45pm, we boated close to 30 fish. On my solo adventure afterward until 8:30pm, I boated another 25-30 fish on my own. I had originally planned to fish the evening for crappies and bluegills, but the big smallmouth kept striking into the evening.

Unlike traditional pre-spawn locations and set-up, we are not seeing much staging and schooling up on specific spots. The fish were all up shallow now, heavily feeding, cruising shoreline areas either solitary and in small pairs, and already getting ready for next week’s spawn.

Throughout the day we had to cover lots of water in order to locate the smallmouth sweet spots. Most fish were caught from near-shore locations such as sand flats, gravel, rock, and wood. However, many fish were caught from random featureless shore areas they had no business being in. Every bass caught was in 5ft or less, a true sign that spawn is approaching quickly.

Downsized jerkbaits and swimmer paddletails took all of our fish. By evening, I was already observing crayfish activity and the bass on my lake were already transitioning to crayfish patterns that included crankbaits and jigs.

Day-2 fishing on May 17th was almost as good, highlighted by memorable fish on our trip, and my solo efforts.

Spring peak was now here. Next warm high pressure system eventually sent fish into full spawning mode across the region and on many lakes.

Fun fishing with the Butlers on Day-2 of their northwoods trip. Early morning rain delayed our early start, and then a coldfront with east winds greatly slowed down the fishing. But some patience, a much slower approach, and tedious fishing produced great results. For a while, our morning efforts looked very grim with little activity and after covering 15 different lake locations. We just needed the sun to do her radiating work, and for the east winds to lay off a bit. We then found the hot spot of fish concentration, with a trio of 18.5’s and a 20″ boated – one of them included a frisbee monster coming in at nearly 5 lbs!!! How about that melon. This midday window from 12:30 to 1pm saved the day!

Day-3 hosting the Butlers on May 18th was an excellent outing for numbers and action. We fished from 8am to 2pm, and boated 30 fish for our efforts. Largest fish went up to 19″, and included a handful of 17-18’s. Bubby had the hot hand, catching half of the boat’s total.

Water temps almost consistent throughout the lake we fished, at 58 to 62 degrees. The bass spawn at that point was coming on fast. That morning males were all over the shallows, prepping their nesting sites while the big females were almost nowhere to be found today. When the number of males caught exceeds larger females, bozo buckets is near.

My solo efforts in between trips proved to be just as memorable. I seriously lost count of how many trophy bass were boated. I cannot remember having this many encounters with so many fish hitting the 20″ or greater mark in a single week of fishing during the month of May. In fact, it’s happened on every lake I fished this week! It’s amazing.

I’m often asked why I don’t visit other destinations or the Great Lakes………. This explains why. We are blessed beyond belief with our inland lakes of the north!

And here’s the backstory to the PB re-capture:

I recaptured my same personal best fish that I had caught during August 2017. Late last summer, she tipped the scale at slightly under 7 pounds. During recapture, and now egg-bearing, she weighed in at 7 and a half pounds! The same 22 inches length.

August 2017:

22″ at 7 lbs.

May, 2018:

22″ at 7.5 lbs

What were the odds of this happening again? Same lake, same spot, same waypoint, same offshore throne she owns.

Catch and release is no joke. This is proof of fishing’s greatest renewable resource. This also helps debunks myths and theories of how very old adult fish are allegedly no longer fertile enough to reproduce. 3/4ths of the extra weight now being carried on this fish is eggs and the genes of the lake. If old age and infertility is ever an excuse and reasoning for harvest, you are mistaken. Please reconsider.

Big smallmouth bass are incredible specimens. Our monster fish of Vilas County are beauties and must continue to be treated with utmost care. Quick photos and they get returned carefully.

Remember, we don’t keep any here, ever. 100% catch and release policy. Otherwise no trips for you.

All bass (at least the largest and unmolested ones) during the month were relating to main lake structures and offshore locations – by offshore I mean actual middle of the lake areas in proximity to open water – NOT within a shoreline cast length away! Midlake bars, humps, complexes, secondary points are all money spots and primary targets for me. When they spawn the locations all obviously change, as spawning bays, expansive shallow flats and near shore locations become more favorable and ideal habitats for nesting, followed by post-spawn feeding.

The smallmouth spawn came quickly this May. On quiet, sunny warm days fish were observed digging their nests, or returning to their previous year’s nests. Whenever coldfronts came, they’d vacate their beds and the shallows altogether. By Memorial Day weekend spawning was taking place almost everywhere except for the coldest, deepest lakes.

After my Florida vacation May 19th thru 27th, I returned north on the 29th and fished until June 5th.

These last 7 days I obviously spent most of my time pounding the post-spawn largemouth bass bite. Awesome silly numbers and hot feeding windows on the lakes I fished despite the difficult weather and major coldfront that recently came through. Water temps peaked in the low 70’s and fell back into normalcy to the mid 60’s. This week I was rewarded with several 17-19’s that included a few spawned out females, but no supertanker grass pigs. All quality bass taken from weedlines and wood. If weather was more favorable I would have targeted smallmouth on the big water but high winds and uncomfortable conditions led me to LMB’s, which were honestly the best bite happening under normal fishing scenarios.

And what’s been working for LMB’s at this moment….. This week’s Bass Bling.

This is what I was throwing for largemouth as of last week during post-spawn. Search lures again! The trend is swimmers and search lures, but post spawn largemouth are now beginning to focus on bluegill bites. These are the exact baits I’m throwing, highlighted by Freedom Tackle Corp. spinnerbait and buzzbait, and Super K Fishing jigs. When I locate concentrations, I then go in for the kill with the K-plunk jig or Texas rigged : wacky stick worm.

Early summer dates (end of June/early July) are getting booked up. I still have the following dates available for full or half day trips during my next block. I am willing to double book myself on dates with half day trips, assuming weather is awesome, and will notify when those times are open.

To help with everyone’s scheduling and summer vacations I’ve updated my availability calendar to help with selecting. Give me a call or send an email if interested in a trip. Next block of trips are being scheduled from July 21st through August 6th.

Thanks all for reading. I wish I had more time to go into detail more with strategy and specifics, but you can book your trip to learn and hear more!

Andrew Ragas
www.northwoodsbass.com
tel: (708) 256-2201
andrew@northwoodsbass.com