Lake Name: Delavan Lake
City: Delevan
State: Wisconsin
Latitude: 42.5978059
Longitude: -88.616962
Area Notes:
Devalan Lake, Northern half of the lake.
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By: Spence Petros
As I thought would happen due to the big March warm-up, some of my favorite shallower areas for cruising pre-spawn largemouth on Delavan were choked up with weeds. The bass were there, but the weeds made it nearly impossible to fish. But by fishing outside those areas we were able to have a great week.Conditions changed every day. On Monday I fished with Sean and Tim Burke and we caught 45 largemouth bass, and 2 19-inch walleyes. The previous day had big afternoon storms that cleared the lake of anglers. When we got there the skies were dark, there was some wind, and the fish hadn’t been pressured for a while. We had 8 “legal” bass over 18-inches and 3 over 20 ½ inches. All on wacky worming with 5-inch Yum Dingers. Tim got 2 5-pounders and I got one. Walleyes were caught on X-Caliber rattle baits, size 50.
On Tuesday the north wind had cleared the skies, we had cold front conditions, and the spots where we had caught the fish the previous day now had crystal clear water and the bass moved out. James Levi and I managed to scrape together 15 largemouth, 1 walleye, 1 smallmouth and 3 pike, which wasn’t bad for the tough conditions.
Wednesday started fairly slow for Dan Zamen and I. We had 12 bass by noon then we found dark water being hit by wind, and ended up catching 22 more in less than two hours. Dan got one over 5-poundsThe total was 34 bass caught on wacky worms and on the “sneaky rig”, (shown to me by one of my clients a couple years ago-thanks Reid) which was a Texas rigged 4-inch Yum Dinger with a nail in its tail so it would back up on slack line. This is an excellent presentation in a little deeper water, on windier days, and for pressured bass.
Thursday was dead calm and sunny, but at least we could see the bass in the shallows. I showed Nick Rode and Roy a drop-shot technique using Gulp minnows that teased a lot of these bass into hitting. On a day with very tough conditions we boated 23 bass, most of which were 15 to 19-inches. I was pleased.
Friday conditions changed again. We couldn’t see much, a couple of my favorite spots were already crowed, so we tried some new areas. The action wasn’t fast and furious, but on every drift we caught 1 to 3 bass. Brad Janis, Brian Dems and I ended up with 32 bass and 3 pike, with several 18-19-inchers.
Opening weeks total was 149 largemouth, 1 smallmouth, 3 walleyes and about 8 or 9 pike. I was happy, but it’s extra nice when you have all good anglers with you.
For those of you who would like to know more about muskies, I just put 10 musky articles up on muskie411.com web-site.
Hopefully week two will be as good as week one. Geneva is still pretty cold. The best action would be fishing football head jigs deep, or fishing wind-pounded points, weed flats, and cribs with suspending Rogue jerk baits.
I mentioned in my last report that Mightee Worms (juiced up Houdini worms) are coming out. These great drop-shotting worms are only available at Cabala’s until July 1. After that any store can get them.
Tight Lines