milwaukee river smallmouth bass redemption

Part 1-

Persistence pays off. Three trips have been devoted to learning a two mile stretch of the mighty Milwaukee River, each one has progressively gotten better. I finally got a good smallmouth bass and rocked the house catching fifteen total bass during the morning wade. No pike today and that was just fine by me. I was content catching smallies, and to be honest, they were the reason I started fishing here all along.

a familiar stretch on the milwaukee river

Familiar Water-

I started my morning at the deep pool, on the outside of that bend, the one with all that wood. You know, the one where Damien caught that smalllie from last weekend? Well lets just say I attacked this pool a little different than last time. No jig and twister this time… Crankbait was king. More specifically the Bass Pro Shop XPS Lazer Eye Nitro Extreme. The white one with the red eye. The floating clumps of moss sure were a pain in the ass. Almost every cast you were sure to snag a piece. But, on those casts that you don’t hang up here was the pay off.

my first smallie of the day

second fish was big bass of the day!

another milwaukee river smallmouth

and another

Man, that crank paid off huge. Bouncing it off the rocks and digging it in the gravel was sure to solicit a strike. This was all from my first few hours of fishing. Stay tuned to see the second half of my trip. It should be up in the next day or two…