As is customary for over thirty years now I made my annual pilgrimage to Wisconsin to fish for smallies in the Chippewa and Flambeau Rivers. A typical August will provide you with some of the best smallmouth fishing of the year. Typical meaning both rivers are low, the weed growth is at its maximum and the fish usually are easier to locate. During this time of year they set up in areas like rapids, weed edges, holes, submerged wood, and laydowns. In fact, the operative phrase this summer was “Wood is Good”. Just about anywhere there was submerged wood and or laydowns in water that had some current and was a minimum of two feet deep it was a good bet you were going to get bit. While this is a sort of vacation, I have told a good number of my clients how great the fishing is exciting them to the point that they wanted to know if I would be willing to guide them in Wisconsin. Without hesitation my answer is absolutely yes. Two such clients are Greg and Milo. They have fished with me many times in East Tennessee and made their first trip to Wisconsin last fall. They decided to forgo the fall trip this year and fish the rivers during the summer period. They also like to spend a couple of days fishing for muskies with “Muskie Joe” Flater in addition to the time they spend with me chasing smallies. Greg and Milo arrived early enough on Sunday afternoon that I offered to take them out for a few hours of evening fishing. Greg was up for it so I took him to a spot on the Flambeau that contained a submerged log that I have been fishing for years. He caught about fifteen chunky smallies around the log in about an hour and half of fishing. We had about an hour before dark so I decided to make a move to the Chip. I fired up my Stealthcraft Jet Boat and made my way to fish what we and a buddy of mine dubbed a long time ago the “Honey Hole”. I don’t how many thousands of fish I have seen taken off that spot over all of these years, but she didn’t disappoint us this evening. Greg caught approximately another ten smallies before we lost our light. Many of those fish were in the fifteen to eighteen inch range. The picture included in this report shows him holding one those nice smallies he caught in the “Honey Hole”.
River Smallie Adventures Fishing Report August 12, 2018
