Fishing Time: June 2-7, 2022
Weather: Mostly Sunny, calm, T-70s
Moon Phase: 23% Moon
Location: Big McKenzie Lake, North Woods of Wisconsin
Best Baits: Bass- weightless senko, roboworm on a drop shot
rig, Bluegill- marabou under a slip bobber, Northern Pike- trolling crankbaits
and jerkbaits, Walleye- Casting crankbaits, Crappie- worm pinned to a 1/8 oz jig
head, Muskie- Nothing worked
Water temp: 63-68 degrees
Who Went: Uncle Joe Schuler, Isaac Schuler, Bobber John,
Dunc
John’s uncle Joe is now retired and living the dream. He bought a lake house about an hour north of
Rice Lake, Wisconsin where he lives. The
lake is called Big McKenzie and it’s full of a diversity of species from
Bluegill, Perch, Crappie, Dogfish, Largemouth Bass, Rock Bass, Walleye,
Northern Pike, and Muskellunge. After
hosting him last year on our trip to Lake Powell we made a promise to return
the favor and come crash his new lake house in Wisconsin.
We flew into Minneapolis, Minnesota where we quickly made
our first fail. The car rental company
offered us any car on the lot, and we couldn’t resist driving away in a brand-new
Chevy Camaro. We didn’t think about all
the gear and rods that we would be driving with for the next 3 hours as we
winded through the two-lane highways of Minnesota into the north woods of
Wisconsin.
We drove to Rice Lake first to check out Joe’s crib before
heading north with Joe leading the way in his Ford F-150. We hit a total of two stop signs on the way
there and not one stop light, but must have past 50 different lakes. When we arrived at Big McKenzie Lake I was in love. It’s a decent sized lake surrounded by trees
and lake houses. It looked like a
fisherman’s dream. The north woods of
Wisconsin are remote and beautiful. We
settled into Joe’s lake house and prepared for four full days of fishing on Big
McKenzie.
The first day of fishing we realized the bass and bluegill
were in full swing of their annual spawn.
We had a 4-pound bass guarding a bed right next to Joe’s dock. It didn’t take too much harassment for John to
trick him into biting.
We hit every corner of the lake over the span of four days
and slowly figured out where the best bite was for bass, crappie, bluegill, and
northern pike. The only fish we couldn’t
pattern was the walleye and those stingy muskies. The bottom of the lake was very mossy, so our
best baits for bass were weightless senkos or a roboworm on a drop shot
rig. We also caught a few on crankbaits,
jerkbaits, and spinnerbaits, but the slow drop of the weightless plastics was
the ticket. On the last night the water
temps reached 68 degrees and we were able to get on a topwater bite for about an
hour and put a half dozen in the boat.
Bluegill were primarily caught on a marabou underneath a slip bobber,
and the lone walleye and pike were all caught on crankbaits and jerkbaits both
trolling and casting. There were a ton
of rock bass that were also spawning, and they were aggressive enough to
continually inhale our bass baits. We
caught enough of those to last a lifetime.
The crappie were all caught jigging on an underwater island that Joe had
marked on his fish finder.
One of the highlights of the trip was spending each night
roaming the lake in the boat spotlighting and looking for fish, turtles, and
other wildlife. It helped us find a nice
dogfish that I was able to coax into the boat from his bed. I think they are cool looking but found out
it’s the carp of Wisconsin. Either way I
checked it off the species to catch list.
They are a crazy green color and get pretty big.
The turtles are all over and they are cool too. I searched high and low for a snapping
turtle, but apparently, I was a bit early in the year for them to be roaming
around. We only found painted
turtles. They would sit on the bottom at
night, but in the day, they would crawl onto logs and bask in the sun. We
pulled a couple small ones off the bottom using a net while spotlighting at
night.
One evening just before dark I lucked into the only walleye
of the trip. We tried to replicate the
area and presentation the following evenings, but never could find them again. We did see a lot of them swimming when we
were spotlighting at night. We also saw
some decent sized muskies. I think Bobber
John may have had one small muskie on trolling, but he thought it was a
northern pike and shook him off right next to the boat. I just stared at him in disgust. It was the only species we couldn’t put into
the boat on the trip.
Another evening on one of our epic bass runs, I tossed my
weightless senko onto the corner of a dock and was immediately slammed. The bass shot out from under the dock to the
surface and the oohs and ahs began. She
was a beauty at 5.5 pounds and the big fish of the trip. It was the cherry on the cake for me after
catching multiple nice largemouth every day in the 2–4-pound range.
The scenery was amazing, the lake house was awesome, and the
fishing was epic! To cap off an already
amazing trip we detoured on our way back to the airport and visited the home of
St Croix rods in Park Falls, Wisconsin.
We were able to watch them in the factory make the St Croix rods that we
are dedicated too and fish with. We also
stopped at a cheese factory and the cheese in Wisconsin truly is amazing! This
trip got an A+ from the moment we landed until we got back on the plane to
leave.
