http://www.wisconsinfishinclub.com
Our 45th Year
July 11, 2011
Since our guest speaker had neither contacted President Cliff, nor had our guest speaker returned our esteemed leader’s phone calls or emails, we were without a guest speaker. President Cliff didn’t let that ruin our meeting, so he fearlessly dove into the icy waters of the fish reports.
Happily, the water had warmed and so did the fishing for most members who ventured out. Pike Lake, in Washington County, showed activity. This lake has both launches and a boat livery.
Knowledgeable Lake Michigan anglers Treasurer Danny Freiherr and koi/bluegill expert Jerry Opicka landed 2 Chinook, 7 coho, 1 lake trout.
The North lake launch still isn’t being built, but a member had success on largemouth bass. Further down Hwy. 83, Lake Nagawicka, alias “The Nag,” gave up small, largemouth bass on clown color #12 Husky Jerks worked during the morning.
Up north on the Wisconsin/Michigan border, for Sgt-at-Arms Big Dave, the Menominee River gave up smallies and walleyes, plus some good size bluegills and perch.
In the lake with the most surface acres in the state, Editor Chuck Fisher found walleyes on Lake Winnebago. Fisher used nightcrawlers while trolling and drifting.
From out-of-the-state, in the great Upper Michigan trout streams brook trout were active in the Fox River. Smallmouth bass were hot along Door County.
Nearer to Milwaukee and in the river of the same name meaning “Gathering of the Rivers,” smallmouth to 17” came from the Grafton area.
Deacon Jerry McCarty fished Buffalo Lake and had plenty of bluegill success.
While Secretary & Media Director Larry Van Veghel had no trouble catching perch on Oconomowoc Lake. Most perch were small and are found over and in the sand grass. Bluegills were small to keeper size. Smallies into the mid-teens hit Chatterbaits and Booyahs of similar designs. Bright colors were best. Look for thick clumps of coontail plants. Larry and his friend Paul Ridel, of Pauls Professional Painting, found that yellow was working great for the pike. Larry took his fish on an unaltered, chartreuse Booyah type chatterbait while Paul and his catch preferred a yellow Mepps #5 Aglia with a special cutout orange balloon as an attractor. Paul has perfected his technique and has caught hundreds (probably lots more) of northerns.
It was great having so many fishing reports, and even more good reports followed.
Largemouth bass were feeding on Okauchee Lake. Another angler had a 22” northern on Okauchee and added 3 walleyes over 15”.
Once known for big pike, Lake Puckaway northerns in the lower twenties were caught. By Oconomowoc, Silver Lake, once the favorite lake for Joe Ehrhardt, served rockbass to a dandy 13”.
Vice-President George cruised over the Crescent Lake to his home away from home. Our VP used leeches to land walleyes. He also reported perch and some walleyes off of Dykesville on Green Bay.
President Cliff brought up our Wisconsin Fishing Club Big Fish Contest. He emphasized that we need entries. It’s not fair to winners who hear other members brag, at meetings earlier in the year, about catching bigger fish while the winners won with smaller but still respectable fish. This taints the win and the contest. Our club has kept this contest lax because we pride ourselves on our honesty. The one nice thing is that those who won with smaller fish won by actually following through by turning in an affidavit. For this year, include two necessary photos and submit completed and signed form to President Cliff.
Secretary Larry read the minutes and they were approved.
Treasurer Danny followed by giving the treasurer’s report. He stated that we have $1261.00 in our checking account. His account was approved. This is double what we had at this time last year, and it shows that we can handle our budget better than can our politicians, no matter what party of preference.
Being a fishing club, we need to pick a lake or river for August’s outing.
August 20 (Saturday) is our pot luck picnic at President Cliff’s house. We will have a sign-up sheet at our August meeting.
Per Kids Fishing Coordinator Wayne Avery, the next meeting for the Kids Fishing Clinics is in October.
July 13 was scheduled as an afternoon/early evening outing on Lake Nagawicka. This is a good time to fish, wiscfish.org/fishid, this lake for active gamefish. Panfish are also active during these hours.
On September 12, at 6 p.m. sharp so as not to conflict with the start of the members’ meeting, the board members will meet to make brilliant decisions, come up with outstanding ways to use our money and generally just shine as the great leaders we are. Elections, our banquet, plans for the last months of the year and more will be on our docket. Members thinking of running for office should start giving this serious thought. Also, those who know of someone they want to nominate can also begin pondering their planned political proposition.
Nominations are held for 3 meetings, Sept 26, Oct. 10 and finally Oct. 24, per our Constitution. After the nominations held at the third successive meeting, we will hold our annual elections. Members are asked to make an effort to attend the meetings. These elections affect the next year’s operation of your fishing club. Realizing that football games are like the Sirens calling to Jason and the Argonauts, one should also consider which option choice involves creating the personal world you’ll live in for the entire following year. (It is thought that these sirens were actually narwhales.)
We talked about a possible Lake Michigan outing for when the fish start coming in shallower and closer to the Wisconsin shore. Smaller boats can then fish too.
We also discussed our website, which requires constant updating to give prospective members and society a good first impression of our club while providing our members with the information necessary to keep this a terrific fishing organization.
Respectively submitted, a person who has spent over three decades as officers of Wisconsin based fishing clubs and of the Wisconsin Council of Sport Fishing Organizations, http://wcsfo.blogspot.com,
Larry Van Veghel
WFC, Media Director & Secretary
http://www.examiner.com/x-15565-Milwaukee-Fishing-Examiner
