6-30-04 - Fly Casting at sunset over Lake Geneva.

Chief with one of MANY rock bass.

Fat Hauls in a nice Largemouth.

Talk about a surprise, around 10:30 PM this monster hits our rigs!

FAT is just killin' the bass...this time a Smallmouth gets boated.

7-02-04 - Overnight on Lake Geneva, Part I

Waters Fished: Lake Geneva
Fish Caught: Numerous
Outing Date: 7-02-04
Weather: Cooling after sunset
Air Temp: 70's dropping into low 60's
Water Temp: didn't take it
Water Level: normal
Water Color: clear, visibility probably 15' or so.
Fish Species: Perch, Bluegill, Largemouth Bass, Smallmouth Bass, Rock Bass, Northern Pike, Sunfish
Pattern Fished: Flying Bunny, trolling with Lindy Rigged Nightcrawlers
Pattern Color: white, white and red, chartreuse and purple etc..
Fishing Quality: Great with Bait!

It's Friday night, and by 8:00 PM I'm on the water with FAT, Chief and Duke....we're gonna fish overnight on Lake Geneva!!!!

We launch out of William's Bay and head over to the east shore for some fly casting. Meanwhile the boys (while still awake) opt for jigs. To make a LONG story short...we had a lot of fun casting.

As the sun went down the bite turned on. Ok, actually we just switched to bait...out went the trolling rods with Lindy Rigs and Crawlers. It was time to troll. We cut back across the bay to the west shore...basically trying to stay in 20-25 feet of water.

Lemme tell you the action was pretty fast. The Rock Bass actually gave us a breather. First noteworthy fish was Fat's Largemouth. I think at that point I was playin' captain.

As we moved south along the shore the sun was gone, it was definitely DARK; it felt unusual to be creeping along in the dark, well, actually the lights from the houses on shore made for a strange not-quite-night type of atmosphere.

So I'm drivin' along when a rod goes off and starts thumping like no-one's business. FAT screams to Duke to come reel....Duke tries to take the oversized rod out of the holder...FAT's shouting "NO NO, just reel".

KABOOM in the twilight as a GIANT fish goes airborn. Crash as it lands in the water after what felt like 30 seconds in the air. Whoosh and it goes airborn again, landing again in a bellyflop worthy of the FATMAN.

Somehow we get this fish to the boat...a 26" Northern. Um, it was 10:30...I thought northerns didn't FEED at night. Well, we were VERY VERY LUCKY I guess...heck the thing took a WORM! All the while FAT griped about the boys bringin' a STINKY, SLIMY fish into the boat. That really wouldn't matter as I'd find out come morning...the boys got nightcrawler bedding all over the place!

We stopped for a bit to jig, then headed back north along the west shore, cut across, and south along the east shore. I'm leaving out all the ROCK BASS...they're almost a nuisance, but they WILL keep you busy.

As we headed along the east shore, I'm still driving and at this point the boys are sleepin'. Fat and I have decided we don't need no stinkin' rod holders, we'll just hold the rods while we troll. The upside? We can feel ALL our bites. The downside? All the bites are ROCK BASS.

Well...except for this one that came shortly before midnight...a respectable Smallmouth Bass for the Fatman.

The clock rolls over into Saturday AM...turn the page.

  MP