Not much word has been coming in about the action on the lakes this week. The one tidbit we have is that perch are doing well on Lake Mendota. Several people have said they filled their limit in under 2 hours.

The bad news is that all the area lakes are still rather green. The water temperature is still high, and the algae is enjoying it.

Devil’s Lake

Lake Mendota

Lake Monona

Lake Waubesa

Wisconsin River (near WI Dells)

Quick Forcast

Sunny to partly cloudy, highs around 80°, lows around 60°, winds light & variable.

Water data courtesy of USGS, weather data courtesy of NOAA

Tip of the Week

It’s still a week away, but you know you’re already imagining yourself out on the water on the 4th of July. Fishing, skiing, flying across the water at open throttle, sitting on the side of the road with a flat tire…

Right. Nobody includes that in their holiday plans. Unfortunately, too many people end up including it in their vacation anyway. Right now is the time to make sure that you’re not the guy sitting on the side of the road with a broken down trailer, watching everyone else driving towards fun on the water.

• Tires: In most cases, a flat tire is easy to prevent. Check your tire pressure. Low tire pressure puts a lot of extra stress on the tire, causing it to fail faster and easier. Check the tires themselves. Is the tread wearing thin? Are there cracks in the rubber? Are their any bulges? All of these indicate a tire that’s about to fail. If you notice these, replace the tire.
• Wheels: You’ve seen the poor schmoe sitting on the side of the road looking at a trailer that only has one wheel. A quick check of the lug nuts can prevent this. Lugs should be tightened to 90 ft-lbs. They should be in good condition; no excessive corrosion or cracks.
• Lights: Holiday weeks are busy on the roads. Properly functioning lights are important in these conditions. Brake lights and turn signals can do a lot to prevent your boat–and you–from being in a collision. They can also save you from an expensive traffic ticket. Before you head out on the road, just take 5 minutes to make sure everything lights up the way it should, and do it early enough so that you have time to fix things if there’s a problem.
• Spares: In the event that something does happen, be sure you have spares; spare tire & wheel, and spare bulbs for your lights.

Go check things out tonight when you get home, so that you’re all set to head out next week. We want to see you on the water–not on the side of the road.

Don’s Marine Pro-Team had a great day on the water, Mark and I guided our good friend Cory Seuse on to his first trophy walleye. The fish measured 31″ and weighed in at (an unofficial) 10 lbs. This is a walleye of a lifetime in my opinion. We spent the afternoon trolling Rapala minnow raps in 18 to 20 ft. of water as deep as we could with out scraping the bottom. The key here was using lead core line to get down deep enough with the baits that we were running and to maintain the depths that we were. Trolling speeds were between 1.8 and 2.3 mph. I will say the big one was caught at 2.3. We were able to troll at these speeds with ease with the Yamaha 90 hp 4-stroke on the back of our Alumaccraft tournament pro 185 tiller. Because of overuse reasons I’m not going to say exactly what lake this fish was caught on, but I will say it was on the Madison area chain of lakes. So when it gets hot out, use good electronics to look for the walleyes in deep water. And when you find them, troll them hard. If they’re not biting keep trying different baits until you kind what they want, sometimes it can take a while, but sooner later they’ll tell you what they want and will be worth the wait. Good luck

–Jason Mazzarisi

(Click on the thumbnail to see the full-sized photo.)