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A new blog about fishing

Hello fellow anglers! My name is John Reddy and I welcome you to my blog. I guide out of Delavan, Wisconsin fishing waters throughout Wisconsin and Northern Illinois. I spend a majority of my time guiding in Walworth and Rock counties fishing everything that swims! My blog will be a discussion board for many fishing topics that I will discuss and you as bloggers want to talk about. Please feel free to ask about any topic regarding our local fishing world and I will answer questions to the best of my ability. I will post weekly fishing reports to keep anglers in the know and on the “hot bites” happening on our lakes and rivers.

Delavan Lake

Delavan has been producing some great action in the past week. Bluegills have been migrating from their spawning grounds to the deep weed lines. I have been catching bluegills in water as deep as 25 feet and as shallow as 8 feet. Use a leaf worm or piece of night crawler under a float, a split-shot rig or small jigs such as a Genz Worm or a Hali spoon to take these fish.

Crappies have been suspended over deeper water and have been caught up to 13”, but averaging 8-10”. Drifting small jigs tipped with minnows or plastics starting in 8-12 feet of water out to 30-40 feet of water has produced fish. Look for both crappie and bluegill around the Island, Willow Point, and Assembly Park and Del-Mar.

Largemouth Bass remain shallow but many fish are residing near the outer weed lines in 12-18 feet of water. Largemouth have been hitting live crawlers, leeches and chubs or suckers. Fishing plastics such as Berkley Thumpin’ Worms, Shaky Head rigs tipped with Slim Shaky Worms, Kalin’s Grubs, Tubes, and Yum Money Minnows along the deep weed edge have produced fish. Casting medium to deep running cranks along the weed edge has been producing some days, but has been a little inconsistent. Fishing shallow, Wacky and Texas rigged YUM Dingers, Ribbon Tail worms in the 4 or 5” size or tubes fished in 6-8 feet of water has produced fish. The top water bite has exploded with the surface temps pushing over 80 degrees. Cast Texas Rigged Sizmic Toads, Berkley Chigger Toads, or YUM Buzz Frogs in the slop to pull out some real lunkers hiding in the shade. Be sure to spool with heavier line fishing thick cover, I like to use at least 12 lb. test, but 65# braid real gets them out of the slop. Look for fish in the outlet area near Lake Lawn Resort, both shallow bays near the Island, Assembly and Jackson Park and near Community Beach. In the past week clients have caught over 10 large-mouths over 20 inches.

Smallmouth Bass are being caught in 18-22 feet of water fishing drop-shot rigs tipped with a 3” YUM Dinger, Booyah Football Jigs tipped with a Chigger Chunk. Fishing chubs or suckers have also produced nice smallmouth. My clients have caught smallmouth up to 21 inches in size. Look for fish near Willow Point, the Yacht Club, the Oriental Boathouse and Brown’s Channel.

Northern Pike have been stacking up in the 22-32 foot depths with the surface temps climbing. The thermo cline is setting up nicely which will make finding fish a little more predictable. Lindy rigging suckers or red tail chubs back trolling or doing a controlled drift has been producing fish up to 40” in the past couple weeks. Casting Berkley 5” Jerk Shads, Chatter baits and Swim baits such as a Berkley Hollow Belly, YUM Money Minnow or Storm Wild eye Shads have also produced fish. Many pike are still in the 15-17 foot depths, but most will be smallish in the 22-26” range. Look for fish near the Oriental Boat House, Yacht Club, Willow Point and Brown’s Channel.

Walleyes have been biting in shallow weeds and out to 22 feet of water. In the shallow weed beds, 8-15 feet of water, fishing jigs tipped with leeches, fatheads or plastics, or casting lipless cranks such as an Xcalibur Rattle Bait or suspending cranks such as Smithwick suspending Rogue have been producing fish. Fishing slip-floats tipped with leeches and crawlers have produced quality fish up to 22”. We have also caught walleyes on chubs and suckers targeting pike out to 30 foot of water. Many fellow fishermen have been reporting catching walleyes up to 29” this spring/early summer. Look for fish near Willow Point, the Island, the Yacht Club, Del Mar and Brown’s Channel.

Perch have remained sporadic, but fishing along the rock dike opposite of the inlet in 12-20 feet of water has produced quality fish. Out from the Village Supper Club and Assembly Park to Woodlawn targeting the same depths have also produced. Hellgrammites have produced the biggest fish.

Geneva Lake

With our cold spring Geneva was a little behind in water temperatures. The bite had been a little inconsistent. With our recent heat wave, the bite has been kicking into high gear. The thermo cline is setting up much faster than the past two years.

Rock Bass can be caught just about any spot in 10-15 feet of water out to 30 foot. Many fish have been as big as 11” and a few around 12”. Drifting or drop-shotting with crawlers or fathead minnows has been very productive.

Smallmouth bass have been caught in 8-12 feet of water with the same rigs taking Rock Bass. Many smallmouths have moved to the first break-line in 20-25 feet of water. Use your electronics as many of these fish are suspended off of the bottom and are easy to locate. I have found many tight schools of fish so it has been a search mission finding pods of fish. I have been catching Smallmouth casting crank baits very early morning such as Berkley Flicker Shads, Rapala Shad Raps, or Xcalibur One Knocker Rattle Baits in the shallow flats looking for sandy areas such as Trinkes or Geneva, Fontana or Buttons Bay. The early morning top-water bite has been good fishing poppers and walk the dog style baits in shiner or perch patterns also. Look for fish near Maytag Point, Black Point, Fontana near Chuck’s, The Military Academy, Chicago Club and Abbey Springs. Casting for deeper fish, Booyah Football Head Jigs tipped with a Chomper or a Chigger Chunk has been producing fish around Cedar, Conference and Rainbow Points.

Northern Pike have been biting in 20-25 feet of water drifting with Lindy Rigged suckers or red tail chubs, but has been a little slow.

Walleyes have been taken trolling Berkley Flicker Shads, Smithwick Rogues, Bomber Long A’s or any minnow profile baits fishing the graveyard shift between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. Look for eyes on the deep weed flats such as Trinkes, Cisco Bay, The Military Academy and Williams Bay.

Perch have been biting in 10-20 feet of water hitting drop-shot crawlers or minnows. We have caught a few fish up to 12”, but most are ranging 6-9” in size. Pumpkinseeds and bluegill have been taken while fishing largemouth bass drifting crawlers. If anglers are targeting bluegill, most will be found in 17-22 feet of water. Drop-shotting or drifting crawlers, jigging with a Genz Worm tipped with a piece of crawler or using a jigging spoon tipped with a piece of leaf worm will produce fish. Every location I have fished for smallmouth we have caught nice gills. Black Point and Maytag Point has produced the largest fish.

The lake trout bite has been very consistent trolling early morning in 105-110 feet of water setting downriggers between 40-60 feet trolling spoons in nickel and blue or nickel and green patterns. After the sun comes up, set your riggers near the bottom out to 125 feet of water. Between Cedar and Conference Points, Yerkes and Rainbow Point have been productive areas. Many fish have been ranging 30-33” in size. I have been seeing many sizeable schools of Cisco, great to see the populations coming back!

Rock River/Lake Koshkonong

The Rock has produced nice walleyes and saugers all season long. I fished the Rock during the initial push around April fool’s Day and the bite has remained excellent.

Walleyes have been taken fishing both the Blackhawk Island area and near Newville. Slipping the current fishing 1/8 to 3/8 oz. jigs depending on the current tipped with a half crawler or a leech or a Kalin’s Lunker Grub in Chartreuse or White. Once you find a pod of fish anchoring then casting jigs has been a productive pattern. On

Koshkonong the trolling bite has really taken off with many large females being taken up to 30” in size. Trolling with crank baits such as Berkley Flicker Shads or Rapala Shad Raps in bright colors or pulling crawler harnesses has been a productive pattern. Many anglers have been patterning fish trolling and anchoring up after locating fish. Fishing small jigs under floats on mid-lake structure, rock piles or soft to hard bottom transition areas has been producing fish.

Please be careful as many hazards are starting to emerge on the lake. Many fellow boaters and anglers have been kind enough to mark logs and debris. Take care motoring as the water levels continue to drop with our dry weather.

Good Fishing All!

John Reddy a local fishing guide operates Reddy Guide Service in the Delavan area. He is a professional fishing guide and educator licensed by the Department of Natural Resources and a United States Coast Guard licensed Great Lakes Charter Captain. John is a community blogger and is not a part of The Gazette staff. His opinion is not necessarily that of the The Gazette staff or management.