Kewaunee Trout Fishing

Took one final ride out to Kewaunee in hopes of learning a new spot and catching a few fish.  At 9:30 on Friday night my friend called to let me know he wouldn't be able to make it due to his girlfriend being sick.  My mission to learn new water became a bit compromised at this point, since 3 lines makes it tough to learn a new river spot that is 100 yards long!  Despite the news, I set my alarm for 5am and made it to the spot by 6:30 to give it my best shot.

The weather was perfect, calm, warm, and overcast with the barometric pressure around 29.50.  I knew that if there were fish around, they would be biting.  As I trekked in on foot over a half mile to get to the spot, I found that someone had fished this spot the day before, since there were open holes all over the place, and tracks in the snow that had fallen that morning.  There was also a large area of blood on the ice where a fish had been bled out.

I was a bit frustrated at this point, because I could clearly see that this area had been pounded hard just a day prior.  Despite not liking what I saw, I set my 3 Automatic Fisherman in different parts of the river and waited.  There is just something about being all alone with nothing but wilderness surrounding you that is special.  Within 20 minutes, I watched as my bobber began to raise on the furthest Automatic Fisherman.  I sprinted over to it as I wached the unit trip, only to find that the fish had chewed up the spawn sac and escaped.

Over the next half an hour, this same Auto went off 2 more times with the same result each time!  For whatever reason, the fish wasn't getting the hook in it's mouth before the Auto would trip!  Turns out this was all the action I would have in this area, despite moving my Automatic Fisherman several times and trying different presentations.  It was now 9:30, and my confidence in this spot had dwindled, so I packed up and headed to the Harbor.

My friend Josh had been fishing the Harbor all morning, and never had a bite, but I knew there were Trout in there and figured my odds were better there than in the river.  By 10:00, I was once again fishing, this time I set 2 Automatic Fisherman and decided to jig with a new ice fishing lure I had been sent to try out for Dynamic Lures.

The HD Ice, as it is called, is a 2" jigging lure that looks like a shad or small minnow.  It has a rattle inside, and gives off quite the vibration when jigged upwards.  I began jigging the HD Ice, and within minutes had a large fish fly up to it on my flasher!  Unfortunately I must have done something the fish didn't like, and as fast as it showed up, it was gone!  I continued jigging, attracting the occasional fish, and even had one on briefly before losing it under the hole.

At noon, Josh had enough and decided to head home.  I told him that I would give it until 12:30 and then do the same.  I had not yet been skunked this year for Trout, and really didn't want to tell the wife that I didn't catch a thing today!  At 12:20, I glanced over to one of my Automatic Fisherman, and noticed the bobber seemed to be raised a bit higher than I had it set at.  I watched it for a little while, and then decided to walk over and check it.  As I began walking towards it, the bobber rose all the way up and set the Auto!  It was now a mad dash to the tip up!

As I was only a step away from the Auto, I watched the rod tip go still, the fish had gotten off!  I was really disappointed, as I was now 0-4 on bite on my Autos today, which is very rare!  I quickly put a new spawn sac on and dropped it back down the hole.  I began walking away towards my jigging hole, when I heard the unit pop again!  This time I was able to get there in time and land a nice 6 pound Buck Brown Trout!

The fish immediately spit up 5 Shad onto the ice, which isn't surprising considering I was marking bait everywhere I tried jigging!  This had to be the same fish I had just missed less than a minute prior, which proves that these fish will come back after the Auto trips in their face!

After a few pictures, I quickly sent him back down the hole to grow up and be caught again!  I then packed up and called it a day, which was sad considering I have no plans of chasing Trout for a few weeks, since I have a Little Bay de Noc trip planned for Walleyes in a couple weeks, and also some scouting for the Sturgeon Spearing season!