ELK MOUND BASS CLUB, BASS OPENER, and SPRING MARKET

Galen & Cole with an outstanding weigh in at their first High School event!

Blaze and James weighed-in a great bag on the Mississippi River in LaCrosse

THE WISCONSIN SEASON IS HERE!!!!

We are super excited that the Wisconsin game fish season has finally arrived! Our boys from the Elk Mound high school had a fantastic day in their first ever tournament. Galen and Cole took 6th place out of 35 teams, just a few ounces shy of 4th. Blaze and James rocked it as well with a very respectable day finishing 16th. And I am looking forward to the other Elk Mound boys getting revenge at their next tournament and lighting up the scales with heavy bass.

The 2017 Elk Mound High School Bass Fishing Team - Light the scales up, boys!!

As usual, my beautiful wife, Angela, snuck out on the opening day of fishing and hit up her secret trout streams. Like usual, she had a fantastic morning of fishing. She managed to put 12 trout in the landing net. She had to cross a creek so a camera phone wasn't an option, so she was not able to photo her biggest fish of the day in her secret spot - a giant 18" Brook Trout! She had to throw most of her fish back due to the slot limit regulations. She took some pictures of her smaller fish that she caught early on. I was so proud to hear that she gave her bag limit of beautiful delicious brook trout to a elderly trout angler who wasn't able to land any fish on the opener, and really struggled getting around the banks with his age. She made his day and I suggest when you guys see some older, hard-core anglers struggling with their day, maybe offer to help them out or give them a few fish to make them go home with a huge smile.

Angela Piontek with her first of 12 opening day trout

We worked hard getting our old 1976 Evinrude back in running condition. We had an issue with the starter, and the lower unit seals. After removing the lower unit, and pulling the inner bearing out with its oil retainers, the lower unit became leak-free and water free! Also the new starter seemed to work fantastic on Lake Menomin where we had the Crawfish Bandit General Lee Lund full throttle the Thursday before opener. We took it out the following week and ran into some fuel pressure issues and will be replacing the fuel pump in the following week, hoping we will be back on the water hammering smallmouth bass in no time. I did manage to get out on Lake Chetac while some buddies were preparing for their CWBA Tournament, and with only 20 minutes before we had to leave, I hooked into a beautiful female smallmouth. She weighed in at 3 lbs 10 oz, and was 17.75" on the bump board. She was a gorgeous fish with beautiful tiger stripes in clear water. I was proud to let her go after some nice pictures so someone else can battle her in the future.

3 lbs 10 oz Lake Chetac

Lazy Monk Brewery in Eau Claire held a Spring Market May 13th, and was kind enough to invite Alex down to run a stand selling his lures. They were looking for local vendors and wanted to showcase spring themed items.  Alex did well at the show and we were very happy with our total sales. Thanks for everyone that checked us out! It was fun to explain our lures and help the customers choose color options based on certain water clarity conditions.

ALEX AT THE SPRING MARKET at Lazy Monk Brewery in Eau Claire, WI

And our final update, our good buddies Doc and Zim went on an opening day adventure. Zim got into a few nice largemouth bass on our Flappin' Jig in Bull Bluegill color. Doc was ready to become quite impatient watching Zim get strikes while he didn't get any. He had a Flappin' Jig on as well and stuck with it until 11 am. Right before they called it quits, Doc Gilles hooked into a hog, a girthy, fat-headed slob of a bass in our "secret lake" in NW Wisconsin. When he got it in the boat, it measured 18" on the bump board, but the girth and weight for its length was ridiculous. Congrats Doc and Good Buddy Zim on another successful day on the water!! I managed to sneak out and catch one smallmouth on Old Abe lake Friday on one of Randy Henderson's Lethal Baits Poison colored tubes in garlic scent. Kevin Martinek hooked into a few with his favorite topwater lures and his best fish of the day was a really thick 14.5" smallmouth bass. The small pike were active, and Kevin had quite a few strikes from some really nice pike that hit his lures poorly and weren't able to hook up. The day improved as the water temp rose, in the morning the bite was very very slow and discouraging. Here are a few pics from Doc, Kevin, and I. Good luck fishing and send us your pics to [email protected]!!!

DOC GILLES WITH A HUGE HEALTHY THICK BASS MEASURING 18"

KEVIN M with a thick 14.5" topwater SMALLMOUTH BASS

LETHAL BAITS GARLIC-SCENTED 4" TUBE in the color "POISON"