The Dog Days...

[Team Otter]

...are upon us and 'the dog' is barking loud and clear. I shared my boat today with a great guy from Illinois and we chose Madison as our battleground. And, let me tell you, a battle it was. I didn't like the E wind and high sky and again, the lack of schooling gizzard shad had me scratching my head. More on that later. We started out vertical jigging some "rolling hills" of gravel in 20 - 28' of water but didn't boat anything. We then made a move over to a rip-rap and gravel area that shelved off into 14 - 16' of water and drug jigs through this area only to have the sheepies tear us up. So, we moved onto some deep rocks and resumed vertical jigging only to again come up empty handed. As 7:00 pm came near, we made the switch over to searching for schools of gizzard shad and casting to those areas holding bait with crank baits. The gizzard shad we did see were individuals or traveling in "10's", which is not typical at all of what I have observed on Madison in the past. This phenomenon I can not explain this year. What I do know for sure is that the setting of the lake this year is far different from that of last year. Last year, those fish were very predictable and holding in a pattern for up to 14 days in a row. This year is nothing like that at all. At any rate, where there were gizzard shad, there were largemouth bass and lots of them. Quantity ruled over quality but at least it was something tugging on the end of our lines. I have to believe there were 'eyes in a few of the areas we casted to but they couldn't beat those pesky bucket-mouths to the bait. I guess it's time to head back towards Tetonka.

Good luck and we'll see you on the water!

[zepman]

T.O.,

Was on the lake most of Sat. afternoon and evening. Found pretty much the same as you but I went after those largies and had just a great day of fish catching. Tied on a tandem buzzbait and worked the shoreline looking for any shad at all. When found it was lights out. Saturday had a pretty decent South wind all day so with about a half hour left of daylight I went chasing some eyes on the north end. Started out casting cranks in about 3-5 ft. with nothing going so I ended the day by trolling some shad raps in about 7-9 ft. with two quick 18" eyes comming to the boat. Wish I had decided to fish for eyes a little earlier but was having too much fun with the bass. Also had a couple of 30+ inch pike demolish the buzzbait during the course of the day. Fun day on the water.

[Muddog]

It sounds to me like the Walleyes are chasing somthing other then shad. Maybe if you look for schools of small sunnies and crappies. It is working for me on Volney. They (the bait fish) seem to like the 8-11 foot range. They are balled up and they wouldn't do that if they didin't have to.

[Team Otter]

Staging with the pannies and having a "free meal" rather than committing to shallow water...

I like the theory. Thanks Muddog.

[wplatehunter]

I was on Madison Monday night from about 6pm - 8:30pm trolling raps. We tryed from shallow to deep water changing colors and speed with no luck.

[Loves-Fishing-Guy]

I was wondering if anyone has tried leadcore on any of these fish, last weekend I fished Big Cormonrant Lake by DL & had great sucess with lead. I've also fished lead alot on lake pepin with alot of sucess with deep water walleyes in the dog days of summer. Just my .02

[Muddog]

Well being near full moon I can't wait to fish the noon hour. I went out at 5pm yesterday. I must have had 30 fish hit my lure and only hooked 1, a small eye.

[Team Otter]

Although there are fish deep, more than likely the most active schools are in less than 10' of water. With that being said, I have had decent luck in the past with snap weights and crawler harnesses over deep water so I don't know why leadcore wouldn't be a viable option.