Wisconsin Fishing Guide Mike Mladenik
Guiding Marinette, Oconto and Florence Counties in Northeast Wisconsin
for Smallmouth Bass, Musky and Largemouth Bass
Recognized as one of the top smallmouth bass experts in North America,
Mike is eager to share his knowledge with his clients. Besides having over
30 years of guiding experience, Mike also writes for many regional and national
publications where he also helps people catch more fish.
Fishing Articles
Menominee River Splash
Bounty makes it an angler’s paradise
July 26, 2008
Paul Smith
Milwaukee Journal Sentinal Outdoors Editor
Crivitz - The mid-morning sun is playing "now you see me, now you don't" as puffy clouds race across the Marinette County sky. One minute the Menominee River is cloaked in shade, obscuring its subsurface features. The next, as if condensation were cleared from eyeglasses, bright light penetrates the tea-colored water, revealing the river's mysteries.
Here a cluster of boulders, there a log, long and straight as a telephone pole. Upstream lies a rock bar, downstream a sandy flat peppered with clam shells.
The sun takes another temporary leave. But another secret emerges from the darkened depths just the same.
"Whoa," says Mike Mladenik of Crivitz. "We might use the net on this one."
The gift of sight is not required to know a fish is at the end of Mladenik's line. The fish leaps and splashes and peels drag from his reel.
When I grab the net and finally turn toward Mladenik, a smallmouth bass is turning its broad flank to the current some 10 feet off the bow.
"Stalemate," says Mladenik, admiring the fish's spirit and strength.
The fish eventually tires after a series of runs and I slide the net under a handsome 17-inch smallie. Mladenik plucks the hook from the roof of its mouth and turns it back to the river.
"What do you say, drift that stretch again?" says Mladenik. OK, twist my arm.
I've joined Mladenik for a day of fishing on a stretch of the Menominee known as Grand Rapids Flowage. This 22-mile piece, between the Grand Rapids Dam and the White Rapids Dam, typifies this 118-mile river that forms the northeastern border between Wisconsin and Michigan - top-notch fishing and scenery.
Mladenik, 53, grew up outside of Chicago and moved to Crivitz to work as a carpenter. When he started working more with rods and boats than hammers and saws, he switched vocations. He has been guiding on the Menominee for the last 28 years.
"This is world-class smallmouth fishing," says Mladenik, noting he has clients from as far as Texas and California. "Why? Because none of them have fishing like this."
He now fishes about 160 days a year, most of it on rivers within 50 miles of Crivitz. The smallmouth action is particularly good June through October, says Mladenik, with the biggest fish often coming in the fall.
The Menominee has been a hardworking river for much of the last two centuries. There was a time when the area's white pine and hemlock were cut and floated to Green Bay, heavily scarring the banks and denuding the landscape. Later the river was dammed for hydroelectric power.
The banks have healed naturally over time and many stretches of the flowages between dams have taken on the character of a free-flowing, wilderness river. More than half of Grand Rapids Flowage features undeveloped shores, studded with white pine and spiced with white birch.
Smallmouth are present in extraordinary number and size in the Menominee River system. A 2001 Department of Natural Resources survey of the Upper Scott Flowage on the Menoninee found 6-year-old smallmouth averaged 17 inches in length, fully 2 inches longer than the state average for smallies of the same age.
"There is an excellent forage base and good spawning habitat in the river," said Mike Donofrio, DNR fisheries supervisor based in Peshtigo. "It's a great, natural fishery that keeps producing."
The Menominee isn't unique in northeastern Wisconsin - Donofrio says the Peshtigo and Oconto rivers also offer great smallmouth fishing.
Surveys in all three rivers routinely turn up smallmouth over 20 inches - heavy, football shaped-fish that are typically at least 10 years old. Donofrio related a story of a scuba diver in the Menominee hand-feeding crayfish to opportunistic smallmouth.
That event may speak to the density, aggression and / or curiosity of smallmouth. It certainly points out a preferred food source.
"Anything that looks or acts like a crayfish gets hammered here," says Mladenik.
At times it's difficult to concentrate on the fishing. The air is scented with pine and the water winds around uninhabited islands. The area is rich with wildlife. In the first half-hour on the water, a family of common loons, two adults and a brown-headed adolescent, fishes near us and a bald eagle flaps overhead. Later a 5-foot sturgeon leaps from the water near our boat.
White-tailed deer and black bear are common in the area. Mladenik once encountered a bruin swimming across the Menominee.
The river offers a precious "Up North" quality that complements the fishing.
Mladenik repositions the boat upstream for another drift. A stout northeast wind funnels down the river, riffling the surface and buffeting the boat. Mladenik uses the bow-mount trolling motor to control the boat's drift, keeping us about 50 feet from shore.
"So much for the weatherman," says Mladenik, noting a southwest wind was predicted.
River fishing is more affected by water flows than weather, says Mladenik, so the missed forecast is of little concern. Once summer sets in and dam discharges are held fairly constant, the fishing action is dependably good. Or better.
"You can have a cold front blow through and shut down fishing on lakes, but you'll still have great fishing on the river," says Mladenik. "And there's no need to get here at the crack of dawn. I've caught some of the best fish at noon."
Mladenik and I hit the water about 9 a.m. The action starts in the first minutes, with smallmouth from 10 to 18 inches providing steady action.
We use a simple, extremely effective presentation to catch all but one of the fish: 4-inch, wacky-rigged plastic worms. This technique has gained recognition in the last decade and is now widely used by bass anglers across the country - the artificial worm is hooked in the middle, rather at one end.
A wide variety of worms is commercially available with features geared to wacky rigging. Some are impregnated with salt, which helps control the lure's density and sink rate. Others have a garlic scent. Still others have metallic flakes. And the color variety is endless.
We cast the lures out and watched our line as the bait drifted down in the water column. Most hits occurred on the initial drop.
Mladenik says some logs never made it to the mill and now sit at the river bottom, providing habitat for smallmouth and other fish. We catch fish on timber, over rocks, near grass beds and in water that has no structure at all.
In a leisurely morning and early afternoon of fishing, we catch and release 35 smallmouth, the biggest a 4-pound, 19-inch fish. We see only two other fishing boats.
After five hours, Mladenik motors back to the landing.
"In this river you get a hit and you don't know if it's 8 or 18 inches," said Mladenik. "But you always know you're going to catch fish."
| Early Summer Crankbaits |
| Posted by Mike Mladenik (bigsmallmouth) on Apr 05 2009 at 8:08 AM |
While fishing is seldom easy, there are times when finding a productive pattern requires less effort. Spending most of my life on the water I have seen many patterns change from year to year. Much depends on water levels, weather and forage, the things out of the angler's control. For me, figuring out the pattern is often a challenge that is more rewarding than the catching.
However, there are a few distinct patterns that I can count on like clockwork, which is important when you fish for a living. One pattern that has proven effective for me throughout the years is cranking the weeds during early summer. The best thing about this pattern is that is works in all types of water and for all species.
After spawning river smallmouth will recover quickly and go on the feed. With weeds being limited on most rivers, any weedgrowth at all can attract a huge concentration of smallmouth. A crankbait will quickly let you know if smallmouth are present. If you fail to catch a smallmouth with a crankbait, the odds are that no smallmouth are present.
Smallmouth will hit a variety of crankbaits and different retrieves, so you will need to fish the area effectively. Some smallmouth will be holding over shallow weeds while others will hold along the weedline at the same time, and both are aggressive. You could have a situation where you will catch five smallmouth on five different presentations.
I use both wood and plastic baits with much depending on the weather and weeds. That is why I prefer Yo-Zuri crankbaits since they are the most versatile on the market. The Yo-Zuri live bait series crankbaits are deadly on smallmouth bass. This May I had great success with Twitch'n Minnow and can't wait to use them on the river this summer. The flexible soft body, exciting dipping and diving action makes it irresistible to any smallmouth. www.yo-zuri.com
On many walleye lakes the weed bite can be phenomenal. While most anglers are aware of the weed bite they can have trouble locating walleyes. Tossing out a slip bobber and a leech may work fine once you locate walleyes but it can also be a waste of time. That is where crankbaits are deadly. For covering weeds quickly it is hard to beat either a Yo-Zuri Crystal Minnow or a Crank'n Shad. Use the Floating Crystal minnow over the weeds, the sinking Crystal minnow over the edges and the Crank'n Shad along the weedline.
The right equipment will make crankbait fishing more effective. If your rod is too light you won't get a good hookset and you will also be working harder than need be. I prefer a medium action 6' 6" casting rod like a Lamiglas XC 661 when fishing shallow weeds. www.lamiglas.com The new Lamiglas XMG 50 series, in particular the EXC 705 would also be a great choice. My reel is spooled with 10 or 12 pound Yo-Zuri Tournament Hardcore X-Tex Cobra or Yo-Zuri Hybrid.
For musky hunters June is a time for numbers. While you might not catch a wallhanger when you do locate a musky the odds of catching that fish are high. Find a fresh cabbage bed in early June and I can guarantee that muskies will be roaming the area.
Twitching shallow running crankbaits not only produces lots of muskies but it is also a fun way to fish. The weeds are sparse and you can easily twitch a bait over the fresh cabbage. Under sunny warming weather the cabbage can grow quickly and change on a daily basis. Look for open pockets within the cabbage to hold the active muskies. The weedline will hold more muskies but they tend to be less aggressive.
When twitching the crankbait over the cabbage be prepared at all times. While guiding I watch many of my clients miss a fish because they are not ready for the strike. Strikes can occur right when the bait hits the water. Make a low cast to ensure as little slack in the line as possible. Start with a slow short twitch and gradually lengthen your twitch and speed up the retrieve.
The right equipment will make crankbait fishing more effective.I use both wood and plastic baits with much depending on the weather and weeds. A wood bait like a Crane Bait is buoyant and will ride easily over the top of the weeds. The slower action of the wood bait is also deadly after a cold front. However a plastic bait like a Jake is deadly when muskies require a bit more noise and erratic retrieve. A 6' 6" or 7 foot rod, like a Lamiglas LGM 66 XH or a LGM 70 MH works well and is a personal preference.
So whether you are looking for walleye, bass or musky, find some weeds and toss a few crankbaits. This early summer pattern has proven consistent for me year after year. If you give it a try it should also be good to you.
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