Menominee River at Marinette 4/27-4/28 Fishing Reports

[Hydroman857]

This report covers the Menominee River in Marinette, WI for April 27-28, 2005.
I realize this is an old report, but I really don't think things have changed too much, because the weather has been cold and water temperatures haven't warmed up since then.

I had been doing some work at the last hydroelectric plant upstream from Green Bay, and one of the operators said that the walleyes and splake were biting in the tailrace below the dam.  I had accidentally left a spinning rod in the back of my truck from a Lake Fork, TX fishing trip two weeks before, so I went to Wally World, got my fishing license, and picked up some floating Rapalas in perch color (the hot bait).

After a long day of work, I finally got out to take a few casts at about 10:00pm (this was on the 27th).  By this time, it was dark and fairly cold.  On my second cast I had a nice walleye (about 25 inches) on the line below me.  Unfortunately, I was a little slow with the net and it got off.  On almost every other cast after that, I had at least one bite with sometimes two or three bites on the same cast.  I finally quit after an hour with the final tally of only a 5 pound splake and a 15 inch walleye to the net.  Score for the evening . . . . . . . . fisherman: 2 – fish: 57.

The next day (the 28th), I finished up with work at 5:00pm and went back to the tailrace with one of the plant operators to try it again.  Earlier in the day, I had talked with another local, and he told me that the walleyes were "stacking up" around Stephanson Island further downriver, but I had so many hits in the tailrace the night before, I decided to pass on going downstream.  It was pretty much the same for the next few hours as it was the night before, except that we were hooking into more sturgeon.  Sturgeons and walleyes and splake . . . . . OH, MY!  In the two hours that we fished, we had about a jillion bites, but only landed a few walleyes and a few more splake.  Finally, I hooked into a sturgeon, and it took off downriver.  In just a few seconds, it peeled out all my main line and half of my backing.  My poor little spinning reel was screaming with pain, and, when I tried to put the breaks on by grabbing onto the spool, I could feel the heat through my glove.  All I could do was point my rod at it and say fisherman's prayer #72 (Oh, lord . . . . . . I'll never cuss again if you only leave me with my $5.00 Rapala).  Well, no one was listening this time, because my lure, line, and dignity stayed with the fish.  That seemed like a good enough time to wrap up the evening . . . . fishing trip FINISHED.

Now, hold on a minute . . . . . this is a bass fishing Internet site.  Why am I going on about all these rough fish?  The answer is: I usually catch a lot of smallmouth bass in the Menominee.  In fact, my catch ratio is 3:1 or more to other species . . . . . and there are usually a few really big smallies (there's an oxymoron for you) caught every time I go there.  In a round about way, the report is that the smallies aren't biting, yet.  They might be there, but they sure aren't trying.  I'll be looking for them on the next trip around Memorial Day.

Life is good . . . . . . .
Hydroman45

[Mike Cork]

Thanks for the update. We like reading about all kinds of fishing. Sorry to hear about your rapala  but at least to got to tangle with a big fish for a bit