Spring Smallmouth

Hello, I’m planning a spring trip to the Hayward lakes area. First week in June probably. I’ve read about the great fishing in Chequamegon Bay, however we’ll be staying in Hayward. Any recomendations for 2 or 3 lakes to try in this area.
thanks in advance
Topwater623

First off:

Welcome to IDA

I can say right off the Round lake has great smallies in it.
I am having a hard time thinking of others BUT will get you some more really soon.

Ron

I spend a lot of time fishing LCO and Grindstone. These are large, clear, connected lakes south of Hayward by ~ 15 minutes. Excellent smallie fishing. Namekagon is another lake with great smallie fishing. It is north of Hayward by ~ 30-40 minutes, kinda on the way to Cheq Bay. Round and Moose also boast excellent smallie fishing. Drop me a line if you need some more info!

PS. Probably shouldn’t forget about the rivers. The namekagon and the chippewa rivers offer dramatically underfished smallmouth populations.

there are 8-10 of us. We bring 3 bass boats.We were in Mich last year. We’ll do 4-5 mini tournaments of 4 hours each. rest of the time some go golfing, casino more fishing etc. all the fish are released. we keep them for the weigh in and pics. Here’s a pic of the first days tourny catch from my boat. weight was a little over 23 lbs.

Thanks for the suggestions. looks like we’ll fish Round, LCO, Grindstone, Owen and Cheq. bay. However looking at Wis fishing regulations I don’t think we can keep the fish in the boat until weigh in. From what I can tell you must release them immediatly unless your keeping them?! Is this true?

If you reduce a fish to possession (livewell it), it must count against your daily bag, even if you later release it. For instance, say you go out and livewell 5 bass and later weigh and release them. Once you put that 5th fish in the well, you’re done bass fishing for the rest of the day. You would not be able to livewell 5 in the morning, release them, and then livewell 5 in the afternoon, even if every fish was subsequently released.

The key passages are below. These are found on page 7 of the 2006/7 regulations:

It is illegal to sort fish. Any fish you take into possession which you do not release immediately is part of your daily bag limit even if it is released later .

It is illegal to to take, catch, kill, or fish for any variety of fish in excess of the daily bag limit.

One other thing that I should point out is that much of Sawyer and all of Bayfield county, in addition to Chequamegon bay, are in the northern bass management zone. That means that bass are catch and release only, with zero in possession, through the middle of June. If you really want to hold onto a limit of bass to weigh for competition, the trip will need to be after the general season opens in mid-June.

thanks for the info. we’ll catch, weight, photo and release on the spot. we won’t have any group fish pics. no big deal, were not betting, just fishing for fun and bragging rights for the rest of the year.

Might want to check out the Gile Flowage as well near Hurley. It’s been a few years since I’ve been there but an outstanding smallmouth fishery that doesn’t have much pressure.

All great choices to go along with a trip to the “Bay” for big smallies… With that, a closer lake or chain I should say, would be the Pike Lake Chain near Iron River. Holds a decent population of Small Mouth with some biguns to be caught.

Jim:

I’ve seen you with Gillespie (can you say “I’ve fallen & I can’t get up) and your many posts on LL, welcome to IDA. This is a great forum and the guys will love your insight.

Mark

Mark,

Thanks for the welcome.. Yeah, pretty crazy time last year with Gillespie.. But we still managed to catch fish!!

Hey Jim…..Hows early ice fishing up yonder????/
Might have to try

Mud

First ice bite is pretty good.. On all species in the bay… Trouts/Salmon.. big smallies through the ice… perch… walleyes…

And inland waters hold some great opportunities as well.. Shoot me an e-mail if you want to talk more…

Was out today checking lakes and found minimal ice cover. Probably mid next week will be the start for me.

Thanks Tom!!

Sounds good, I’m gonna talk to the boss….he has work in Superior that needs to be serviced once a month so I’ll hit him up for a ride and maybe we can get over there.

Thanks again