Long Grove area???

We are going to be on the Wapsi the last weekend in July during the Bix, weather permitting. I am not sure where we are putting in at exactly, other than it will be in the Long Grove area. My brother lined up a 12ft jon and a 5horse to go explore in.
We will probably be tossing spinnerbaits and cranks, and drifting crawlers, and of course a little Sonnys Super Sticky. At least that is the game plan. We have never fished this area so it will definitely be an adventure.

Any one care to comment on what we might want to try? We are after Fish, whether they are carp, cats, pike, or walleye. We may keep a fish or two if we do any good, but usually they go back. Either way I will post our results. Thanks.

Ive fished the wapsi quite a bit over the years, heres what i would do. If your looking for catfish or walleyes look for logs and fish the hole around them. If your going just for walleyes look for rocky shorelines and sand bottoms where theres deeper water around, fish the whole area. Shallower water in the wapsi has never produced many walleyes for me, its always been deeper water next to shallows. Drifting and jigging with nightcrawlers is a good way for walleyes in the wapsi. You should do fairly well on smallmouths too with nightcrawlers around rocky shorelines and sand dropoffs in the channel. Another way id try is drifting nightcrawlers anywhere under a slip bobber and about 6″ to a ft’ off the bottom, i think this should produce pretty well.

Well, the day could not have gone worse for us. We put in off the side of the road and when my brother went to put the motor (5hp merc) on the back of the 12’ Jon, he lost his balance and went in head first, motor and all. How he managed to keep hold of the motor and still crawl in to shore is beyond me. Any way, we head way up river, scouting good spots that we will hit on the way back. We stop at a sand bar; get everything into “fish” mode, and NO crawlers. My whole plan and confidence level went downhill from there. I did manage to throw net some shad and what looked like large shiners to use as cut bait. We worked about everything from deep to shallow, lots of logs to no logs, current to no current and could not get anything bigger than bait. Even Sonny’s Super Sticky only brought out the “peckers”. Crankbaits, and spinner baits didn’t even produce a stripey. Lots of lessons learned though. So I will chalk this one up as a scouting mission. And hopefully next time we will figure something productive out.
Thanks again.

It Happens this time of year when the waters warm up, were just starting in on the dog days. I don’t know the wapsi where your at but if you can find some rocky shorelines, that would be the spot id fish during the day. At night i’d fish the logs for catfish. During the dog days it does slow down enough to be frustrating. If you tried a couple spots with sonny’s and no bites its a very bad spot or the water temperature, you should have gotten a couple bites,,,good luck.