Turtle Flambeau Flowage, Iron County (all postings)

Luke, Kelly and 10yr. old Brody who caught the biggest bass, walleye, and perch' 18-3/4" smallmouth, released, we kept a 15-1/8". It's a good day for me when we have our shore lunch in the livewell 45min into the day. stringer pic. at lunch.

I'm getting old these were the" young" guys I fished with yesterday (middle 30's) easy day for me, very good fisherman. Cory, Kurt and Jerrod.

We've had some nice fish the last couple days both smallmouth and walleye, also catching nice perch and a random crappie now and then. We haven't been catching numbers of fish off any one spot with the exception today getting several perch and a few walleye off of one stop. It's been a lot of moving and searching for fish in deeper wood structure(12-22')casting 1/8oz. jigs slow retrieve 1/2 crawler or leech, some on slip bobbers. Not always bringing in limits but always getting fish. Today we had a good spot in 7' complete flat water and sunny, you need to be fishing weeds or some pretty snaggy wood to get them shallow with those conditions, it was wood we were fishing. Yesterday we did find a spot, end of an under water rock bar in 10-12' with nice boulders that had walleyes on it, we caught a good one and lost 2or 3 others at the boat. Yesterday we were having bad luck losing fish, the guys were setting the hook hard and keeping tension on the fish but we lost at least a half doz. walleyes almost to the boat, myself included.

Every time out ,I give my schpeel about setting the hook hard, they're med-light rods with mono that stretches etc. etc. , cross their eyes! You can't set the hook to hard!

Only twice have I had to take back those words. Both to tournament bass fisherman. We were in the 10-12' boulders, Cory got a walleye bite right next to the boat, I reached for the net, he set the hook so hard all I heard was a snap! I thought he broke the rod, but the snap was the 6lb. line. Man! Cory not that hard! we all started laughing.

Had a deviation from the hunt for all walleyes all day. we were actually looking for walleyes when we found perch and blue gills (shallow 4' weeds) have to say it is a lot of fun catching pan fish, makes you feel like a kid again. I enjoyed the shore lunch today as much as my five fishing guests from Illinois (tag-a-long boat)often I just have beans, cole slaw and potatoes and onions , I don't want to eat fish 5 or 6 days a week, the perch and blue gills today were some fine dining.

We did have time for walleyes we kept 5 released some smaller fish, one 13" crappie in with the walleyes wood in the 12-16' range.

Had a drink after fishing in their cabin at the Deadhorse, very nice accommodations. I've cleaned a lot of fish in the Deadhorse's fish cleaning house but first time launching my boat at their private landing, nice.

I'm thankful to have another morning guide trip, but when I noticed the deck of cards and the Tupperware containers of quarters on the kitchen table it was tempting to join the poker game, I declined, that's a winter pursuit.

Nice sharing time with people on the TFF it is an awesome body of water.

there are two bait shops in town, right across the street from each other. one is called Turtle river trading company, the other i think is Flambeau flowage sports. both have good bait in summer, and both generally have plenty of the weedless jigs to use on the flowage. I usually go to turtle river because they are open when i need them in winter. In a pinch, the ICO station in town has crawlers and sometimes leeches.

I will be coming up to fish next Thusday-Sunday and putting in at Murray's Landing. We will spend Wed night in Mercer. Does anyone have a good spot for picking up some crewlers and leeches in the Mercer area that we can get before we head out? Thanks.

Quick report before later morning start.

Fishing sat. morning was some of the slowest of the season, afternoon was a little better, don't know why nice wind blowing, the water temp. had dropped from the week of cold weather? We caught fish but not typical #'s. Sunday improved but had to fish a lot of spots to come up with walleyes and perch some nice sm. Yesterday the fishing seemed to be back on track we had a good day for walleyes and perch.

Some of what we fished were deeper (12-20') spots. One advantage of the deeper spots is the ability to sometimes be able to see the fish on your electronics. Often not fishing spots after driving over them (seems like cheating, but I'm in the fish catching business). Another advantage is the fact that you can drive over them without spooking the fish. Learn to know what the deep wood looks like on your screen.

Been fishing mostly crawlers for the walleyes. Gotta go! Jeff

"On our way off Saturday we saw a sunken boat. On Sunday morning it was on a trailer at the Springstead ramp. does anyone have info on what happened? is everyone ok?"

No one was hurt. The boat was overloaded with 4 people, coolers, firewood and towing kayaks. One of the kayaks started taking on water and when they stopped to empty the kayak 3 people were at the stearn and the water just flowed over the stearn and filled the boat. It sunk almost immediately.

We fished TFF Sat & Sun. Caught a mix of walleye, smb & northern but not great size or numbers. Most fish caught on 1/8 oz jigs & 1/2 crawler/leech. Best numbers of walleye caught in stumps in 8 to 12 row. We had a hard time on Saturday the wind made it tough to fish several mid lake humps I've had success on before. On the bright side, we discovered quite a few new spots because we couldn't fish some of the mid lake humps.

more pics from the weekend.

I had the pleasure of introducing 4 new guys to the TFF this weekend. Friday we did well on walleyes and smallmouth bass drifting the flats as well as rock piles. Saturday and Sunday we fished the same areas before moving to an area with more wood. We caught walleye, bass, perch, and pike. We had a 45-50 inch musky on as well. fought it on light tackle for over a half hour before it got wrapped around a stump and was able to shake the hook. Most fish ended up coming off of crank baits and in-line spinners.

On our way off Saturday we saw a sunken boat. On Sunday morning it was on a trailer at the Springstead ramp. does anyone have info on what happened? is everyone ok?

The Springstead Landing is the largest landing and should accommodate a 20' boat.

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Sorry, not a report. Which landing do you guys recommend for launching a 20' boat? Thanks.

I would go back through the tousands of posts that Bobber Down puts up here on a daily basis. He puts up tons of good information. There are fish all over the flowage. Use his reports to do the same type of fishing in your section of the lake.

I'm taking my 12 year old for a camping/fishing trip in 2 weeks and was just wondering if someone could point me in a general direction. Ive never been on this body and am a little overwhelmed by the size. If someone could just give me an idea of an area with a decent amount of fish activity it would be much appreciated. Thanks!

The walleye bite yesterday was very good we didn't find big fish but did catch a lot of fish up to 15". We caught and released some 16-18" smallmouth. Fish were caught on slip bobbers, casting 1/8 oz. slow falls, a few on dead sticks, a number of fish were caught vertical jigging, crawlers and leeches were used for bait.

One area that produced a number of fish was the windward edge of an 8' flat, the fish were not up on the 8' but on the edge in 10-11' there were stumps on the edge of the flat. We also did well fishing 13-14' areas with sand bottom, some rocks and stumps, a great combination.

Friends Sam and Dillon came to Mercer from southern Wisconsin to fish, their six friends came to four wheel. There are some great trails in the Mercer area for four wheeling.