Outdoor Reports & Tips

Throughout the season you can come and visit this page for the most current Outdoor Reports and tips for fishing the Rhinelander area.

For more fishing reports check out Hodag Guide Service - CLICK HERE

Weekly Rhinelander Area Outdoor Report from Mitch Mode of Mel's Trading Post:

June 30th, 2009

The hot weather of last week blew away on gusty winds over the weekend and has not been seen since. Fishing, which was not all that bad, took a real shot and has not yet recovered. Snappy winds kept anglers fighting to hold boats in position and fish that had been cooperative pretty much shut down. The best we can hope for is a gradual warming trend and more stable weather that may bring fishing back in time for the 4th of July weekend.

When fish start to bite again we think we'll find most of them in slightly deeper water than 10 days ago when it was last pretty good. Then the bluegills were still in the shallows and muskies had moved in after them. That period is past.  Muskies should be in deeper water off the drop-off on most lakes. This will vary with water emperors. Its cooler now than a week ago and it all depends on how fast water temperature comes back up to seasonal norms.  We'd use mid-depth crankbaits and bucktail spinners during the day and toss some larger surface lures later when it's less windy.

Walleyes should be in deeper water near weed beds. This is the time of the year when crawlers will usually outperform minnows so look to make that adjustment in bait. Evenings are best unless we get some good cloud cover during the day.  Walleyes have been slow going into the cold weather of this week. We don't expect them to come back red-hot but they should be feeding consistently. One factor throwing fishing success off is the ongoing mayfly hatch which brings large amounts of natural food into the cycle. Walleyes often gorge on mayfly nymphs and ignore all else.

Bass fishing will improve this week. Largemouth should be responding to surface lures in evening and now is a good time to find a weedless frog imitation and throw it into weedy cover. That and some active surface lures will usually produce largemouth in early July.

Smallies are in deeper water. Look for fish cribs and rocky areas in deeper water. Deep running crankbaits and minnow imitations will put smallies in the boat.

All this will hinge on weather. The long-range forecast is for warmer, more stable weather into the weekend and that should mean improved fishing success.

Best Fishing Times....

January - February - March - April - May - June

July -  August - September - October - November - December