May fishing on the big Chip

By John Myhre

While the Chippewa Flowage may be best known as the lake that produced Louie Spray’s world record musky and as a quality musky fishery, it produces some great fishing for other species too. From the opener in early May usually through June you can find good fishing for northern pike, crappie, bluegill, and walleyes. However, with over 15, 000 surface acres it can be a little intimidating for the first time angler on this water.

So much water, and different water on top of that. What I mean by different water is it’s almost like fishing many different waters all in the same lake. From river fishing to dark water, to clear water and everything between, the flowage has it.

So while there is in fact good Spring fishing in many areas on the lake, rather than tackle the whole lake, this article focuses on the West side and in particular the North Central part of the West side.

As you head West from the bridge on Hwy. CC that divides the flowage one of the first things you’ll notice is the water is clearer with less stain. Also you’ll notice there’s quite a few more weeds and some nice cabbage beds.

Still a lot of water though, so where do you start? Well. I guess that depends on when you are fishing in the spring and for what. Still, while location will vary some from May to June, you won’t have to move far.

Lets start out with early May and the opener.

Depending on the year and water temperatures things can be a little different right after the opener. If it’s been a late spring and cooler you probably won’t find much as far as weeds yet but you can still expect to find the fish shallower. Often in only 2 or 3 feet of water.

Areas along shorelines with gravel bottom and a little wood cover or where you find bogs or pieces of bogs blown into shore are some of my favorites for the walleyes. If you can find some wood in the back of sheltered bays you generally will find panfish and northerns there. One big tip here is look for beaver houses and food piles in these shallow bays. Lots of wood and brush in these areas and fish love them.

Then as the Spring progresses and the water warms farther, I still stay shallow but start to look for weeds. For pike, panfish, and even walleyes shallow areas where some of the first weed growth gets going are areas like Dorazio bay, the areas off Canary Island, Horseshoe, and just outside of the entrance to Crane creek . Also check out all the entrances to Scott lake, Crane Creek, and the North and West bays in Crane lake. All these areas tend to produce good shallow action early.

While live bait presentations will still catch walleyes at this time, don’t overlook catching them on lures too. All too often lures like Rapala’s, Rattle Traps, and Beetle Spins will out produce everything else when the fish are in the weeds. And casting the shoreline is almost always a good bet in the evenings right from opening weekend on through June.

Then finally as we start to get into June and water temps start to approach summer , while weeds are still a factor and produce fish, also now you want to start looking at the deeper bog brush and sunken bogs in 10 to 25 feet of water. The areas between the Bananas, all around Eagle island, and both South and East of Birch island are but a few areas with a lot of sunken bogs. To find good areas and bogs you need to rely on your locator and know how to use it. What you are looking for is rises in the bottom from 18 to 20 or so feet to as shallow as 10 feet or less. Once you find the top of a bog drop a marker on it and go over it and closely look at it on your locator. Usually you will find one side with a little steeper drop off and that side usually will have more brush and fish on it. Look for the fish to be deeper on that drop during sunny days and moving up near the top in the evening and on overcast days. Here anchoring over the drop and fishing it with jigs tipped with live bait is about the best bet when they are deeper and when they move shallow fish the tops with slip bobber rigs and leeches.

Whether you start out on the West or East side, the best way to learn how to fish the Chip is to learn and concentrate on one small area at a time and then branch out to new areas.

Hope some of these tips help you enjoy your time on the Flowage and good luck.

JHM

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