THE MOST COMPREHENSIVE FISHING LIBRARY FOR WISCONSIN BASS FISHING

PRESENTED BY

Published articles by Andrew Ragas. The most comprehensive bass fishing library for Wisconsin bass fishing and across the Midwest.

  Wherever you live in the Midwest, I’m willing to bet a fortune there’s a major river system located a drive away that’s teeming with big smallmouths. If you’re willing to explore and find them, prepare yourself for some life-changing events and newfound fishing addictions.
  Up here, the seasons can change in a flash and weather patterns evolve quickly. As lake surface temperatures slightly warm, bass instinctively sense these changes and go on the move.
  We’re well past ice-out, and by now anglers have greater open water fishing opportunities presenting themselves. Ponds, flowages, drainage lakes, backwaters, swamps, rivers, and channels would be such places to start looking at.
  Usually by late April, another spring season has arrived – for me, anyways. The cabin gets opened for the year, I pick-up my boat from winter storage, and scramble to make preparations to fish within the next day or two. It’s the most exciting time of the year!
  My region’s river systems provide some of the best and most exciting smallmouth fishing early and late in the year. This year (2024), will remain to be seen, as we are in a major drought right now.
  In my region, the spring season is short and condensed, lasting from ice-out through spawn. Its duration varies each year, as it relates to both.
  Spring offers early season largemouth opportunities and a bevy of shallow water action. Largemouths awaken quickly from their winter dormancies to feed heavily in preparation for their impending spawn. At fisheries they’ve been dialed in, their whereabouts and behavioral tendencies can be predictable. April and May will be the best two months to try
  Cold weather and water temperatures affect anglers more mentally than physically. Cold affects smallmouths too, but not as drastically as it does to humans. Isn’t it funny how smallmouths are heartier than people?
  From shallow sloughs and oxbows winding off of major river systems, to the slop-choked bays and flood plains of lowland flowages, and the ditches and small creeks inletting into drainage lakes, backwaters offer unreachable populations of big largemouths that are least pursued.
TOP
Book Trip