Lake Monona

My son and wife are out now trying to troll for white bass haven't caught any yet but any help would be appreciated.  Marking fish but can't get them to go.

Haven't been out since the 20th.  Been a mix of gill fishing and chasing toothy critters. Did catch gills every weekend starting in mid November to the 17th of December.  If it would ice up that would be the first area I'd fish.  Pics are from this fall.  Went three for four this fall with Lake Wolf.  The three I got in were all landed by hand.  The only one that got away was because the guy trying to net it had too small of a net.  Fish were caught on 11/1-11/29-12/20 respectively.  Fish released after a quick pic.  All of them swam off in fine shape.  Have ended my open water seasons with Wolves the last two years. Six pound test, no leader, #4 hook, fathead minnow, small split shot. Not fishing for them.  Figure if I targeted them I'd never catch one.  
Might be some ice made this week.  I'm thinking Wingra for sure by next weekend. ​ Who knows.  ​Be safe if you do venture out later this week.  Rat.

White bass up-to 17 inches.. how many ya wanna catch? Then trolled up 1 46 inch Muskie… 2 walleyes and a pike. Great day to be out.

Joined the crowd of boats on Monona (Olin) this morning, five were on the water when I launched and a couple more came after me. Little concerned with the fog but it cleared up decent after a bit and didn't hear anyone racing across the lake at high speed. Surface temp at 36.8°F. Attached a couple snapshots. The side scan shot shows three targets close together. Dropped the camera down to verify they were three Carp and sure enough, all three sitting on the bottom and totally ignored the camera. Main goal this morning was to shoot some video of some marl depressions, those who've been to any of my seminars know the story why, but there was one boat close to them so I checked some other ones instead. If I get a chance to get out again hopefully the area will be clear and I can do my thing without irritating anyone! 

Good stuff as always, rk_diver!

Little cooler on Monona this morning without the sun, but still a great late December day! There's a ton of algae/other particulates in the water column, saving grace is taking videos during daylight. With the clouds today videos weren't as good but still acceptable. Attached photo is an old wooden paddle boat. On this, and on another structure there was just one Carp laying on the bottom. Had one large school of Carp really stirring things up by another sonar hit (too mucked up to see there). Two other boats out fishing, one had a ticket or warning on their windshield for not having a launch permit. Ranger was just leaving the lot when I pulled in. Made the bad error of stopping by Olbrich tonight after running some errands. Both parking lots were full of cars and people milling about. City could have made a ton of money ticketing cars tonight. But the launch was still iced up.

As expected Olbrich was locked up solid, with some ice going out from the breakwater towards Schluter Beach area. Went over to Olin and it was open. Water temp was 36.6°F and it was dead calm for a while. Three other boats were out, probably all chasing Muskies. Years ago I found a Windsurfer in 50 FOW and I went to take some video of it as I went by. The screengrab from the side scan shows part of the Windsurfer, on the bottom of the zoomed in area. Everything else is a very large school of Sheepshead. I shot some good video of them as some fed on the sail, but I messed something up and while everything else up to this last video came out fine, this one didn't record. They were also on a boat again not too far from the Windsurfer. Hoping to get out again tomorrow. Today was my 99th trip out this open water season, goal was to hit 100 again!

Stopped at Olbrich this morning just to verify it was iced up as expected, and it was. If anyone stops by Olin please post if it's open or not. Going to try and get out tomorrow but getting to an open landing might be tough. I'll stop by Olbrich tomorrow first and figure out what to do from there. Rick

On Monona again, would have been a good day to be out if the sun was shining, but it was fine, was dressed for it! Shot some video, one photo grab is an old fiberglass boat/motor, other one is part of an old steam dredge. No SMB seen today on any of the structure I looked at. One decent size perch was tight to the bottom by the boat. Saw one other boat out when I was playing around, two more came in at Olbrich when I was leaving. Some fuel/oil and slime floating on the surface at the launch site. Tied the boat to the pier and used the trolling motor to try and blow it away from the pier area, worked fairly well, but when I got back most had settled back in. Blew it out again before I pulled the boat out of the water. Use the trolling motor to get out past the breakwater because of the low water. Hoping to get out again this week before Christmas gets here...

Low-Tech, shoot me the coordinates via messenger and I'll look at my data and see if you're close to any of my known "lure stealers". I remember many years ago a good buddy of mine and another guy trolled over the top of the MG&E intake and lost two musky lures. Recovered both plus some other ones for them. Always mean to dive on it again to see what's stuck on it now, but just haven't taken the time to do it! Rick