I stumbled into this forum after fishing on Lake Mendota last week. Ran into a couple of gentlemen who were trolling the 20 ft break on maple bluff and thought to myself, geez they are doing exactly what I'm doing. People on Mendota rarely fish like I have ever since I read Buc's materials and reading his materials absolutely changed my fishing life. In years past, 4 hours on Mendota in the summer meant one or two fish if I was lucky. This summer, fishing the right depth structure for pike and I've caught countless upper 30" inchers (still a 40" virgin on Mendota though
). Asked the guys I ran into what they were trolling and they said spoonplugs, they asked me what I was trolling and I responded with a... a spoonplug. Naturally, we had an immediate connection. I chatted with the guys for 15 minutes and bought a rare JB2 from one of them (Mike). They informed me that there was a group of spoonpluggers meeting at Mendota that day. I couldn't attend the meeting, but now I'm trying to reach out and connect with this group. I look forward to hearing / meeting some of you in the future.
Do you have the Green Book? It has what's most important for you to know, the big-picture essentials, while the HSC fills all those categories in with detail. Your on-the-water time is key, however, so good job. Our guys tend to be independent in their fishing, able to explore new waters for whichever species and be confident in their success. That's one of the best parts to many! Like many I've caught my share of big pike/musky, that's what happens, but on Saturday decided to start on Monona at a LM feature identified and mapped the week before. Within earshot of a couple musky guys, I cast to the first spot (contact point) and caught zero. But on the second, 30 yds away, landed a series of LM starting with 19 1/2" on the first cast. Fun stuff. Should be a good spring area, too. It never hurts to have options. Glad you posted and welcome. Scott
