Beaver Dam Lake Fishing Report – May 22th, 2019, Fishing a New Lake

Finally, spring may have come to Wisconsin.  After a very wet,  unseasonable cold and long stretch of weather that is more associated with late October than spring, it looks like it’s finally warming up and drying out.  Bass fishing league this week was on Beaver Dam Lake in Beaver Dam, WI.  It’s a larger, shallow, dirty water lake that is known for catfish and tearing up boat motors due to plenty of hidden underwater obstructions.  

When we arrived at our launch several hours early the wind was howling at 20-30 mph directly into the launch making launching challenging…and a bit dangerous.  We contacted the head of the league and he moved the launch. We moved over there and started scouting.

Conditions:

• Partially cloudy
• 70+ degrees, first warm day after weeks of high 40’s, low 50’s and rain
• Windy as all get out.  20mph to 30 mph from the SW. stacked up waves around 2′ to 3′
• Dirty dingy water.  About 4″ of visibility
• Water temps – 58 to 60 degrees

This was also my first time fishing Beaver Dam Lake. I’d never boated it or even fished it from shore, and considering the waves and reputation for tearing up motors, I was a bit tentative. Thankfully one of the other guys in our league was there.  We got to talking, and upon hearing I’d never been on the lake he shared a bunch of information on how to navigate the lake safely.  Completely appreciated.  He even shared the part of the lake he was heading to and gave us some things to look out for.

I should have taken his advice on the part of the lake to fish… but I’ve never been a fan of following the crowd… and I didn’t want to fish the same area as the guy who told me of the area out of respect. We took off and after a very wet ride, we fished a sheltered area that was getting current pushed into them around a point and islands that were fully exposed to the wind.  Nothing… not even a bite.  During practice we tried a few areas more in the wind, but boat control was very challenging.

Ryan’s dogfish on Beaver Dam Lake

We moved across the lake to another sheltered area that I had seen on the lake map, but didn’t scout ahead of time.  Kinda glad we did.  We found the best weeds we had seen and caught some fish in that area.  My partner, Ryan landed a really nice burbot dogfish/bowfin.  While not what we were targeting, it put up a heck of a good fight.  Considering it was nearing sunset, dirty water conditions, weeds just up to the service and the relative calmness of the bay were were in, it screamed top water bite.  After we switched, we finally started getting a few bass to hit.  Ryan landed the first, and our only keeper bass, on a buzz bait, and he had a few more swipe at it. Then we ran out of time.

Since the water was so dark and visibility was so limited, we focused on the fish with baits that made noise or gave off heavier vibration like spinner baits, chatter baits, lipless and square billed crankbaits.  Lighter colors of baits just didn’t show well in the water and darker ones showed off better and contrasted better.  It revealed to me that I have a distinct lack of black, dark brown, and dark blue baits. I normally fish clearer bodies of water… so that makes sense. But it means I need to go shopping since we are going to fish that same lake several more times this year. 

As the sun went down and our evening ended, the wind subsided making for  a much smoother ride back. 

Others in our league reported catching 5-6 keeper bass.  The winning weight was around 6.5 lbs (for 2 bass). Those who did well pretty much all ran to the same part of the lake … you know… the one we were told about.  I need to be better at taking advice… and considering it was a new lake, it might have made sense to follow the crowed and expand from there. Something to keep in mind in the future.  But I also never want to crowed out a fellow angler or steal a spot they arrived at or told me about.  It’s still a matter of respect on the water.  I don’t want to be “that guy”.

Thoughts for next time – I need some baits for fishing dark and dirty water (more black/blue combinations).  And when fishing an unfamiliar lake, it may be a good idea to fish where those more familiar with the water are fishing or advised and expand out from there.  Stop always trying to start from scratch.  Stand upon the shoulders of giants and learn from them.