With the recent addition of some weekly newspapers to my reading area, new readers are wondering why I occasionally relate a Wisconsin adventure. About 13 years ago, Betsy, my wife, sat up in bed one morning and announced that she wanted to move to Wisconsin. Two of our three daughters and their families live in the Madison, WI area. Though Betsy certainly deserved to live wherever she wished after tolerating me for all these years, I was horrified. In desperation, I offered Betsy and the girls a compromise. Wagner would remain our home, but we would downsize our SD home and buy a second home in Wisconsin where we would spend 4-5 months of the year closer to family. The deal was made.

How would this affect the sportsman in me? For me, hunting is more or less nonexistent. Deer are plentiful, but places to hunt aren’t. There are no pheasants, but there are ruffed grouse up north on public land. That didn’t matter. For sure, October, November, and most of December would be spent in South Dakota. That part of our agreement was nonnegotiable.

What about fishing? Wisconsin has much to offer. One can pursue muskies – the fish of a thousand casts. Other than being a great salmon fishery, The Great Lakes, Michigan and Superior, offer superb walleye and smallmouth bass fishing. But these are neither close to home nor easily accessible for a guy like me. What easily accessible fishing do I have?

The Wisconsin River, with its clean flowing water often running over or around sandbars, empties into the Mississippi River at Prairie Du Chien. This fishing is less than an hour’s drive. Much of the shoreline is undeveloped and appears as it did 200 years ago. I once asked Devils Lake walleye pro Johnnie Candle about his favorite walleye tour destination. He didn’t hesitate in naming Prairie Du Chien.

A Chain of lakes running northwest to southeast lies in the Madison area, Mendota and Monona being within city limits. Mendota, the largest, covers 9740 acres. Monona is second largest with a surface area of 3359 acres. Waubesa with its 2074 acres borders the southeast edge of Madison and Kegonsa with its 3206 acres lies to the south. This past week, Tom, my son-in-law, and I spent three half-days fishing Kegonsa and Mendota.

Other than being incredibly patient looking after my needs, Tom might be the most talented angler I’ve ever accompanied. Using his high-tech equipment, he was adamant about placing the boat exactly where he wanted it. He then determined what baits and presentations worked best. As a result, we took well over a hundred fish, primarily walleyes and smallmouth bass. Our chunky bluegills went over ten inches in length. When he said, “Let’s try for some white bass,” trolling Cicadas, a Heddon product, produced immediate results. We also took some nice northern pike.

I invariably learn something when I fish with Tom. This time I learned how effective live leeches are. I had never before fished leeches. Other than being fish magnets, those leeches worked hard at attaching themselves to my fingers while I worked to put a hook through them. Casting a leech on a weedless jig was extremely effective on Kegonsa. Not so on Mendota. The Mendota walleyes and smallmouth bass preferred a leech on a hook fished beneath a slip-bobber. What amazes me the most about this Madison chain is just how good the fishing is in a city of 263,000 people. I’ve got to credit Wisconsin DNR management.

Tom’s son and identical twin daughters, my grandchildren, are fishing addicts. The girls, seniors on full academic scholarships at the University of Wisconsin – Madison, are currently busy with research projects so my favorite fishing partners are out of town. Note the photograph. Gabrielle is studying the effects of smelt as a walleye forage base in northern Wisconsin while Grace is in the Galapagos Islands studying sea turtles. They’re both thinking grad school.

See you next week.