“Wisconsin Fishing with Pete Stoltman”

Part 1: Fishing for Smallmouths

Editor’s Note: Pete Stoltman of St. Germain, Wisconsin, host of the Internet radio show, “Regular Fishin’ for Regular Guys,” guides and fishes for muskie and other species of fish, including bass, bluegill, perch, walleye and crappie on every lake in northern Wisconsin. “There are a couple hundred lakes in the county where I live,” Stoltman says. “So, I choose the lake to match the species of fish my clients want to catch.” Stoltman also works at Rollie and Helen’s Musky Shop (www.muskyshop.com), the world’s-largest tackle shop devoted to muskie fishing, in Minocqua, Wisconsin. The shop supplies fishing tackle, including Mepps’ products, to any part of the world where fishermen target big pike and/or muskie. This week, Stoltman tells us where he finds fish in Wisconsin and how to catch them.

Question: Pete, how long have you been fishing with Mepps lures?

Stoltman: I’ve been using Mepps lures since the early 1960s when I was a kid. Back then, you couldn’t fish in Wisconsin without a Mepps Aglia. I was successful using Mepps lures as a kid, so I’ve continued to use their products throughout my life. I especially like to fish with Mepps spinners, because you can catch a wide variety of fish with them. As a guide, I’ve continued using Mepps lures to ensure my clients’ success.

Question: When do you begin fishing in your region, and what do you catch?

Stoltman: We usually don’t get ice off the lakes until the end of April or the beginning of May here in Wisconsin. Then we begin fishing for smallmouth bass. We fish many rivers in our region for smallmouths.

Question: What river do you mostly fish for smallmouth bass?

Stoltman: I concentrate on the Wisconsin River and the surrounding streams. The Wisconsin River is several-hundred-miles long, so I have plenty of water to fish. During the beginning of May, the Wisconsin River is a small stream where smallmouths are abundant and grow to be a good size.

Question: What bait do you use, Pete?

Stoltman: I’ve found that the Aglia Streamer works best. The color combination I’ve found most effective is the silver blade-white tail. I’ll use a medium-weight spinning rod and reel with 8-pound-test line, casting the bait upstream. Since smallmouth tends to hold in eddy breaks behind rocks, darting into the current to catch and eat their bait and then pulling back into those eddy breaks, waiting for more bait to move down the river, I direct the bait around rocks and boulders as I retrieve it. Sometimes I’ll have to retrieve the Aglia Streamer fairly fast to make the blades turn when there’s a great deal of current in the river.

Question: What rod-and-reel combo do you use when fishing for smallmouths?

Stoltman: I use a 6-foot, 6-inch medium-heavy Fig Rig Custom Fishing Rod with a Shimano Sedona Spinning Reel.

Question: What size smallmouths do you catch?

Stoltman: Some of the smallmouth we catch can be as small as 12 inches, while others will be 20-inches long, weighing 4 to 5 pounds. On a typical day, during 4 hours of fishing, we’ll wade a river and catch around 20 smallmouths.

Question: What made you first decide to use the Mepps Aglia Streamer?

Stoltman: When I received the Mepps catalog a few years ago, I looked at the Aglia Streamer and thought, “That looks an awful lot like a minnow. I’ll bet that Aglia Streamer will catch plenty of smallmouths.” I ordered a couple of Aglia Streamers to test, and their effectiveness surprised me. Before I used the Aglia Streamer, I fished for smallmouths with a Mister Twister Curly Tail Grub. I found that the smallmouths wanted a faster-moving bait that they didn’t have time to look at before the strike. I needed a bait that would fly past the smallmouths and cause them to bite instinctively.

I noticed that I caught more bass using the Aglia Streamer than with the Mister Twister Curly Tail Grubs and jigheads. New catch-and-release regulations in Wisconsin have caused me to start using the Mepps’ Aglia more often. Under the new regulations, fishermen only can use barbless artificial lures, so I’ve started pinching down the barbs on the Aglia Streamer, which allows for a good hook-up rate and causes fewer instances of lost bass.

To fish with Pete Stoltman, call (715) 542-4142, email him at pjs53@frontiernet.net, or visit www.lastcastguideservice.com. You also can listen live to Stoltman’s radio show on his website from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm CST on Sunday evenings..