Dealing with the Compact Fish of Wisconsin’s Chequamegon Bay

We were after walleye, hands down. Although we caught one that worked, the real story of the day was the bay’s well-known smallmouth bass. They were hitting jigs tipped with fatheads, crawlers, and plastics. No matter the bait, these fish were usually eager to bite. I don’t know how many there were. We didn’t count or measure them, but they were hearty fish that did everything they could to maintain the smallmouth bass’ reputation as a hard-fought angler.