Tough conditions on Lake Nokomis

Saturday, June 29 brought the second stop for anglers in the Wisconsin Bass Team Trail. The anglers took on Lake Nokomis on a tough, windy day. Of the 30 teams who fished, only 11 were able to bring in a limit of fish.

Pat Kilbey and Justin Borski took second place in the WBTT Lake Nokomis event with 15.96 pounds.
(Photo by Beckie Gaskill/
Lakeland Times)

It seemed as though the lake had recently been chemically treated for Eurasian water milfoil, which had already choked some bays and shallow areas to the point where they were almost unfishable despite the apparent treatment in some places, which was confirmed by several riparian owners over the course of the day. A few teams saw a largemouth or two floating in some areas and wondered if it might have something to do with that recent chemical treatment.

Many teams came to weigh-in talking about nearly impossible conditions on some of their favorite spots simply due to the high winds. With all these things in play, to say it was a difficult day would be an understatement.

There were 95 fish brought in by those 30 teams who braved the conditions and only four teams were unable to boat a legal bass. Of those fish brought in, 53 were smallmouth and 42 were largemouth. 

Over five pounds separated first through fifth place at the end of weigh-in. The team of Kacey Meyer and Robin Pester, who are always tough to beat, won the day with 17.10 pounds of smallmouth. Pat Kilbey and Justin Borski, also no stranger to the top of the leaderboard, took second with 15.96 pounds. Keith Bretl, fishing with his young son Kashton, took third with 13.94 pounds. Matt and Dan Hirman found themselves in fourth at the end of the day with 12.15 pounds. 

Fifth place went to another team anglers are used to seeing at the top of the board. Yeng and John Thao brought in 12.01 pounds to capture that spot. 

Sixth place was a tie at 11.92 pounds, with the big bass being the tiebreaker. Brady Kluck and Josh Koziczkowski’s 3.09 pound largemouth was enough to beat out Wyatt Szymanski and Chase Kinney’s 2.91 pound largemouth to steal that spot away. This just goes to prove that sometimes bass fishing is a game of ounces.

Big largemouth was brought in by Kilbey and Borski at 3.87 pounds. Bretls were able to boat the biggest smallmouth of the day with a bronze back weighing in at 4.12 pounds, a very nice fish for this system. 

A total of 233.44 pounds of fish that crossed the weigh-in scales by the end of the day. This equated to an average size fish of 2.35 pounds. The average weight per team was 7.45 pounds.

The next stop for the Wisconsin Bass Team Trail is on Boom Lake this Saturday, July 13. The last stop will be on the Manitowish Waters Chain in August. From there, the top 34 teams in points, as well as last year’s championship winning team and last year’s Team of the Year, will be invited to the series championship, which will be a two-day affair on the Winnebago system. 

That tournament will be held October 5 and 6, 2024.

Next year, the trail plans to return to the Minocqua Chain for their championship, with several qualifiers also being on Northwoods lakes. 

To learn more about the Wisconsin Bass Team Trail as well as the open tournaments run by series officials, see their website wisconsinbassteamtrail.com.

Beckie Gaskill may be reached via email at [email protected].