An extended fall period has led to many anxious anglers awaiting first ice on Lake Winnebago and other area water bodies. Air temperatures remain above freezing most days with the nightly lows below freezing. Consistent heavy winds have hinder any ability to make ice on the system.
Water temps are primed for ice making with Fond du Lac and Lake Poygan at 36 degrees, and the northern half of Lake Winnebago reads temperatures of about 40 degrees. On occasion, skim ice has been seen; however, winds would break that ice up almost immediately after sunrise.
This report is a courtesy report for our out of area anglers, who travel to this region for recreation. We have received no fishing reports, or have been on the Winnebago system ourselves the last two weeks.
Green Bay: Water temps of 39 degrees, and Chase was out fishing several days this week with the 13 Fishing TV crew, filming a documentary on cold weather open water fishing.
Green Bay and the Fox River are full of shad. I don’t ever remember seeing as many shad in this system as there are currently. Doing some shore fishing a week or so ago, almost every cast had shad hooked on the crank bait. Even the cold weather has not thinned the schools. The Fox River is full of game fish, presumably walleyes and white fish. None of these fish are active, with the excessive amount of food in the system.
I would expect the Green Bay Ice fishing season to have a slow start in 2016, especially in the southern bay, given the amount of bait. However, this spring should have some monster walleyes in the system, which will feed all fall and winter on the massive amounts of bait.
At the Milwaukee Harbor, brown trout are in the harbor in limited numbers. Spawn sacs are not working right now. The best tactics is white 3” tails on a jig head or small to midsized Ecotails blade bait in white jigged in warm water.
I’d like to wish everyone a Happy Holiday season. Our next report will be after ice formation on Lake Winnebago. [email protected] is my email for comments, reports or general questions. Thank you for visiting our site.
