A series of weather fronts moved through the Lake Winnebago region, leaving the area with rain, variable temperatures, and frustrated anglers. Water clarity on Lake Winnebago was variable by the day, and sometimes by the hour. Overall it was extremely muddy for the southern 2/3’s of the lake, with the northern end with better clarity (3 feet). Water temps ranged from 67 to 71 degrees last week.
Given the inconsistent weather and water clarity, walleyes were very fickle this week, or maybe just perplexed with the constant change on the system. Even the sheephead were inconsistent.
The main story line this week was the Mercury National Walleye Tournament out of Fond du Lac last weekend. In general most anglers had one good day and one bad day on the water. Depending which area of the lake and method they were focusing on — defined which day was successful. We hope you enjoyed the “break the jinx” video series on Facebook.
The far northern areas of the lake had clear water, and many tournament boats. The majority of the field was fishing between Brothertown and High Cliff. In this general area, many of the walleyes were higher in the water column and could be targeted with crank baits.
There is also a large population of mature sauger in this area. Sauger grow very slowly, and a 17 inch sauger on the Winnebago system is estimated at 14 years old. The restoration of the sauger over the 10 year project roughly between 2000-2010 are starting to show results. It is still advisable to release all sauger to allow the population to grow further; however, the legal bag limit was increased to one fish per bag a couple of years ago. The older these fish get, the slower they grow.
The central basin of Lake Winnebago was very vacant this week. The walleyes are concentrated on north and south end this year, mainly due to prevailing wind directions. We made the run to Stockbridge on Sunday (From Fond du Lac) and saw only a few boats in the 20 foot ranges.
We found the bigger walleyes along the weed lines this week, especially associated with active carp. The pod of fish we worked on the south end dissipated by noon on Saturday. At that time the catfish moved into the shallow water, followed by the bullheads. The walleyes and carp moved out, and the area went quiet. We were fishing areas of 3 feet or less of water depth.
The Fox River was also inconsistent this week. With the uptick of water flow from the 3 plus inches of rain it should have driven fish to become active in the river. That was just not the case over the past weekend, but the river has picked up since Sunday. The anglers which performed best in the river used a mix of flies and slow dragged crawlers to attract fish.
I found Lake Butte des Mortes very slow this week during my pre-fishing activity, but my focus was mainly near the Hwy. 41 Bridge.
This week features the Battle on Bago/Otter Street event, which could feature up to 350 boats in the competition. Launch and weigh in will be out of Menomonie Park in Oshkosh on both Saturday and Sunday. The unstable weather pattern is expect to persist this week, making trends difficult to identify.
Please feel free to contact me with your fishing reports and questions. [email protected] is my email. Have a great week on the water.
