A brief cold front moved through the Lake Winnebago region, followed by near perfect summer weather this past week. Pockets of algae are persistent, especially after calm conditions. Water temps were in the low to mid 70’s.
The summer blues have started for some anglers; as the warm water, mature weeds and additional sources of food have made fishing a little tougher for walleyes.
In full disclosure this week, this report is being generated from various reports received over the past week, rather than our personal experiences. We spent our time on the Bay of Green Bay and in the Hayward, WI areas. See the mini section on the Bay of Green Bay included with this report.
The north shore has been the hot spot for many weeks regarding walleyes. This week the bite slowed, but some larger fish continue to be found in this region. Aggressive wide wobble baits were king this week, with large reef runners and hot-n-tots working well. Crawler harness trolling remains viable.
Many of the walleyes remain in the top of the water column. A perfect approach to these suspended fish is to run Tommy Harris Spoon Deville’s (Slow death spoon) high in the water column, typically with a ¼ oz. in line weight. We had similar results with this method on the Bay of Green Bay.
Weed lines are holding a plethora of walleyes in the pockets or “highways” in the thick weeds. These fish are using the weeds for oxygen, shade/cover and ambush points. Cowling Bay, Asylum Bay and Wendt’s provide perfect opportunities for this type of finesse fishing.
Perch fishing has been steady to slow, and I would expect 2015 to be a moderate year for perch. The huge year class of about 5 plus years ago, have been reduced to a great extent by both anglers and predators. Between 2004 and 2011 Lake Winnebago had 6 of the largest year classes of perch ever recorded. During that time the average perch size was between 6-8 inches according to the DNR study. By my observation that size has jumped to about 9-10 inches this year as an estimate.
The last several years have produced small perch year classes, so catching small perch is a difficult task. It might be a few years for the system to rebound to 2012-2013 bag levels, when the Winnebago system hit its peak.
As always, the Fisherman’s Road area will be the center of attention for the perch season. Average bags right now are coming in with 5-10 perch. Hellgrammites are the key.
Catfish continue to be thick in the shallows of Lake Winnebago and in the Fox River. Sheephead are the most common fish caught this week, unless you are by the bridges in the Fox River where large schools of white bass are residing. Largemouth bass continue to lay in the weeds, with smallmouths out on rock piles.
The Bay of Green Bay is on fire, and everyone knows it. Shark Fin and Geanos continue to be the key areas. Purple is a dominant color, followed by pinks. The bite is a deep water bite in the morning, and the fish tend to move up in the water column by mid-morning. As mentioned before, Tommy Harris slow death spoons were critical to catching fish higher in the water column. Many of the walleyes are running from 25-32 inches in this school. It is hard to find “eater sized” fish. We have released about 80-90% of our fish on the Bay this year, simply due to excessive size.
Nearly everyone is trolling crawler harnesses. If using a harness I prefer to run a three hook harness on the Bay to prevent the short bites on 17 or 20 pound Vanish. We were breaking off 14 pound test regularly at the back hook.
Large profile crankbaits like Flicker Minnows and larger Reef Runners are excellent choices when the fish are mid column or lower. It is a nice change of pace for the walleyes which have seen thousands of crawler harness go by in the last several weeks.
Oshkosh Elks Sheephead tournament, WABTA (Bass), Tommy JS walleye tournament, and AIM Walleye Circuit are on Lake Winnebago this weekend. The Cabela’s National Walleye tour is happening on the Bay of Green Bay.
Don’t forget to try trolling the Vibration Baits Echotails behind your Off Shore boards. This combination is deadly for walleyes, and seldom used by many anglers simply because they are not aware of this tournament secret. [email protected] is my email for your reports. Have a great week on the water.
