Lake Winnebago remains a busy place as the 4th of July holiday has come and gone.  The weather for the past week has been inconsistent, with multiple cold and warm fronts moving through the area.  Water temperatures have remained steady around 75 degrees.  Water clarity is stained with about 1-2 feet of visibility.

With the heavy holiday traffic, many of the weed beds were torn up with fishing boats, pleasure cruisers, jet skis and other motors.  As a result, floating debris is a major concern on the windblown portions of the lake.  Algae blooms are also common, especially in the channels and slack water areas.

This week’s report will be brief, as I have been fishing in the Northwood’s for the past week, and only fished Winnebago once this week.  With the holiday, reports were scarce this week.

Walleye activity remains strong when a steady wind has been present.  The west side reefs have been producing walleyes, including some better sized fish. At this point, nearly all of the reefs have had similar results.  Leeches have been out producing night crawlers on most days.

Weed walleyes have become very common also.  The edges of the weed beds have walleyes seeking shade, along with providing ambush points for food.  In the thicker beds, look to the pockets to find active walleyes.  In many cases, bass anglers and walleye anglers are sharing the same beds.

If pitching weeds is not your thing, shallow running crawler harnesses can also be an incredibly effective technique.

The mud bite remains slow, but there are some pockets of better activity including Garlic Island and the central basin.  White bass and sheephead have been the predominant species caught.

Perch fishing has seen a sizable uptick in anglers targeting these critters on Lake Winnebago.  The Luco Road area in Fond du Lac, the Third Reef, Fisherman’s Road, and the Garlic Island areas have been giving up a few perch.  It is still a bit early for the big numbers of fish.

Bass fishing has picked up in the weedy bays.

Sunday will feature the AIM walleye tournament (Jefferson Park. Menesha), so expect some big boats on the pond this week.  In addition on Saturday two walleye tournaments and one sheephead tournament will be held.

If you haven’t seen the video on the main page with Slop Frog, check it out.  We hope to get some bass time on Lake Winnebago in the next few weeks and will post photos.  I’m telling you, these baits produce largemouth!  It looks like River Haus in Fond du Lac will start carrying the Slop Frogs in the next couple of weeks.

[email protected] is my email.  Please drop us a line with your questions or fishing reports, and I will do my best to respond.  In the meantime, have a great week on the water.