Area lake and rivers continue their transition from winter to spring. Lake Winnebago remains ice covered, with the shoreline ice starting to breakdown.
This week’s report will focus on the rivers of Northeast Wisconsin.
On the Winnebago system, The Wolf River has started to become viable for boat traffic. Many of the boat launches are open south of New London. Each day has varying ice flows, and remains unpredictable. Walleye fishing has been as expected for this time of year – a few males here and there, but overall slow. Water temperatures are still cold at 38 degrees.
Eureka is open enough to fish via a boat. Smaller males have been reported in this section of the Upper Fox River, with an infrequent female.
The Fox River in Oshkosh has the Rainbow Park Launch open for boats. The walleyes are in Oshkosh in limited numbers, many of them in 10-12 inch size. No reports of perch at this time. There is alot of ice in the backwaters on the river and Lake Buttes des Mortes yet.
At the Winneconne Bridge, activity has picked up by fishermen lining the bridge in hope of finding migrating walleyes. Activity is slow for walleyes, mainly due to low current in the river.
Speaking of water current, many of the rivers have light flows this year. The lack of snowfall (minimal runoff water) this winter paired with no rain this spring has area rivers with insignificant water flows.
As a matter of fact, The Spring of 1999 saw the Fox River in Green Bay have the lowest recorded discharge in the last 25 years with 2,520 cubic feet per second. On Sunday, March 22, 2015 the discharge rate was 2,620. In an average year the median would be 6,650 cubic feet per second.
So what does that mean for fishing? Without the river flow, it is reducing the number of walleyes moving into the river systems. The heavy current is a calling card for the walleyes to come up river to spawn, along with the warmer water. Without warm water or water flow, the bigger walleyes tend to stay in their staging areas.
On the Fox River in DePere, WI, there is a lot activity for male walleyes currently. All of the launches are open on the river, many with just a couple of docks. I would expect the remaining docks to be placed next week.
Chase (Myfishingpartner team) fished the majority of the week on the river and averaged about 40 fish a day. Shane and I fished on Saturday. What we have found is that the fish are mainly concentrated in two locations. Either onto the flats of 8 feet or less, or in the deepest holes in the river channel (especially at the head of the holes). The area by the dam has been active after dark, but less successful during the day. No gates are currently open at the dam. Water temps are fairly high at 43 degrees on Sunday.
There are a few females in the mix currently, none of which are ready to spawn.
We have had a lot of baits and style which were productive this week including the new Mendota rig (made by Slop Frog) tipped with a ripple shad. As live bait choices go, the walleyes only wanted shiner minnows, and would not touch fat head minnows. Jig color choices were dominated by fire tiger, orange, and pink hues; but just about any color was productive.
River fishing is always fun. We caught crappies, carp, walleyes, whitefish, and white bass this week. It will only get better.
Bottom line: We need rain! The rain would clear out much of the remaining ice on the rivers. It would also provide the water flow needed to kick off the spring walleye run.
Don’t forget about Lakeside Park in Fond du Lac and the local harbors too on Lake Winnebago….As soon as those areas become ice free, the crappies will be in these areas thick!
Be sure to follow us on the Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/myfishingpartner?ref=hl
We have been providing almost daily video updates on the walleye run on our Facebook page.
This week will feature the Swamp Donkey Tournament in De Pere. There also is a Kids fishing clinic at the Fond du Lac Aquatic center on Sunday March 29th starting at 11:00. This clinic is for Fond du Lac School district children. Team My Fishing Partner will be at both events! Stop out and say hello!
In the meantime, get on the water. You can’t catch giant walleyes from your couch!
