Lake Winnebago and surrounding areas experienced spring for the first time this year.  After a late season snow storm, air temperatures started to spike, allowing fishermen to ramp up activities by the weekend.

Lake Winnebago is unfishable currently.  The massive ice sheet has separated from the shore line in most areas, and there is a giant ice cube floating in the lake water.  It may be several weeks before this is ready for boats.

The Wolf and Fox River (Oshkosh) are progressing nicely.  The Wolf is almost 100% completely open, and the Fox River has occasional ice flows coming down the river from Lake Buttes Des Mortes.  Eureka Dam has been slow, but there are plenty of walleyes moving into the area.  In Fremont, there are some larger females moving through the area, but this has not hit full stride just yet.  Water temps have spike 7 degrees in the last three days, and now have reached 40 degrees.  It is conceivable that the main run will start this weekend.

The Fox River in Depere was the main hub of activity.  On Sunday, I have never seen that many boats on the Fox River….ever!  As of Sunday, many of the females were moving in, but the huge pressure drove many of these fish either deep or away from the overhead noise.  Males remained in the main river channels.  On Saturday, we netted over 40 walleyes.  By contrast, we could only produce 6 fish on Sunday with the boat pressure.

The water temps started a spike on Sunday, and as of Tuesday morning the temperatures reach the magic number of 45 degrees, where walleyes start to spawn.  Monday night saw many of the trophy females being caught.  This will be the main spawn week in 2014.  Get out there now!

The DePere

[m1]  bite was almost exclusively a jig and minnow bite this week on a vertical presentation.  Plastics were effective, especially in blue, chartreuse or purple colors.  The 20 foot depth was key, as many of the male fish were staged on the main break.  We did produce our bigger female fish in the 10-15 foot ranges.  A trolling attempt, north of the 172 bridge, produced no results.

I am not sure why so many boats refuse to go past the 172 bridge.  There are great fishing opportunities beyond the bridge, without of the traffic.

Night time fishing is expected to be chaotic this week.  Be prepared for a multiple trophy fish evenings, with hundreds of your closest friends.  Have a sense of humor, and an expectation of long delays when launching during peak periods.  This is a magic time of year, and your patience could be rewarded with lifetime memories.

Our tournament season starts this weekend.  Saturday we are fishing the Swamp Donkey event at DePere.  On Sunday, The SWC event will be held in Fremont, WI on the Wolf River.  We should have some excellent intelligence next week on the Wolf River.

We will keep you posted on the walleye runs via the Facebook page during the week.  https://www.facebook.com/myfishingpartner?ref=hl.  Have a successful week on the water.  This may be the single best week of walleye fishing in 2014.  Send us your photos, and we will try to post them.  [email protected].  See you next week!  Thanks for your support of the site.

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