A hot and muggy week embraced Lake Winnebago, which included almost no precipitation. Water clarity near the mouth of the Fox River is fairly dirty, while the rest of the lake has in excess of 3 feet of visibility. Water temps remain in the mid 70’s, with some of the bays approaching the eighty degree mark. Weed debris continues to clutter the southern third of the lake.
Walleyes continued to remain active along with the perch. Each day brings a different attitude from the fish, and anglers need to be preparing to be on the move.
The main target of anglers continues to be the perch. There have been some excellent pockets of fish throughout the lake but they remain unpredictable in their patterns. Fisherman’s road area is holding some excellent sized perch. To the south, the same is true of the area east of the Lighthouse in Fond du Lac (Bluegills too). Moving up the west shore – Fraction Island, Kalibus’s reef, and Gene’s Reef have had some solid action. Asylum Bay and the northern reefs (like Stevens reef) continue to produce fish; however these fish tend to be smaller than the southern reef fish.
Perch anglers should come prepared with both dead sticks and slip bobbers. The perch have varied their preferences. The bite has been consistent from day break to about 11 am. When the sun gets higher in the sky, the perch have shut down.
Walleyes: Where to start here…..Overall the bite has been excellent for “eater” sized fish. Larger fish have disappeared, and are likely hiding in the thick weed beds.
The shallow water bite is back on for the smaller fish (10-15”). Many of the western reefs, rock bars and sandy bottom areas are holding walleyes in the 4-8 foot ranges. Many of these fish are scattered, and tend to be loosely schooled.
We found a group of walleyes in front of the American Legion in Oshkosh. We ran cranks (#5 flicker shads did well) along the rocks in the six foot ranges. Be prepared to leave a few of your baits in the rocks here. We also found another pod of fish from the Big Island (Wendts) up to Long point. Here we targeted the 10 foot ranges with Tommy Harris Spoon Deville’s.
The best walleyes were found around the Fraction Island area. The only way to target these fish was to run crawler harnesses with no weight or 1/8th – ¼ ounce weight. Cane pole trolling was the preferred method to battle the weeds.
There is a solid weed bite to the east of the Lighthouse in Fond du Lac for mid-sized walleyes. Anglers can target the weed pockets with jigs, or they can opt to fish the weed edges with slip bobbers and crawlers.
Dragging reefs with a jig and crawler was also productive. Pink and orange jigs were the best choices. We pulled a 5 pounder off of Horseshoe Reef on Sunday. Use the wind to pilot your boat. You will need to have a lot of crawlers, as the ratio of Sheephead to walleyes is about 10:1. The mud bite has unofficially died for the time being.
We continue to produce largemouth bass in large numbers this week. These fish are related to shallow weed beds. Although we did not target these fish, they sure liked a blue jig with a half of crawler.
Catfish are blowing up baits in the Fox River. Wanna have a fun day of fishing, give this a try!
Walleye tournaments have nearly concluded for the year. BWC held their third tournament of the season, and the winners were between near Fraction Island pulling worm harnesses. Every team brought walleyes to the scales in this event. Most teams were in the 5-10 pound ranges for baskets.
Please be sure to drop me a line with your fishing reports at [email protected]. I’ll be heading to the Northwoods for some bass and bluegill action. Get on the water and enjoy this weather.
