Inconsistent weather dominated the last week’s weather around the Lake Winnebago region. Cold fronts, warm fronts, rain, and wind were all present, making the fishing a challenge for many anglers. Water temps remain around the 70 degree mark with a strong algae bloom forming. Water clarity is variable though out the lake, with the east shore having the most stained water, and the north shore with the clearest water.
Depending which day you chose to fish this week, results may have had huge swings in success. Some days were stellar, while others were just average.
Active walleyes have been found in the mid depth ranges, especially along rock bars and reefs. Perch have been migrating to their mid-summer locations, and the bite for these fish is starting to pick up. Large mouth, small mouth and rock bass have become very active especially in the 4-7 foot ranges.
By Location:
Fond du Lac Area: the Third Reef remains active for a variety of fish. Walleyes will move onto the reef with wind, or will be staged to the edges of the structure when light winds are present. Black bass have been feeding. Perch are showing up in bigger numbers on the deeper edges of the reef.
Some of the traditional perch locations east of the lighthouse in Fond du Lac have had some fishing pressure, but no reports of how they are doing for perch and crappies.
Heading north to Fisherman’s Road, a consistent walleye bite is occurring between the launch and Columbia Park. Perch are in the transition zones in limited numbers. Large and small mouths are very common here. North of Columbia Park there is a large school of big white bass. At Quinney, WI, another school of walleyes are active.
Along the southwestern portion of the lake, the weed beds have emerged. Inside these beds are large mouths and walleyes using these areas as feeding and resting places. Shallow water trolling is producing larger walleyes on crawler harnesses.
From Long Point to the Fox River, the reefs have been yielding mid-sized walleyes, and some pan fish. Sheephead are a nuisance, with some dandy sized fish in the area. There is a walleye mud bite to the east of Long Point in 15-17 feet of water. Gene’s Reef and Abraham’s Reef have perch moving in, and reports indicate bags with a handful of small to average perch.
The Murdock Street area in Oshkosh has had some better walleyes and jumbo sheephead attracted to Salmo Hornets, Flicker Shads and Shad Raps trolled slowly in the 6-11 foot ranges. These fish were most active with an east wind.
North Asylum features a good walleye bite with averaged sized walleyes. This area continues to heat up and cool off daily. The morning bite has been the best, as heavy boat traffic is driving the fish out of the shallows by mid-day.
Garlic Island has a very good mud bite for walleyes occurring. Just look for the boats, and you should be able to locate the school of fish. Little Black Bird island has a similar bite working, but in shallower water.
Mansur’s Reef and Stevens Reef are also pumping out a mixed bag of walleyes, crappies, and perch. The walleyes were running in the 13-17 inch range. Jigs and crawlers are king right now.
Overall, fish can be found each day; however, moving around to find active fish is the key. Once you locate some active fish, the patterns should duplicate to similar structure. On Sunday, we fished the SWC event out of Columbia Park placing 11th (winning weight of about 14.5 pounds). We picked off fish in the Neenah River, Black Bird Island, Murduck Street, and at Fisherman’s road. That’s a lot of miles but, it goes to show working similar structure, patterns can be duplicated. Unfortunately, no matter where we went, we found cookie cutter walleyes in the 16-17 inch sizes.
The next week looks to have persistent unstable weather. The fishing will remain inconsistent until the patterns changes. It looks like we will be having air temperatures rising to the upper 80’s in the next 10 days, so expect the algae bloom to thicken. Be flexible, as everyday will feature a hot bite somewhere. A couple of small bar tournaments will occur this coming weekend, but no major events.
[email protected] is my email for your reports. Thanks for your contributions this week. More Master Angler submissions came in this week. Keep up the good work!
