Summer, and the dog days of August, returned to Lake Winnebago and the surrounding area. Lake Winnebago currently has water temperatures near 75 degrees, with a solid stain to the water. The algae bloom has broken up, at least on the south end, and water clarity has improved since last week.
During the past week the walleye bite has significantly decreased across all areas of the lake. There are still active walleyes to be found, many with excellent size.
I was able to find pockets of active walleyes while trolling mid range depths along the east shore (Deadwood Point area). These walleyes were concentrated on hard bottom surfaces and took a liking to size 7 flicker shads trolled at 1.8 mphs. I found the disco perch flicker shad (Bass Pro color) to be the best option. In addition, I also received additional reports along the western reefs of similar activity with Salmo hornets trolled at 1.6 to 1.8 mphs. Moving faster than 2.0 mph resulted in solid numbers of white bass on the lines.
Slow dragging jigs or casting cranks on structure was another way to entice walleyes to bite. Solid starting points would be any of the reefs in Oshkosh.
Perch fishing also was a tougher gig this week. The south end of the lake continues to produce average to large perch in fewer numbers this week. Many of the hot spots from last week were vacant of boats this week, as the fish have moved out. In some cases, the fish have moved shallower.
Fond du Lac: This is a prime example of the perch moving shallow. Many of the anglers were focused on 5-8 feet of water this weekend. The deeper ranges were slow, including the Third Reef and the Chaparral area. The shallow area off of the BP gas station was hot for perch and massive bluegills. In addition, at the mouth of the Fond du Lac River, excellent sized bluegills were being taken. Some of these gills were pushing 11 inches or more. These gills liked the leaf worms this week, rather than crawler chunks. One gentleman reported having a trophy stinger of bluegills he was contemplating taking to the taxidermist.
Fisherman’s Road: Again this week, activity for perch was slow.
Black Wolf Area: Gene’s reef continues to produce excellent perch along with an occasional walleye. This area continues to be crowded as is the area to the east of Fraction Island. Long Point is also producing bluegills, perch, bass, sheephead and a few catfish.
North of Oshkosh: The Garlic Island area has picked up for perch this week, along with Asylum bay in the transition areas. Perch numbers were up and size was in the average size category. Waxies, hellgrammites, crawlers, and leaf worms were equally productive. In some cases, bare plastics were enough to attract perch. Walleye activity in these areas has waned, but Largemouth/smallmouth bass activity saw a nice uptick this week.
An extremely hot week is expected. Be sure to hydrate while on the water this week. I fully expect the perch and bluegill bite to improve this week, while the walleyes will be hid in the weeds trying to stay out of the sun.
No tournaments are scheduled on the lake that I’m aware of this week. This is the last weekend for many recreational boaters, as many weekend warriors will start reducing trips after Labor Day. In addition, many of the fishermen will transition over to hunting, leaving plenty of room on the lake for those whom opt to venture out! Have a safe and long holiday weekend. Shout outs go to Tony, Jeff, Jesse, Mark, John, and Brian for some first class reports this week. Please feel free to send your reports to [email protected].
