Lake Winnebago and surrounding lakes encountered the first above normal air temperatures of the season. The short and unstable shot of warmth was quickly lost to the end of the week cold front. Water temperatures moved up to the 67 degree mark, nearly 15 degrees cooler than last year. Water clarity continued to improve after the mid week rain, and visibility was approximately two feet on Saturday.
Many of the locations which have held walleyes for the last several weeks went dry by the end of the week. Heavy winds and the cold front were partly to blame, while the now spawning sheep heads contributed to pushing the walleyes off of several reefs.
Here are some reports from popular fishing areas:
Lake Poygan: Spawning sheepheads have become very aggressive in both Lake Winneconne and Lake Poygan. White bass are frequently caught while trolling. Walleyes can be found on the windblown side of the cane.
Wolf River: The main white bass run has concluded. But with the inconsistent weather, some late to the party spawners have shown up recently to finish the job.
Sunset Point on Lake Butte des Mortes: The great walleye bite from the past several weeks has diminished. There are still walleye present, and slip bobbers with leeches are still the preferred fishing method.
Fox River in Oshkosh: Some larger walleyes were present at the start of the week, but seemed to disappear over the course of the week. Pumping flies was the most effective way to target these fish.
Mouth of the Fox River (Oshkosh): Some larger walleyes and catfish have been hanging in the mouth of the river. The large walleye bite has disappointed the last few days. We found quite a few small walleyes on the flats just south of the mouth. They really loved the Salmo’s run at 75 feet behind the Off Shore Tackle Boards.
Roe’s Point to Kalibus’s: The walleyes have moved out. Lots of sheephead present.
Long Point and Abrahams Reefs: Sporadic walleye action reported. We pitched jigs on Abrahams for some time on Saturday and could only find a stray perch and sheephead.
Island at Wendt’s: Some large mouth and white bass were present in the 3-6 foot ranges.
Third Reef: Sauger and perch are common in this area. Walleyes are running in the 12-15” range when caught.
Fond du Lac: The crappie bite which was strong near Gladstone Beach last week has moved south toward Fond du Lac. The crappies are mainly post spawn and should be slowing down in the near future.
Gladstone Beach area: Need some action, head over here. The graph is full of fish. We found those second year white bass, sheephead and a few walleyes mixed in here. It was tough trying to keep 6 lines in the water.
Pipe Area: Same story as the western reefs, as the walleyes either have lock jaw or have moved to deeper water.
Central Basin South: Some trolling reports in the mud of walleye activity for smaller walleyes. Target 13 feet of water or deeper.
Garlic Island: Lots of boats have been working the deeper areas. No reports of how they were doing. That can mean one of two things. It’s either red hot or ice cold. I’ll check it this week.
Mud: there are some large schools in the mud as reported last week. They have yet to put the feed bag. This may be water temperature related.
So where are the big walleyes? Some guys have them dialed in….I do not, and am puzzled as to where to look right now. (I’m comfortable admitting that!) A third party source at the DNR indicated they have not seen the telemetry tagged walleyes returning to Lake Winnebago as of yet. These fish have remained in the upper lakes and it would be reasonable to assume that the water temperatures have not raised enough to push these fish back to the main lake.
The smaller tournaments I had results from had about 15-25% of the field bringing limits, with a similar number of anglers bringing in zeros. All are catching walleyes, most too small to bring to the scales. At this time I have not received results from Stockbridge or Van Dyne tournaments. Other results are posted on the main page.
Walleye Weekend is this coming weekend out of Fond du Lac. We are team 105, and I will be teamed with Doug Petrie, tournament virgin. This is one of the best team events in North America! 300 teams are slated to take off on Saturday for the two day event. I’ll post twitter updates this week, when worthy.
Have a great week of fishing. My email is [email protected]. Please feel free to leave me a message or a fishing report. See you at the weigh-in for Walleye Weekend.
