A hugely successful sturgeon season has just completed as Lake Winnebago remained the center of attention for most area sportsmen. The lake continues to have about 20 inches of decent ice in most locations. The road systems are in excellent conditions as are many of the launches. Once off the roads, it is advisable to have a 4 wheel drive vehicle to muscle through some of the snow banks. Water clarity is near gin clear in the north, and fairly stained in the south.
With all of the attention geared toward sturgeon spearing, there have only been a select few pounding the ice for smaller game fish. I received virtually no reports this week, but had some information from the local bait shops to pass along.
System wide, the best bites are occurring in low light periods– Either at dusk or dawn.
Walleyes and Sauger are active, and seemed to be feeding more than in week’s past. Minnow heads are the best choice of meat currently. In some cases, a plain spoon is sufficient enough to bring in the walleyes.
Perch have been going strong at twilight between Brothertown and Calumetteville. Waxies and a red or green jig have worked well, on a fairly still presentation. Many spearers reported seeing good numbers of walleye, perch and white bass along the eastern shore during sturgeon season. The western reefs had very few reports of quality game fish in those areas. This is in part due to the heavy stain of the water.
In the coming weeks look for the pan fish to start moving shallow again, especially when there is some warm water runoff from the melting snow. The back bays and weedy areas will play host to some of those slob bluegills and crappies.
That’s it for this week. Keep your reports rolling in at [email protected]. Be sure to stop by the Facebook page also at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Fond-Du-Lac-WI/My-Fishing-Partner/222624783318. Become a Fan today! I have additional sturgeon spearing photos posted there from this season. Please be aware of abandoned spearing holes on the ice this week. Congrats to Dmark, who won the Sturgeon guess contest. Your prize package is on the way.
