Lake Winnebago enjoyed a nice week of weather and fishing continued to be good. Water temps have reached into low 70’s and clarity continues to improve. The algae bloom has started in many parts of the lake.
Perch action stole the show this week again. The best area this week was in the transition areas south of Fisherman’s Road. The same holds true for the areas between Lakeside Park and the Third Reef. Slip bobbers with a small chunk of crawler or dead-sticking a red worm over the side of the boat has been deadly. Make sure to add a small bead just before the hook on the rig. This will draw more attention to your bait. Other consistent areas include Little Blackbird Island, Long Point and Abrahams Reefs. The action seems to come in spurts as the schools move in and out of an area feeding.
Walleyes can be found daily on most reefs. The walleye reef bite has been fantastic. Slip bobbers have worked ok, but pitching a small jig and a third of a crawler has worked better. Orange and black have been solid colors, but almost all colors are producing fish. The morning and early evenings have the best action, and the afternoons tend to be slower. The best reefs for these eyes are Steven’s reef, Long point, Haystack, Gehrke’s Reef, and the reef northwest of Fisherman’s Road. Make sure to check out the small humps in all areas of the lake. Many of these humps are holding fish, and often get over looked.
Trolling continues to be solid, but tailed off some this weekend. The fish are deep, so make sure to get your presentation down to the fish. The south end has a lot of weeds (both floating and growing) and trolling is tough here. The Subway Road area has a nice walleye bite in the deeper water adjacent to shallow water. The best trolling action was near Stockbridge this week. Cranks at 100-125 feet behind the boards work well. The mouth of the Fox still has excellent activity. Many of these fish are in the 20 inch range. Crawler harness action picked up this week also. Some of the brighter colors have worked well this week, including fire tiger and bubblegum. Hot n tots have had a lot of success lately.
Lakeside Park in Fond du Lac has an excellent Bullhead bite.
Lake Poygan and Lake Winneconne have a crawler harness bite going with florescent colored blades. Walleyes are typically in the 13-18 inch range. Northern and bass are relating tight to the week line. Draw them out with spinners, spoons or swim baits.
The Wolf River is heating up for small mouths on wacky worms, especially in black. Work rocky shorelines or walls to find these fish. Catfish are present and are taken on standard rigs with stink baits. The rains continue to keep the Wolf River waters high so make sure to try the flooded areas for pan fish, walleye, pike and bass.
As always, I encourage your reports on our forum page or at [email protected]. Have a happy and safe 4th of July weekend. See you on the water!
Also just a FYI, we fished Big Cedar Lake in West Bend this weekend. There is a very strong largemouth and rock bass bite over the weed tops with spinners or rattle traps. It might be worth a trip in the next week, if old ‘bago is too windy.
