An unstable week of weather made anglers change tactics each day to meet the daily change in conditions. Heavy rains and winds have stirred the water on Lake Winnebago making clarity poor towards the week’s end. Water temps are now in the mid 70’s.
Walleyes are still moving from reef to reef on a daily basis. Black Wolf point and Point Comfort have had strong reports of decent sized eyes on almost a daily basis, typically taken on slip bobbers and crawlers. The reefs in the same general area are also being fished heavily with success. There are also some perch mixed in to boot. Steven’s reef and the outer bar are also receiving a lot on attention with some walleye being taken. Gehrkes Reef has some small mouth bass and walleyes but size is small. Long Point is receiving minimal attention with the nice bite close by on other reefs. The east shore near Columbia Park has walleyes on the very small humps in the area. Many of these humps are not much larger than a fishing boat.
The trolling bite is still solid. Lures with flash or florescent colors are working best, partly due to the weather conditions this past week. The bite is best on the north shore or on the east shore in the mud. Several reports indicated some walleyes being taken in 6-10 feet when the wind has been blowing. Larger profiled baits have worked best. The fish remain deep, with 100 feet behind the board working well. Drift fishing has also produced eyes on either a slow death presentation or jig and crawler.
Although the south end is slow for walleye, plenty of other fish species can be targeted on a daily basis. Perch are in the transition areas, on the Third Reef and the smaller humps in the area. Large pike can be found along the shorelines of Fond du Lac patrolling the weed lines looking for an easy meal. Pan fish are active in the weed beds or in the channels off of the main lake. The Fond Du Lac River has a catfish and bull head bite working in the deeper water. Bass are always lurking in the harbor/lagoon in Lakeside Park. Many times we get fixated on one species and miss other wonderful opportunities right in front of us.
The Third Reef and surrounding transition areas are holding some good sized perch. Gold hooks seemed to have more activity than any other colored hook. Red worms, hellgrammites, very small leeches or crawler bits works best. The area just past the red buoy outside of Lakeside west was yielding perch on red worms. This seems to be a morning only bite. The area off of Beachwood road on the east shore was giving up nice sized bluegill and bullheads close to shore on the drop offs. This weekend’s winds were not conducive to ideal perch fishing conditions.
Lakeside west and Supple’s Marsh has many catfish and carp feeding through the area. Stink bait is working well for the catfish.
The catfish are very active in the Fox River right now. Look for deep holes or around break walls and bridges. I have also heard the trolling bite in Poygan is doing well, but have no specifics. The Wolf River has dropped (water level), and reports are nonexistent from this area.
Keep the fishing reports coming to [email protected] or post your own in our forum section. I will continue to update these reports in the first part of each week from spring ice out through mid September.
