A windy week of fishing rocked many a boat on Lake Winnebago. Water temperatures pushed into the upper 70’s and water clarity remained in the normal range for this body of water.
Overall, all fishing was slow outside of catfish and sheepheads. The cats are very active in the main lake and especially in the Fox River near the mouth of the river. Sheephead are everywhere on the system now, but especially thick on most reef tops. At times, it is almost impossible not to catch these fish.
Walleye reef fishing was a tough go. Anglers needed to hop from hump to hump looking for active walleyes. Once found there were only a few more to be found. Limits were tough to come by and the walleyes which were biting were hitting lightly. Many of these humps have been overrun with sheephead. On Wednesday night I observed many fish feeding off the top of the water. There seems to have been some type of fly hatch which the fish were loading up on heavily. This could explain the sudden bite slow down.
The trolling bite was also slow. The best activity was on crawler harness fished 50-100 feet behind the board with a weight. Tommy Harris blades did well especially in purple. I also received a report of pumping flies in the mud as doing quite well. I have never tried this method in the mud, but thought I would pass it along. High Cliff Park down to Stockbridge had the best reports of larger walleyes being taken in the mud. The typically report system wide was 2-3 eyes per trip. We did mark a lot of fish this week on the electronics in the mud, but getting them to bite seemed nearly impossible.
Perch fishing seems to be stronger on the north end of the lake, and a little slower on the south end. About half way between Fishermen’s Road and Columbia Park, perch can be found in the 8-11 foot range. This week’s bite was much better on dead sticks with gold hooks or ice jigs rather than slip bobbers. The Third Reef area was also doing well. In the north, Stevens’s Reef, Garlic and Little Blackbird had excellent reports of good sized fish taken routinely.
I encourage your reports in the forum section of the site or at [email protected].
