Walleye and crappie fishing was better this past weekend but it still wasn't exactly easy pickin's.
Jeff, Carla & Irene Heeg drove down from Marshfield for their first ever fishing trip on Lake Wisconsin. The temperature was hovering right around 30 degrees when we left the boat landing in the early morning fog. I'm sure the ladies were wondering what the heck are we doing going fishing in below freezing temperatures and weather predictions that included both rain & snow for later in the day. We did get some snow around 9:00am but the rain never did fall. Thank god for that! Thankfully, everyone was dressed for the weather and we were able to find a few locations that were somewhat out of the wind which also held some walleyes & crappies.
Our best bait for the day was a 1/4oz jig tipped with a large fathead minnow. We did managed to catch four legal walleyes & saugers but we had to sort thru plenty of small fish in the 13 to 14-1/2" range along the way. Judging by the number of small fish we caught, It appears as though the 2007 year class of walleyes & saugers was a good one on this part of the Wisconsin River.
We also ran into some good size white bass and crappies which is always a nice bonus. Especially since we didn't really have to do anything different to catch most of them. We had a live bait rod tipped with a fathead minnow out at different times through out the day but most of the crappies still came on the jig/minnow combination.
Jerry, Derek & Marc Hopper came up from Indiana this past Sunday to sample the fall walleye & crappie fishing here on Lake Wisconsin. It was their first time on Lake Wisconsin and even though the guys had to work for everything they caught, they were still very happy to be sharing a day on the water with each other.
It was a cold 24 degrees when we left the boat landing at sunrise this morning. Thank goodness the sun came out early and didn't hide behind any clouds until later in the morning. I was thankful the wind didn't blow like it did on Saturday as well. Of the two weekend days, the weather on Sunday was definitely better to fish in.
Jigs tipped with fathead minnows was again out best bait. I did give some plastics a try but that was a no-go for me. We caught quite a few small walleyes & saugers today and we were hoping to sort thru all the and hopefully pick up a few keepers along the way. Unfortunately, that never happened. Instead, the guys had to settle for some nice crappies which they are planning on giving a hot oil bath back in Indiana.
Our best jigs this past weekend were the 1/4oz Precision jigs from B'Fish'N Tackle. Out top color in the mornings was Orange/Tiger Glow Eyes & Orange Chartreuse. Purple Pearl & Sour Apple were both good in the afternoon.
Surface water temperatures in the main lake above the rail road bridge were running right around 52-53 degrees and 54-55 degrees down by Moon Valley. Two weeks ago, our water temperatures were at 75 degrees. We needed the water to get colder in order for our fall bite to start picking up but I'm not sure having them drop that fast was really a good thing when it comes to triggering a good bite from the walleyes & saugers.
