I knew we would not be alone on this stretch of the Wisconsin River below the Dells dam so I stopped at Sauk Prairie Live Bait & Tackle the night before and bought a couple dozen large fatheads, hoping that we could get an extra early start Saturday morning. Apparently, a lot of other people had the same idea! We arrived at the boat landing around 6:15am and managed to get the boat on the water just before 7:00am. The line of boats waiting to launch ran out to the road and several deep in both directions. Never seen that before this early in the morning. The long wait and crowded river is just kind of the way it is up here this time of year. Everyone wants to get out and there are not a lot of choices when it comes to places to go.
Early morning tempertures started out at about 23 degrees and stayed below freezing until late in the morning.
The fishing was slow in the morning hours and we only managed to put three keepers in the boat by noon.
The afternoon however was anything but slow. We started picking up fish with regularity around 1:00pm and managed to put a three man limit in the boat by 3:00pm.
A total of 17 walleyes, 1 sauger, 1 sturgeon and several blue buffalo all made there way over the side of the boat today and it sure felt good knowing that we were all going to be sharing fresh walleyes with our families very, very soon!
All of our fish came from water between 9' and 15' deep. Our best rig for the day was a plain orange and/or chartreuse jig tipped with minnow. Close behind were jigs rigged with B'Fish'N Tackle ringworms.
We were also checked by the game wardens at the end of the afternoon when we pulled out of the boat landing. Very glad to see them there checking fisherman as they pulled off the water!
All in all, it ended up being one of the better openers that we've had in several years! Sure hope it was a good one for all you other guys & gals who managed to get your boat out this past weekend.
Boog
