This is the 2nd year I have posted my “State of the Lake” (Lake Wisconsin) report here on IDOfishing.com. It is a review of all data recorded from measuring every single walleye and sauger caught in my boat on Lake Wisconsin over the past four years. Recording all this data and transferring it over to a creel survey form is a very time consuming task. It is (at least I believe it is) probably the most important thing that I can do to protect the walleye & sauger fishery of Lake Wisconsin. One new category was added after last year’s posting. That is the percentage of saugers vs walleyes.
Feel free to comment, criticize, complement, suggest, b.s. or otherwise.
As many of you who have fished with me already know, I have been recording the length of every single walleye and sauger we catch, regardless of how big or small. Many of you have helped out while fishing from my boat by taking the time to measure these fish yourself. This is the fourth year in a row that I’ve taken part in this creel survey which has been directed by WDNR fisheries biologist Tim Larsen.
Tim retired last January but he wanted to stay involved with this project for a bit longer and we should all be thankful for that. After this year though, Tim’s participation will most likely come to an end. Whether or not anyone will be appointed by the WDNR to fill Tim’s position and whether or not that person will have the desire to continue lending oversight on this project should be a major concern for anyone who would like to see the current slot limit regulations remain on Lake Wisconsin past the 2014 sunset clause date.
Thanks much for all that you have done for Wisconsin fishing and for the years of dedicated service you have given as a member of the WDNR. May you have a long, healthy and enjoyable retirement Tim!
For the last year or two, putting all the data gathered on a spread sheet has been a major goal of mine. That is the main reason why this report is coming out so late verses years past. I still have all the original data but it needed to be ciphered out of my traveling notebooks for each year and entered into the spread sheets. That’s four years worth of notes detailing every single walleye and sauger we caught from above the dam in Prairie du Sac up to the dam located in Wisconsin Dells. A total of 305 fishing trips, most of which but not all, were guided trips. By far, most of these fishing trips were spent on the waters of Lake Wisconsin.
Not all of these trips targeted walleyes & saugers. Sometimes crappies & bluegills were the primary target. If we did catch an incidental walleye or sauger on one of these trips, that info was still recorded and entered into the study. I did keep some data on crappies as well but not as diligently as with walleyes & saugers. A lot of very interesting trends did show up once all the data was compiled on spread sheets. Read on and feel free to share any conclusions you may have.
_________________Walleye___________Crappie__________Total
Year____________Sauger Trips__________Trips____________Trips
2006_______________28________________20______________48
2007_______________49________________22______________71
2008_______________51________________26______________77
2009______________106_________________3_____________109
All________________234________________71_____________305
The large increase in total number of trips taken in 2009 was largely due to the fact that I was laid off from my regular job for much of the year.
The big drop in crappie fishing trips last year was a direct product of the fabulous walleye/sauger fishing. It was so good during the spring crappie spawning run that I couldn’t tear myself away from walleye fishing and typical fall crappie patterns never did materialize so we just chased walleyes & saugers for the most part instead.
___________Total/%________Total/%_______Both_________Total
Year_______Walleyes_______Saugers_______Total_______Crappies
2006______145/33%_______289/67%_______434________no rcds___
2007______314/50%_______315/50%_______629________461_______
2008______238/46%_______283/54%_______521________681_______
2009______409/43%_______543/57%_______952________195_______
All______1106/43.6%_____1430/56.4%______2536_______1337____
(A very small number of saugeyes were combined with the sauger column above)
For those of you who are unfamiliar with the current slot size limits for walleyes & saugers caught from Lake Wisconsin, here is a quick recap:
Fish shorter than 15” long – all must be returned unharmed.
Fish 15-20” long – five fish per day in total per person.
Fish 20-28” long – all must be returned unharmed.
Fish over 28” long – one per day. You may not exceed the 5 fish daily limit.
The regulations do not separate walleyes from saugers. They are considered one and the same when it comes to the measuring stick or bag limits.
Chart breaks down walleyes & saugers by size: (Total/%)_____
Year_____Under 15″_____15 to 20″_____20 to 28″_____Over 28″_
2006____188/43.3%_____224/51.6%____22/5.1%________0______
2007____365/58.0%_____209/33.2%____55/8.7%________0______
2008____226/43.4%_____221/42.4%____70/13.4%_______4/0.8%_
2009____445/46.7%_____315/33.1%____185/19.4%______7/0.7%_
All_____1224/48.3%_____969/38.2%____332/13.1%______11/0.4%
After taking a close look at the charts above, some things are pretty obvious. Like the huge jump and steady incline in percentage of fish over 20” long. Starting from a total of twenty two in 2006 and climbing to one hundred ninety two in 2009. That’s a pretty significant jump in walleyes & saugers over 20 inches long in just four years.
How about fish over 28” long? Going from zero in 2006 & 2007 to seven in 2009 isn’t bad and two of those walleyes were over 30” long. One thing that gets me excited about fishing on Lake Wisconsin is thinking about how many more walleyes are out there that will be over 28” long this year. As for the seven walleyes over 28” long we caught last year, six of seven were returned unharmed back to the waters of Lake Wisconsin.
One thing that didn’t get sorted out by the spread sheet was the total number of saugers caught over 20” long. Back in 2006 we thought catching a dozen saugers over 20” long for the entire year was pretty good. In 2007 we caught approximately 36 saugers over 20” long and seven of those were 22” long or better. In 2008, approximately 41 saugers better than 20” long came in the boat and 19 of those were 22” long or better. Last year, it came to approximately 48 saugers over 20 inches long and sixteen of those were 22” or better. (Approximate numbers are used because I simply counted the number of pictures of saugers over 20” instead of paging thru my note books for the umpteenth time to get an exact number)
2009 observations:
Things change every year on most bodies of water and that certainly has been the case here on Lake Wisconsin over the past two years. One big change taking place over the first several months of the open water fishing season was water clarity. Floods in 2008 dumped tons of mud, sand, weeds, trees, brush and just about everything else in the lake. Most of you remember Lake Delton spilling over its banks, carving out a massive gulley and emptying in entirety into the Wisconsin River, washing in tons & tons of sand, mud, trees and even a few houses. When that muddy water finally cleared up, warm temperatures combined with extremely fertile water to cause massive algae blooms which lasted well into October of 2008. The water clarity as you can imagine, was pretty bad.
In 2009, water clarity on Lake Wisconsin was the best it’s been in many years. Cooler than normal temperatures through the months of April, May and early June delayed and slowed algae blooms. Normal rain falls did dump some mud into the system from time to time, nothing like it did in 2008, just normal stuff that this man made reservoir is capable of flushing out over several days or a week.
The floods of 2008 wiped out most of the gizzard shad in Lake Wisconsin. According to sources in the WDNR, the shad were unable to tolerate the extremely muddy conditions brought on by the flooding. We know this from 2008 fall walleye shocking surveys done by the WDNR which found zero gizzard shad coming up between the boom shockers. Trust me on this one, that isn’t normal!
As a result, pretty much all predatory fish in the system had to change their feeding habits. Late in 2008 some of us noticed that the larger walleyes & saugers were keying on smaller sheepshead. I believe this to be the primary factor behind the fantastic walleye fishing many of us experienced in April, May & June of 2009.
This is what I believe happened:
The big female walleyes dropped their eggs up river around mid to late April. Once that happened, they could finally turn their full attention to feeding again rather than reproduction. In a normal year, they would find food sources on their way back down river where they would linger and replenish themselves. Last year, they didn’t find those schools of shad or other food sources which were more than likely already depleted greatly due to heavy foraging in 2008. Remember, with the shad virtually gone, other sources were hit hard. The hungry female walleyes continued down river and into the lake in search of anything to fill their empty stomachs while most male walleyes likely hung around spawning areas hoping to hook up with late spawning females.
If you were lucky enough to be in on it, you fully understand why many of us called it the best walleye fishing we’ve ever had on Lake Wisconsin and maybe the best we’ve ever had anywhere. We not only caught a lot of fish but we caught a lot of big fish and very few smaller walleyes or saugers until the later part of May. We can only hope to see walleye fishing that good again someday!
Not all fishing was great last year though. For the first time in several years the crappie fishing was subpar. Not just down a little but way down from a normal year. Granted, I didn’t spend a lot of time trying to catch them but the few times I did, it wasn’t good and plenty of others who do target them on a regular basis were reporting poor catches compared to years past.
One thing we know of that was hampering crappies was bad weather patterns right when the fish were ready to spawn. Twice in the last five years crappies pulled off the spawning beds due to severe cold fronts that rolled in at the worst possible time and lasted for two or three weeks. Many times when cold fronts like that hit right when the fish are ready to spawn, the crappies never do end up going back to the beds. We know this to be true by the large numbers of crappies caught trolling for walleyes in June. Plenty of them are still full of spawn.
Hopefully, 2010 and the next several years will see the crappies bounce back with good spawning success. The system isn’t depleted but it also doesn’t appear to be carrying the numbers of crappies that it normally would be capable of sustaining. We will certainly know more about the crappie population in Lake Wisconsin after this year.
Many of us, (or maybe it was just me) thought that it would take the gizzard shad two years or so to bounce back. Consider that a lesson learned. Gizzard shad are extremely prolific and they bounced back completely in just one year. Where did they come from? It’s probable that some shad were in the bays when the floods of 2008 hit the lake. If so, they would have escaped the dirtiest water in the lake, which was out in the main channel. Any shad that were in the bays would have stood a much better chance of surviving and by late October 2009, it was very obvious that the gizzard shad were back in a big way. All you had to do was pass over one of these shad schools and watch your sonar light up with bait fish.
I’m sure at times this past fall, many of you also experienced some tough days on the water while chasing walleyes & saugers. High numbers of shad were certainly part of that equation. Weather was another factor. A quick check back in my record book reveals the following information:
Sept 27th – surface water temps were 74 degrees in the main lake. October 3rd – surface water temps dropped to 61 degrees in the main lake. A drop of 13 degrees over the course of one week and it didn’t stop there. October 10th – surface water temps of 54 degrees. That’s a drop of 20 degrees over a two week period. By October 17th – surface water temps in the main lake were down to 48 degrees. It takes some seriously cold temperatures to do that. Way below normal temperatures that last for three weeks are a perfect example of severe changes in climate which always have a major effect on both location and feeding habits of all fish, regardless of species. It doesn’t mean walleyes, saugers & crappies can’t be caught, it just means the catching is going to be quite a bit tougher.
By the end of October, we saw a warm up occur and water temperatures actually climbed over the 50 degree mark. When warm-ups like this occur in late fall, it never bodes well for good walleye & sauger fishing. Fish that had been gorging themselves just don’t seem to want to continue gorging when water temps start to climb at this time of the year. Again, it doesn’t mean you can’t catch them but it usually does mean the catching is going to be a lot tougher than it normally would be.
2010 will bring more changes but the overall picture looks pretty bright if you like to fish for walleyes & saugers. With a little luck, 2010 will bring us all some great days on the waters of Lake Wisconsin. There’s only one way to find out. Hook up that boat and go fishing!
Thanks to my sponsors:
Finally I would like to thank my sponsors starting with B’Fish’N Tackle Company. I strongly believe the quality and color choices from B’Fish’N Tackles line up of Ringworms, Paddle tails, Precision jigs, and Blade baits helps my clients and I put more walleyes and saugers in the boat every year. Confidence is a major reason why a fisherman will choose a particular color, style and brand of lure. My confidence is always sky high when tying on any bait from B’Fish’N Tackle and in many instances, they are my “Go-To” baits. If you haven’t tried them yet, you definitely need to!
http://www.bfishntackle.com/index.html
Another big “Thank You” goes out to Sauk Prairie Bait & Tackle in Prairie du Sac. My first stop every morning to load up on minnows, crawlers, wax worms or whatever else it is I may need on any given day on Lake Wisconsin. Sure is nice to know they will be open well before sunrise so that my clients and I can be on the lake at the break of dawn.
http://www.saukprairiebait.com/
Finally, if you haven’t been on my website lately, then you may want to take another peek. I’ve finished updating the photo gallery page and if you went out with me this past year, then more than likely, your picture is posted in the 2009 photo gallery page. You can check it out right here:
http://www.lakewisconsinfishing.com/2009-Photo-Gallery.html
Feel free to let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions, feel free to let me know about them as well.
That’s it for this year’s State of the Lake report and info letter from “Ballweg’s Guide Service”.
Here’s to a great year of fishing in 2010!
Sincerely,
Joel “Boog” Ballweg
