winnebago smallies

I was wondering if any of you walleye guys who fish lake winnebago come across any decent schools of smallies in spring? some general help would be great.

Thanks, Carl

I pick up quite a few smallies in late may and early june on the west shore reefs when fishing walleye.

Hi Gang:

First and foremost I want to wish all the ladies out there a very Happy Mother’s Day. I hope you make today a great one!

I want to thank all of you for your continued support of my guide service and my website. We continue to grow and it is because of each and every one of you. Feel free to forward this to anyone you feel might enjoy reading a honest and upfront report from the lake we have loved for so many years. If you wish to be deleted from this mailing list, just send me an E-mail, and I will take you off of the list.

We had some very bad news lately as most of you are probably aware. The deadly fish virus known as VHS has been found in our waterways, and is already having some affect on our fish. The DNR has recently found several fish dead in the system. I am really bummed out about this, and hope we all take precautions from here on out to prevent this from spreading. Be sure to empty your livewells and bilges at the landings, and when you get home, rinse off your boat with hot water. Please do this!!!! The lake is at an all time high for fish, and we have been so blessed for years, but this is all going to change unless we do our part to help protect this awesome fishery.

Remember to check out our pages called scootchie rigs and crawler harnesses. My products are second to none, and the components I use are the best I can find. I can generally have your order ready to go in just a few days. I have redone these pages to make your shopping with me even easier.

I have redone the members only map so you can now print it out. I hope you enjoy this, and look for some more changes in the future soon. I will continue to do the best I can to bring you the best information. Remember, my site was built with the intent of being an honest and upfront site. I will never tell you BS, just to fill up a page. I do however, rely on all of you to place your reports on our members report page, or send me an E-mail with how you did or did not do. Only you can make this a better site for everyone. I will never use your name for a fishing report, unless you want me too.

I still have only a handful of openings from now until July if you are thinking of booking a trip with me. I am now scheduling into August, so be sure to call or E-mail me soon, if you are thinking of doing so.

OK, so you want a fishing report, well here it is………..

This past week I trolled quite a bit on both the east shore and the north shore. We did nothing along the east shore. We trolled from Faro Springs road to south of Mud Creek. We used #5 Shad Raps, Thunderstick Jrs. Shallow Runners, Wally Divers and also Flicker Shads. We tried every color and every speed with little luck trolling here. There were and still is plenty of people fishing off of their docks and off of the shore close to dusk. Most are using lighted slip bobbers tipped with leeches. When we trolled here a few times last week, I did not see a single fish caught.

I trolled the north end on 5/12/2007 and used Scootchie rigs and Crawler Harnesses. We started out in fron of the golf course in 15 feet of water and trolled west at .9 to 1.1 MPH. We instantly had a 20 inch and a 17 inch walleye and I thought we finally hit a good trolling bite. We were marking a ton of fish, but after those two fish, we were unable to get any more trolling. We made several passes over this area also. The 2o inch fish was caught on a purple and yellow harness with a #5 hatchet blade in a rainbow pattern on it. The 17 inch fish was caught on a chartruese scootchie rig. Both were running 35 feet behind the boards with a 3/8 oz. inline weight. I was using 6 foot leaders.

We have had good luck jigging this past week and several reports have come in to verify this is well. Haystack Reef, Mansur Reef, Stevens Reef and Little Blackbird Reef have been doing well casting Rapals on the tops of the reefs and the Outer Bar seems to be doing well on Slip bobbers. Most of the boats I have seen out this past week are sitting on the tops of the reefs. We are actually fishing the sides of the reefs and dragging both crawlers and leeches. I have been using 1/16 oz. jigs tipped with leeches mostly. I as most of you know, really like to use orange colored jigs. This past week however, green was really working the best for me…..FYI.

A few reports came in from the south that there has been some perch action, but it does remain pretty slow overall. Small meal worms under a slip bobber seem to be working somewhat. I really do not think the perch are nto full swing yet. The weather has been so on and off, and that really makes for a hard perch bite overall.

The whitebass are really showing up all over the system, and several reports came in that they were filling up coolers. What ever happened to the old days when we would fill up 5 gallon pails? Guess things change, so now I need to pull out a cooler for these fish!!! One thing about the whitebass from the reports I have gathered is that one report will come in and say they are slamming them, and the next says they had little to nothing. I thought this weekend would be the best time, but maybe we need a nother week or so, before these are all over the Wolf River.

Crappies are in the channels and creeks, and near the marinas right now. Some bluegills are mixed in as well. I like to use a small M and M jig, tipped with small minnows for these. The area along Hwy A in Oshkosh is really full of them. I am sure they are in Asylum Bay, but the weed growth is getting bad, and it may be hard to get access to them there.

The Neenah Lighthouse was doing well, but now that the dams are shut due to the recent discovery of VHS in the system, I think this really will slow down here. You need current at the Lighthouse for it to be a good spot, and without it, the action really slows down.

Long Point, Point Comfort, and Kalbus Reefs are doing well for some nicer sized fish. Drifting over these reefs with either minnows or leeches seems to be the best bet. Point Comfort was doing great with casting cranks in close to the very shallow water.

I have not heard how anyone is doing in or around the Garlic Island area. I drove through here twice this week and only saw a few boats and they both appeared to be anchored with slip bobbers. If any has a report from here, please let me know.

That is all I know for right now, so I hope that helps out a little bit.

Ok, now your comments and questions to me…………………………

What type of hooks are you using on your Crawler Harnesses?

I use #2 VMC Blood Red Hooks in the Octopus style.

Do you have enough volunteers for the Kids Wish for Fish event on June 3, 2007?

We are still in need of volunteers and we still need funds for this event. We are taking 25 kids this year, and I am really looking forward to it. It is awesome to see them get out in a boat for the first time and actually catch a fish or two. The best part is they do not care how big or what type it is, they are just so happy to be there. I really hope you get involved in this great event and see what a difference you and your boat or your time can make in a child’s life.

When do you think the trolling action will pick up out in the mud?

I think we need some warmer weather and some steady weather to get those fish out there. It has been so goofy this year that I think the fish are really still sticking to the reefs and not going deeper and suspending. If I had to choose a time when it will be good I would say June 1 or later.

Thanks for your reports, it is appreciated. I travel along ways to come to Winnebago and it is always nice to see a good report like yours….

Thank you for the compliments and I will continue to do my best to bring you an honest and upfront report.I only report on what I know and I have seen over the past few days. Although things can change real quick out there, so please do not be offended if you go out to one of these spots and get nothing. It happened to me last week too.

Well that is all I have for this week, so be safe, have fun and remember to take a kid fishing and get a fishing partner for life.

Axl is out……Scott”AXL” Ehricke

http://www.winnebagofishing.com

“We find ’em, You catch ’em”

Winnebago Fishing

PO Box 153

Menasha WI, 54952-0153