Wissota Night Bite?

Is there such a thing as a night bite on Wissota?

I know folks chase cats in the summer, but what about other species?

Sully

What’s your water clarity like? If you’ve got fairly clear water and heavily pressured fish, I’d bet you have a night bite for walleyes.

Sully: I assume you’re talking about hard water and not open water??

My answer to the hard water bite is, “I’m not sure.” I typically get a flurry of eye activity between 3 and 6 pm during the winter. I’ve never stuck it out too late on the ice, mostly because the Bateman beckons far too strongly when the weather is chilly.

My open water after dark experience has been spotty. During the busy months I can get a bite that extends into darkness for an hour or so before it shuts down (both long-lining and live bait jigging/rigging). When the lake isn’t so busy, I do as well before dark as during that “prime time”.

Because Wissota is sooooo stained, I’ve never concentrated on that after dark bite. There’s usually a reasonable enough daytime bite that I haven’t tried to fight the bugs (summer) or the cold (winter).

What have you experienced off your dock? I assume you’ve given it a shot once or twice???

Jason-

I’ve found the bite to shut down shortly after dark off my dock. I’ve tried trolling at night with no luck.

What’s nice about the stained water is that a day bite exists, but it’s hard to believe there isn’t an ‘eye looking for an evening snack.

I want to expand my Wissota fishing to the weekdays, versus being the weekend warrior.

Thank you for your insight.

Sully

If I had to guess, I’d think that the after-dark bite on Wissota might be limited to a big fish bite. Given that the population of bigguns in Wissota is (quite) small relative to the 12-14″ Wissota specials, it might take a while to finally run into one worth bragging about.

All of my big Wissota eyes (22-26″) have come during lousy weather early or late (May or Oct/Nov) in the open water season….typical “walleye conditions” with high winds, good sized waves, precip and overcast. Makes me think that these larger fish are programmed to bite under those inclement conditions, which leads me to believe that those same fish could be had after dark. But that’s a theory without an ounce of support from experiment.

I have limited time on Wissota but the best bite for me has come during the worst of weather. We were foolish to stay out in some of the weather that we did but the fish were biting so good we couldn’t leave.The fish were pounding white or chartreaus twister tails on beetle spins. This was on the small lake in the cove by the island. I won’t stay out in that weather again as I’m sure we used up our chances during that one storm. I think tornadoes were spotted from that storm up by Rock Falls or Eleva and lightning was everywhere, wind was howling and the rain was blowing straight sideways.
Steve