Summer finally arrives at Lake Wissota

With water temps finally breaching the 70 degree mark, summer patterns for walleyes and smallmouth are hitting full stride on Lake Wissota.

With only a few hours in hand yesterday afternoon, I hit a milk run of spots that typically treat me well during the summer. My father-in-law Tim and I had a hoot catching and releasing good numbers of a wide variety of fish. Our big walleye was this 19″ beauty; it was one of over 15 (I lost count at 15) to find the net during our brief trip. We also tangled with 7 or 8 smallies in the 12-14″ class…their presence and activity level is a reliable indicator of summer’s arrival on Wissota. Also in the mix was a 4 lb channel cat, a 11 3/4″ crappie shown below, and a low 30″-class musky that snapped off boatside after giving us a quick glance.

Almost all of our fish came pitching or dragging bait….crawler halves to be precise, on light jigs, fished through 7-10 feet of water. Only two fish (the crappie below and one slot eye) came from deeper water. The shallower we fished, the more we were rewarded. The preference for crawlers over everything else we threw (leeches and plastic) is another indicator of summer’s arrival.

Tim’s nice crappie. If a guy wanted to target these, I’d fish adjacent to structure, 14-20 ft, and vertically jig bait. We don’t catch many of these because we tend to fish shallower than they are sitting, but stumbling onto 1 or 2 of these fish that flirt with 12″ is a relatively common occurrence in my boat.

Hello
we also were out last night and found the eyes were in about 8 to 10ft with sand bottom. athough unlike jason I caugh only 10 eyes but 5 were sloters one being 17+ 2 were 16+ it was a good nite. they were caught on jig and leetch trolling around .5 mi per hr. lots of fun. Jasons guide trip and my new sully stick are realy helping out.
thanks guys
kevin

Sounds like you guys did great. I was planning on going last ngiht but was way too tired from this weekends softball tournament in Cinder City Days! I did manage to get out Saturday night however for about an hour only and caught 6 eyes! The biggest being 17″ with a couple other slot fish and a couple for the table at 13 1/2″! We were casting shad raps to weed edges although I would think slip bobbers would work great too…will try that next time out! Thanks for the report jason…hope to see you soon on the water!

Nice quick report, Back from Canada were water levels are at record lows atleast in the area that I like to fish, hoping to get out this week before heading back to the grind, and this report helps, Thanks Jason….