Wissota pre-holiday weekend update

If you are spending the holiday weekend on Wissota, you are in luck! The bite is on!

Water temp is 74 degrees in the Chip and the fish are on the chew. This was the first trip in several weeks for me that the walleyes outnumbered the smallies. A 3 hour trip on the way home from the cabin yielded 16 eyes (5 shorts, the rest slotters), 9 bass and one other. The bass topped out at 17, and the other, a flathead, was 26 inches. I will upload some pics later.

Dragging and pitching bait was the name of the game. Fishing was slow until the Jim Falls dam started letting some water out, and then it was game on! We made some nice adjustments during the course of the trip to keep the fish coming to the net, including refining our jig color (orange, orange, orange) and our location (current swept rock and sand).

The lake is set up well for a nice holiday bite. Get out and enjoy!

Ok, here are the pics. Lots of smallies like this one are starting to show up. My dog is trying to say, Dad, that is one funny looking walleye.

Here is a nice double. Check out the girth on that fish on the right. If someone is missing a desert plate, I think this fish might have swallowed it. It is the fattest 15 inch fish I have seen in quite some time.

Meow. Even flatheads need love too. This guy put up a heck of a battle on my St Croix Legend Tournament 7-6 MLF rod. I set the hook and said, Tim, I know this is a fish, but I cant move it. This guy hit the tape at 26 inches and then slid back into the depths.

nice report jason I think it might help right now if there is some flow rather than none sunday morn there was no flow in fact you could be wind blowen all the way to the dam if you wanted all we could catch were shorts but with flow going those seems might work

\\\\2K\\\’S

I noticed that too Kevin. Lots of shorts before the flow turned on but primarily nice sized fish when the current was going.

Another thing I noticed: we had a period of about an hour when there was good flow, and then it came to a stop. I watched the water drop along the rocks and the floating leaves ground to a halt. Fishing, of course, fizzled. 30 minutes later we started catching fish again….guess what…the water was up and moving again.

That was the first time I have noticed the flow stop and then start up again in a short period of time.

Nice report Jason…the flow was none existant last Sat. I took my son, and mom and dad out. We managed many smallies..from little guys to 18\\”. The two large smallies came on dead sticking berkley gulp swimming worm and shaky worms in watermellon and pumkin seed. I went the farthest I \\\’ve ever fished up the right side of the island below dam.Very shallow! Bonus fish was a short 20\\” leech lake strain musky..i\\\’ve never caught one before, they\\\’re very distinct w/ they\\\’re spots!
Until next time…See you on the water!
Eric

Nicely done Eric. I love popping those big girls using finesse techniques. That is pretty much all I do at this time of year, as the finesse plastic or live bait presentations will deliver both walleyes and smallies from the same areas. Were you fishing deeper or shallow when you stuck the bigguns?

Great report,and nice fish Jason.I think I am going into Wissota withdrawal down here.

There is only one cure for that Kevin….get back up here!

Be sure to send me an e-mail before your next trip up…I will get you pointed in the right direction.

Jason..the big bass were very shallow..around boulders visible above and below water…around 1-2 fow and I noticed after sun came out around 11am the bass were in the shade created by the trees over hanging the bank! I wish I had pics..but waiting for developing!