October fishing on Lake Wisconsin has always been hit or miss, hot one day & slow the next. Last weekend, it was hard to catch a keeper on Saturday and just the opposite on Sunday.
Pretty much following the script of Octobers past.
It wasn’t like we did anything different either. On Sunday, we actually repeated pretty much exactly what we did on Saturday. The only difference…..were the results.
Saturday, my two clients and I spent the entire day trying numerous different baits, colors and locations looking for active walleyes or saugers. At one point, we did find a couple of very nice crappies that took a liking to the new chart/pepper mini-moxi but almost all the walleyes or saugers we caught ended up being a little to short. Getting anything at all to bite during the first couple hours of the trip was next to impossible and all except for two saugers of the 22 walleyes and saugers we caught were short.
Add those to the three nice crappies and it ended up being a pretty long, slow day on the lake.
On Sunday morning, the first three fish we caught were all keepers and they all came from the same location we started at on Saturday morning. It wasn’t like that at every spot we stopped and fished but most of the spots we fished gave up much better fish on day two than on day one.
Our crappie spot on day one gave up a keeper sauger but no more nice crappies.
Basically, we were sort of running and gunning. If we found decent fish, we stayed and fished that spot a little harder. If not, we moved on to the next spot in the milk run. Pretty standard stuff for most walleye fishermen.
Our top bait on both days was a 3″ mini-moxi in chartreuse pepper. An assortment of different colored blade baits also took fish for us but no where near as consistently as that mini-moxi.
We tried to make sure at least one person was always fishing with a blade bait but on Sunday, there was a period there where everyone in the boat opted for a chart/pepper moxi. Guess we all figured there was no point in trying to make them bite something else when the other guys were catching fish and the blade bait guy wasn’t.
I know a lot of people are not going to believe this, but I swear its true and I didn’t know it until I added up the numbers while writing this report.
Sundays total = 22 fish caught of which 11 were keepers.
That’s October for you. Hot one day and cold the next or just the opposite. Cold one day and hot the next!
Holy Crap(pie)!
Great job Joel and report.
Joel-
I was out there on Monday and did well on crappies…. including one solid 15″er that is still swimming. Haven’t caught many like that here the last few years. Finished the day jigging two areas with just jig and minnow – number of shorts and one legal sauger.
It is funny how this lake even more so than a lot of others can be such and on/off switch – particularly for a guy like me only getting here a couple times a season. Thanks for the great report.
That’s a nice crappie Cycle Guy.
We were spoiled a few years back here with all the big crappies. Sure would be nice if those days return someday.
Nice job Joel. No doubt about the fish being on and off. It seems that the Lake Wisconsin walleyes and saugers are even more finicky than your typical system (at least to me) No doubt about how healthy the fishery is though with lots of fish of all sizes. Hopefully the weather will hold to get some good December trips in after I fullfill some of my hunting vices.
Nice work Joel! Cant go wrong with that bunch of fish nice slab to!
Those fish are so colorful! Great job!