Lake Wisconsin post spawn bite going well

The second half of May and beginning of June are one of my favorite times to fish lake Wisconsin for a few reasons. The fish are hungry after the spawn, are fairly predictable in where they will be, and you can catch them using pretty much any tactic you choose to use. This report covers the last couple trips. I had written one earlier in the week, but had posting issues and couldn’t get it to post so gave up to come back later and try again. The walleye fishing started to really pick up a little over two weeks ago. As is typical for me in spring, the fish were pretty much nowhere to be found one day, and everywhere a couple days later. When the fish first start showing up back in the lake, I tend to like to troll with #5 shad raps and flicker shads. The fish don’t tend to be stacked up at first, so I find better numbers if I cover a lot of water. The first fish is a good example of your typical Lake Wisconsin keeper. This fish fell for a storm baby thunderstick in blue chrome.

As the fish begin to show up in larger numbers, I find myself spending a lot more time dragging half a crawler on either a BFishN tackle precision jig or draggin jig, depending on how snaggy the area is I’m fishing. It is often tough to beat a half crawler, but a lot of fish have been coming to the boat on BFT Ringworms and Moxies as well. In my opinion, the quality of the fish typically is better on plastics, but the numbers are a little lower as you don’t catch as many short fish. On the upside, those little 9 and 10 inch walleye seem to be experts at stripping crawlers off your jig, so it is often worth fewer bites for better hookups. This fish fell for a BFT Goldcracker Moxie on a 3/32 oz Blue Tiger precision jig from 6 feet of water. A lot of fish were also caught pulling slow death rigs in anywhere from 4 to 18 feet of water.

As the spring moves along and the water temps warm, I find myself moving more out into the main lake to get away from the crowds that tend to invade the shallows when word gets out the bite is on. When you have 75 boats all working the same area of water that is in most areas only 6 to 8 feet deep, I find the bigger fish will push out of there and either go a touch deeper or abandon the area all together. There are still fish to be caught in that shallow water, but trying to find spots just outside of where the pack is fishing will usually produce your better fish. This nice slot fish came pulling a blue chrome #5 flicker shad trolling just a couple feet deeper than the water the crowd was beating into submission.

When the water temp hits the lower 60s, I like to start running out the planer boards and covering water in search of the big hungry females that start suspending and chasing the bait in the warmer water near the surface. I focus on large flats with wood and areas that focus the flow a bit like sharp mid lake breaks. You catch your share of small and keeper sized fish with this pattern, but it also tends to always produce the lion’s share of my bigger fish every year. This fish fell to a #5 blue tiger flicker shad set 45 back of the planer board in 9 feet of water. On that day, we also had 9 keepers a bunch of short fish. It has been a good couple weeks on Lake Wisconsin and I expect it will continue through June.

Over the last two weeks, on 7 outings, my boat has seen over 160 walleye and sauger come over the side, with just under 40 keeper sized fish, and 14 slot fish. All but 5 of the keepers and all of the slot fish have been released. Keepers and slots have been caught on everything I’ve thrown at them. Longlining cranks, dragging crawlers, dragging plastics, and pulling slow death rigs. If you have a favorite technique, more than likely you could put walleyes in the boat with it this time of year.