Lake Wisconsin late Spring Walleyes & Saugers

Its been awhile since I’ve done a report. Part of that is because I’m just now getting caught up around the homestead after going on vacation in Utah for a week in May. Hard to believe it can take that long to get caught up but it truly has been a busy, busy couple of weeks since returning home.

Much of what I have to report is simply adding on to what you may have already read from others fishing on Lake Wisconsin. Basically the walleye & sauger bite has been red hot since about the 2nd week of May and continuing right up through this past weekend.

You can pretty much take your pick of techniques right now. Trolling crank baits on bottom, (my favorite) trolling planer boards for suspended fish, running Slow Death rigs, dragging crawlers on jigs…..all have been working for catching fish.

You might ask the reason I prefer trolling crank baits when everything else is also working? For me, its because of how much more water I can cover. Right now, its not just about catching fish. That parts pretty easy. Most of the fish we’re catching are shorts. Fun to catch but after awhile, most people are going to want to also catch a few fish to take home or bigger fish for pictures.

Trolling crank baits allows me to cover a lot more water and search for better fish at the same time.

One thing trolling cranks has not done, is keep the little guys from biting. Which is good really because it keeps everyone tuned into catching fish. Especially when they know the next one could be a keeper or a big fish.

What are some of our best crank baits would probably be the other question people want to know. Jointed Shad Raps in both size 5 & 7 have been excellent. Storm Smash Shads in size 7 have been very good at times as are Flicker Shads in the same size. Same goes for the regular size 7 floating Shad Raps. Basically, if it looks like a shad and you can get it down to the bottom, your probably going to be able to catch a few fish on it. If what you have on isn’t getting bit, for gods sake take it off and put something else on. This is no time to be trolling around not catching fish!

Finally, the few times I have not been trolling cranks, we’ve run Slow Death crawler rigs. Mostly because more & more people are wanting to know how to do this "New" to them technique. It’s still a great way to put fish in the boat and works just as good today as the first time I did it ten years ago on Lake Oahe.