Only one thing has changed since my report from last week. That would be more & bigger walleyes.
Where we had been getting mostly saugers, we’re now also pulling some very nice walleyes. No giants mind you but some fish that make for some very happy clients and some nice pictures.
We’re still catching good numbers of eater size saugers but we’re also seeing quite bit better numbers on walleyes in the release slot range. (20-28″ long must be released)
Last week Friday and Saturday were our best days so far this fall for nice walleyes.
Tim Grossnickle caught this chunky 27″ walleye on a 3″ orange core moxi early last Friday morning.
Fridays crew of Tim, Mark & John caught and released 4 slot fish and Saturdays crew of John Bininger, Butch Tiegs & Brian Buster caught and released 7 slot fish.
Brian caught and released the fat 26 incher in this picture on a blade bait.
The bigger walleyes are a nice bonus at this time of the year.
Not only did my clients enjoy catching these nice walleyes, every client in my boat on Friday, Saturday & Sunday left with a limit of keepers to boot.
The number of eater size walleyes & saugers right now in Lake Wisconsin is really impressive. There’s no doubt in my mind that this is a direct result of the current slot limit enacted back in May of 2003.
The weather was absolutely gorgeous last Friday. Probably going to be the last time we see anything like that this year.
Saturday wasn’t quite as nice but when you consider we were walleye fishing, that drizzly, breezy cool weather is pretty hard to beat and often coincides with a great bite. It certainly did on this Saturday.
Sunday was quite a bit different weather wise and naturally, Art Green was in the boat to enjoy that crazy weather. Twice we headed back to a boat landing to wait for a thunder storm to pass. Both times we saw lighting and decided rather quickly that being in a boat out in the middle of the lake was a really bad idea.
But after each storm passed, we went right back out and got after them.
The morning bite had been quite good Friday & Saturday but on Sunday, it was the afternoon bite that stood out. Art and I found a nice stretch that seemed to be loaded with decent size saugers and despite the bad weather that always seems to follow Art to the lake, we once again had a nice outing.
The best part is that when the fish bite like they did this past weekend, the weather just doesn’t seem to matter much.
A few more fish from this weekend.
1st pic – Mark Bergstrom with a slot walleye
Last two pics are a couple I caught & released
For the weekend, we boated over 100 fish of which 12 were over 20″ long. 51 were legal size and the rest were shorts. Even though all my clients kept a legal limit, we did not keep every single legal fish we caught and the only day I kept any fish at all was on Sunday.
Once again, great report! I was also out from Thurs thru Saturday. Did well each day, only 4 walleyes caught (1 legal, others short) and all others were Saugers. No slots for us
Nice work Joel, those sure are some dandy fish
Thanks Jesse!
Awesome fish! Great report, Joel!
My wife thought that anyone who would fish in weather like we had Sunday was not “wrapped right”. Apparently you were and despite wind, rain and lightning put a nice catch together.
Thanks for the report.
Grey Beard
She sounds a lot like my wife.
Some of the best fishing I have ever had has occurred during the nastiest weather. One cannot complain about a day of fishing weather like Sunday, when keeper fish are being swung aboard with out a second thought, just to get the bait back in the water for a chance at another! Never mind it started slow, it finished with a flurry.
Thanks again for a memorable trip!
Art
Great looking report Joel !!!
Hey ? I got a question for ya…
With the jig and plastic bite you have going..
Do you v-jig them ? Drag them ? Pitch them ?
thanks buddy !!
Art – your welcome & Thank You!
Always a pleasure sharing the boat with you.
Dave: Before I answer your question; What’s v-jigging?
First time I’ve ever heard that term.
I’m guessing V-jig means Vertical Jigging. I did have to think about the possibilities before I came up with this.
Thanks Bob!
Couldn’t figure that one out.
I was starting to wonder if Koonce was playing tricks on me.
We do both v-jigging and dragging. If I find a good school of fish, we’ll sit right over them and v-jig. When the bite dies off, we drag to find more.
Sometimes they want the jig dragged and at other times, vertical works better.
All stuff that needs to be figured out as the mood of the fish varies by the day.
Bob and Joel,,,
You two know me way to well !!!
Great info Joel… You guys taught me some tricks a while back up river on a dragon bite… I believe we even did it out on my SIL’s bass boat..
It was like a little go cart track or parade depending how you wanted to look at it !!