Lake Wisconsin, Late August Fishing report:

Well late August has been known to be tough at times on Lake Wisconsin. And at times, it has been just that. Then a day or two later, weather conditions become favorable, and suddenly it doesn’t seem so tough anymore.

Most of the time we have been trolling with crank baits from one end of the lake to the other.

We have also done quite a bit of work with crawler harnessess behind stick sinkers. Especially when working thru the stumpy areas since it cost less to lose and entire night crawler rig to a stump than almost any crank bait.

The picture above shows a nice 23" walleye that Kevin Key caught and released on one of those really tough days. Clear blue skies and no wind, thats about as bad as it gets for fishing this time of year on Lake Wisconsin.

Duane Chapman, a fisheries biologist from Missouri was in Madison for a week of meetings held at the Monona Terrace Conference Center dealing with the invasive species know as Asian Carp. Bighead and Silver carp to be more exact.

Many of the regulars on In-Depthangling.com know Duane as Carptracker.

Duane and I spent a few short hours in the boat plying Lake Wisconsin’s waters on two occasions during his stay here in Wisconsin.

The first day, unfortunately for Duane, was the evening of 8/21/04. This was the end of the same day as the picture above with Kevin and his 23" walleye.

Duane did manage a few small walleyes, saugers and some sheepies to boot.

On Thursday, 8/26/04, Duane and I decided to run back out on the lake and squeeze in some quality time during the last hour or so of the day. Well we did literally squeeze in and hour but it was worth it for Duane.

I don’t think he got to sit down in the boat seat for more than a minute before grabing another rod from its holder and reeling in another fish. Everything from sheepies, stripers, crappies, walleyes and saugers. Nothing big tonight, but constant action for the whole hour we were out.

By the way, we are all quite lucky to have this very knowledgable gentle giant working at finding a solution to the asian carp invasion of our fresh water rivers and lakes.

It was a very interesting and educating time on the water for me while sharing a little taste of fishing in Wisconsin with Duane.

Duane has and interesting stat he keeps on the total number of different fish species he has caught.

Including both fresh and salt water varieties, he is well over the 200 mark.

I had a great time fishing with you Duane, thanks for coming along!

Finally, we got a really good weather day for fishing on Saturday. (8/28/04)

A warm off and on rain, 10-15mph hour winds and a client who didn’t mind sitting thru it for a full day.

Okay, well some of you wouldn’t really call that a nice day, but for me, its hook up the boat and lets go!

Craig Vinge didn’t mind at all and stayed busy pulling in one fish or another thru out the day.

And although he didn’t get any really big fish today, and despite the fact that he threw most of the fish he caught back in the lake do to a size problem, he still had himself a pretty nice bunch of fish to take home for the dinner table.

Craig was a blast to fish with. Hope to have him back again soon.