Lake Wisconsin in Late November

Spent the morning and early afternoon hours on Lake Wisconsin again. Yesterday, Dick Straub and I fished together out here and there were a few things I wanted to check out again as soon as possible.

These two saugers measuring 20-3/4" and 22" long were the result of what I learned the day before. The first hit the floor of the boat, still in the net, when my other rod started bouncing. After a short battle, another nice sauger was laying on the floor next to it. Both were released right after this photo.

On Saturday, Dick and I spent most of the day fishing in the cold rain and the fish didn’t really bite all that well. We caught 5 legals and 2 bonus crappies but had to work hard for them.

Today was a completely different story. It didn’t take long for the first line I dropped overboard to connect with a nice sauger. And the action was pretty steady for the next two hours after as well. That was followed by a slow period in the late morning hours but the fish started feeding again in the early afternoon hours.

This sauger in the 2nd picture barely reached the 20" mark.

Its the first time I’ve ever caught more than two 20" plus saugers in one day.

Water temperatures have dropped down to 39 degrees in the main lake. Our hot bait has been a plain jig/minnow combo.

I’ve tried many different jig and plastic combinations and have not had much success to speak of. At least nothing thats repeated itself consistently. I’m still of the belief that the right combination just hasn’t been put out there yet.

I’m pretty sure that if I had been fishing below the dam where the current was stronger, plastics would be my main stay. But up here on the Lake where the current is moving very slowly, they just haven’t measured up to a jig/minnow combo for me yet.

All of the saugers we caught Saturday and today,(Sunday) were caught in water between 20-23′ deep.

Whenever fish are kept for the dinner table, I always take a look at what they have eaten recently. Here is what I’ve found in the stomach’s of the saugers we have caught so far this fall:

One 18" sauger had 4 gizzard shad in it’s stomach before it ate my jig.

The most common bait fish to find is gizzard shad.

The 2nd most common thing to find in there stomach is a small white bass.

Small sheephead are fairly common and every once in awhile, I’ll find a small crappie.

There is one other thing I find more often than anything else….a mushy pile of stinky, unrecognizable gunk!

It’s not always pretty, buts thats what I’ve found.

The last photo is a limit of five that were served as supper for my wife and her brothers family that is staying with us over the Thanksgiving holiday.

Hope you all had a great Holiday!

JWB