I was over in eastern Wisconsin this weekend, the weather was nice, and the Fox River was ice free, so I decided to head out in the boat with some friends. As soon as you can launch a boat in the Fox, you can generally expect to catch good numbers of fish. There aren’t too many huge fish in the system early in March, but the quantity easily makes up for it. As it gets later in March, the quantity will go down, but more fish from the bay start to show themselves, and the quality will go up.
Over the past week the river hasn’t seen too much pressure with only a handful of boats out each day. As the weather gets warmer, more boats will show up searching for a true hog. On Saturday there were about twenty-five rigs parked at Fox Point Launch and there were about forty boats on the water near midday. Fox Point only has one launch ice free currently. It was posted that the launch will officially open on the tenth, so I would expect the docks will be in towards the end of the week.
We started the day vertical jigging the channel edges in fourteen to eighteen feet between Fox Point and Voyager Park. We found good success right away with most fish eighteen to twenty-one inches. We also tried dragging some jigs with the current and had about equal success. Our third method we went to was casting jigs shallow. We didn’t have much to show for casting efforts early on, but once we found a concentration of fish, the action was fast and furious. We found our best bite to be down river a bit further. We had the boat positioned in nine feet and were casting to about six feet, dragging the jigs back to the boat.
There were many instances that you could see your line jump before the jig would even make it to the bottom. Many of these fish were the same size as out deeper, but we had some twenty-three inch fish mixed in with the biggest fish taping out at twenty-six inches. We were on the water for five hours and hit triple digits. We had many doubles and even a few triples with three guys in the boat. We released all our fish. The limit on the river for the rest of March and April is one fish over twenty-eight inches. Like I said earlier, the numbers will go down as the pressure on the river increases, but you can expect to see more ten-pound plus fish show up towards the end of March.
Now the only question is do I head to the rivers for more hot walleye action, or do I hit the ice for fantastic panfish action?
Great report Adam! A friend and I have been talking about a trip over to the Fox and have been thinking about March 19th as our date. We’ve never been over there before and can use all the help we can get.
Thanks again for the timely report.
Mike Lee
Adam, or anyone who knows…where is the Fox River located exactly. I am a twin cities fisherman and have never heard of it. Sounds too good to be true man, triple digits for a day of walleye fishing. Some people never catch that many in a summer.
It’s just south of Grren Bay. Actually the river itself runs North into Green Bay. Fish from Grren Bay migrate up river (to the south) and spawn. There is a dam in DePere that serves as a barrier. Not sure exactly where people fish between the bay and DePere. Like you, I’m hoping someone will chime in with more info.
Mike
A buddy and I went up there for the first time last spring in mid April. Having no clue where to fish we headed towards the crowd at first. We fished about a dozen different spots from the launch at Voyager up towards the dam. We fished deep ( vertical jigging and casting plastic ) and fished shallow ( 6 feet )tossing plastic and a few small cranks. Each spot we fished we caught fish. It’s about as close to can’t miss Walleye action that I know of. We ended up with about 50 fish or so from 14 to 24″ with 17″ being about average.
MANY guys head up as close to the dam as they can. To clarify , Actualy you can’t get too close to the dam as there’s a fish sanctuary below it where fishing is not allowed. It is clearly marked so you can’t miss it. Anyhow , guys who fish up there toss cranks like #13 Rapalas , Bombers , Thundersticks etc. It’s shallow and snaggy up there though so be prepaired to lose some cranks if you decide to fish up there. I saw some fishin show some years ago about fishing DePere where the guide on the show said his worst day losing cranks was 27 ! YIKES !
Being a trophy fishery it’s combat fishing from the get go. If you go expect a LOT of company and the problems that crowds like that can cause. Last year there was a pretty bad boat accident right out from the Voyager launch so keep your eyes peeled as the boat traffic can be very heavy with boats of every size and operator abilities at times.
Anyhow , We stayed down from the crank crowd as we are not into the crowd scene. Still , we found spots nearby where there was’nt a boat within 200 yards and still caught fish.SURELY there are spots further down strem that a guy can fish in relative peace but we never ventured too far in that direction due to time constraints.
I’ve read and heard that shore anglers do quite well too after dark tossing cranks. I’ve heard it said by locals there that if you toss cranks 3 nights in row your almost garenteed of catching a 28″ + fish once the run is on hot and heavy.
Do a mapquest search for DePere and you’ll find Voyager Park. VERY NICE launch facilities there and cost $5 last spring. There are other launch/launches ? downstream but I have no clue where they are.
Though we had a good time up there the crowds were a big turn off for me personaly and I doubt I will ever go back. That being said it was worth the effort going there to try it.
I’m no expert or anything and no doubt there are far more knowledgable anglers about the area than me but if we as first timers there could find fish I’m sure you could too.
Hope this helps.
I think Adam is refering to three guys with three fish on at once.
I would have responded sooner, but I was out on the ice. (see my latest Winnie report) Actually Derek, mwitham interpreted it right, but you can’t always expect fishing to be that good. The bite varies from year to year. The amount of runoff and timing of the warmup will dictate how good the bite will be. The seventeen inch fish that geeman was getting last year are the eighteen to twenty-one inch fish we were getting this year. Some times you can go out and you would be lucky to buy a fish. Even on a good year, as the pressure increases the fishing slows down.
Fishing on the Fox is pretty comparable to fishing down by Redwing in the spring. It gets very crowded in front of Voyager Park up to the dam. Unlike Redwing, the dam has very shallow water right below it that many walleyes use to spawn. There is a fish refuge from the power line up to the dam. You cannot cast up from the powerlines. Many people anchor up by the lines and cast cranks. Yes you can loose a few cranks if you cast up by the dam, but if you are loosing a bunch of cranks, you’re not using the right ones for the depth you are fishing. If I cast cranks, I will use anything from shadraps, husky jerks, smithwicks, to reef runners. The water level and my location will dictate which ones I use.
You don’t have to only cast cranks or jig up by the dam and deal with the crowds. Much like Redwing where fish and fisherman are concentrated up by the dam, there are also plenty of areas to find big fish and numbers of fish elsewhere and not have to deal with the crowds. It’s nice to play up by the crowds with a jig and minnow to gauge the bite before heading out to search for other fish. Fish how you are comfortable, whether it is jig and minnow, jig and plastic, trolling cranks or live bait, or casting cranks, and you should be able to find some fish.
After the one fish 28″ limit is over you can keep a 3 fish limit however NOT A CHANCE would I eat a fish out of that river. The DNR has a fish advisory if affect there for PCBs , Mercury and all that other fun stuff.
That and the 28″ limit during the run is why this is such a great fishery IMO.