Lake Wissota continues to provide excellent early fall action for multiple species, including walleyes, crappies, and chunky smallies like these.
We are still finding very good numbers of fish relating to rock and sand flats in areas with good water clarity and gentle current. During a brief visit yesterday afternoon, we were able to put 15 walleyes in the boat (10 of which were in the Wissota protected slot of 14-18"), with our largest fish, shown here, just shy of 18".
We tapped into two successful presentations yesterday. The first is to pitch 1/16 oz orangs jigs tipped with whole crawlers upstream, and to allow the gentle current to wash the offering over the flat. Subtle lift-drops were enough to coax fish into showing themselves.
A second successful presentation was a harbinger of fall and winter on the mighty Miss….vertical jigging paddletails from B-Fish-N tackle. We used catalpa/chartreuse tail PTs on 3/16 oz heads to put eyes, smallies, and this nice 12" crappie into the boat. The presentation we used was the same that we will use all winter for vertical saugers and eyes: drop the PT to the bottom, lift up a few inches, give the bait a quick snap or two, and then hold steady….and keep on holding until you can’t take it anymore. Probably 80% of our bites on the PT yesterday came during the hold phase. If you’re a paddletail veteran, you know how much fun it is to have fish come up and crack that stationary bait. Well, we had a gas yesterday, and are looking forward to the cold water period on the river to continue to give these PTs a good workout.
Pitching crawlers or chart/pepper ringworms from B-Fish-N tackle to the shallower areas of the flat was responsible for most of the smallies yesterday. These guys are really strapping on the feedbag, and are very acrobatic. This was our largest fish of the day, taping out at just over 16". He launched himself out of the water and landed right in the net….that’s 2 points, Tim, for a nice net job!
This is a very typical transition period on Wissota…the trolling bite is winding down, and the pitching and bait bite is taking over. As the water cools, look for rocks and current to get fish in the boat. The bite will only become stronger as fall progresses, so get out and enjoy!
Nice report Jason!
Nice Report Mate!
Sounds like it was a great time.
Where were these fish last year at the Elite 50??
The fish were there. The pros just didn’t know how to catch them. Nice to see you hitting the lake Jason…Good Report!
Nice report Jason!
Vertical jigging and pitching jigs are two of my favorite ways to catch fish.
Where is Lake Wissota located and how big is it?
In your report, you talk about current. Is this a reservoir? If yes, what river system creates Lake Wissota?
JWB
Joel-
Lake Wissota is a ~ 6000 acre impoundment formed by a dam on the Chippewa River. It actually has 2 primary river sources, the Chip and the Yellow Rivers, in addition to a few smaller feeder creeks. The main body of the impoundment is just northeast of Chippewa Falls, WI.
The waters of the Chippewa River are navigable for some distance above the lake, and that is where I am concentrating most of my effort right now. The current is slight (enough to move you downstream at a very gentle pace) but noticable.
The fishery is very healthy. Walleyes are present in excellent numbers although the average size is not what you get on Lake Wisconsin. Crappies, Smallies, Muskies and Pike are all available, in addition to perch, gills, flats, channels, sturgeon….you name it, Wissota has it.
Thanks for the report and pics Jason. Multispieces fishing is a very fun way to catch and learn more about each different spieces through out the year.
Thanks, Bill
WOW…
I don’t agree with you.
I believe the weights that were caught (or lack there of…) were a direct relation as to how the body of water cannot handle the fishing and boating pressure that it saw that week. Since last year’s E-50 at Wissota, the lake has yet to see those same number of fisherman and boats…
I would like to see KVD (smallmouth KING) fish a little club tournament on Wissota when nobody knew he was coming…
I’d be willing to bet he’d be laying the smack-down on the locals.
Just my opinion…
Nort…I don’t disagree with you for the most part. Although Lake Wissota has more boat traffic in a weekend than you would ever know. The E-50 doesn’t even put a scratch on what is sees most weekends and all of the summer holidays. It might not all be fisherman…but there is boat traffic. That is the another reason it is hard to fish the lake, too many pleasure boaters and jetskis.
This lake you need to “learn” it before you can fish it. It isn’t your typical lake. Most of the stuff I learned about fishing I had to throw out the door just because it plain old doesn’t work there. It is a tough lake to fish if you’ve never been there like most of the pro’s hadn’t been. The time of year they were there, I caught more than my fair share of smallmouth, I didn’t even fish up in the river. The fish were on the main lake in 20-30′ of water, and I for the most part jigged them out. No pro fished it like that.
Here’s a quick mid-week update:
Wissota Sept 7 2006
Trust me, I understand what the boating pressure is like. That is why I list “fishing pressure” first.
I’m going to duck out of this one because I believe guys like KVD and Iaconelli who grew up fishing northern smallmouth lakes can catch them as good as any 30-year local on any similar lake with a few days of practice. They know what to look for. They’re that good! That’s why we’re both sitting here pecking on the keyboard while those two are fattening their bank accounts.
I will butt out now…sorry.
Krisko – I was hoping you might share some of that deep water main lake pattern you referred to and what type of jigging you were doing. Any thoughts on what might give a guy an advantage on the smallies at the end of September on Wissota? Sounds like there are specific keys to unlocking the fish on this lake – even more so than others perhaps. Thanks for your time.
Get6
GET6,
I take it you got my email…The bass right now I’ve noticed have been relating to the rock shorelines with steep drops near by. The best action last time out for me was more in the river above the main lake. I used 1/4 oz percison jigs tipped with crawlers and using ringworms and K-Grubs. They seemed to like the darker colors better. I mainly used purple/white heads with cotton candy ringworms. You should be able to hook up with some good smallies trying that. I don’t do much deep water fishing in the fall…
I’ve even done good pulling cranks just like Jason’s report says. I’m sure things will be changing here again soon because of the weather change. Stay tuned for more reports.