Late Fall Lake Wisconsin Saugers and Walleyes

Saturday, November 18th

Dick Majcher and Rob Linde joined me for their 2nd trip of year. We had and excellent outing in May and they were hoping for another good one today.

Early morning temperatures were running right about 32 degrees with cloudy skies and high humidity for this time of year. Winds were out of the north at about 10mph. The dampness in the air really cut through a guy today and had us pulling our collars and hoods up over our head for the entire day.

Surface water temperatures are running about 40 degrees in the main lake.

Things started out great. Dick and Rob are both very experienced fisherman but neither had any previous experience with blade baits, I was giving them a quick lesson on how to work it when Dick caught a 18-3/4" sauger before he even started jigging his blade. He was simply holding the blade a few inches off the bottom while watching my demonstration and the fish just smacked it.

The fish didn’t bite like that all day long but even with a slow period during the middle of the day, we still did pretty good.

We landed 13 walleyes and sauger between 15 and 20 inches long plus four more shorties.

Of those, Dick and Rob took only five home for a meal. The rest were released.

Most of our fish came on blades again today but a few were also caught on jigs and minnows and at least one nice sauger came on a jig/paddle tail combo. (green paddletail)

All fish came out of 18-23′ of water. We did try a little shallower and deeper with no luck.

Rob Linde caught the biggest one today measuring in at 19-3/4" long.

Congratulations on a dandy sauger Rob. Nice job!

Here’s an interesting thing we’ve seen several times with some of the really fat female saugers we’ve caught this fall. The eggs are literally coming out of them. It’s not just one or two that we’ve seen this on either. I have not kept and actual count of how many but I’m thinking we’ve seen this on six or seven fish in the past three weeks. My guess is that these fish are becoming so fat, that some of the eggs, a small amount, is literally being pushed out of their body in the heat of the battle. I’m curious if any of you other fisherman out there have seen this? On a side note, I always try and encourage clients to release these fish regardless of whether or not it’s 20" long and I’m happy to say that most clients do indeed release them.

Dick and Rob, it was great to be able to share my boat with you two again this year! Thanks much for hiring me and I hope you guys have a great winter.

Sunday, November 19th

Today I fished with Jim Berna and except for early in the morning, fishing was a lot slower than yesterday.

The clouds from the last few days had not completely cleared away in the early morning hours and the fish remained in a positive mood until they did. Once that happened, bright, sunny, bluebird skies ruled the day and the fish went totally negative just like that.

Early morning temperatures were slightly colder than yesterday and the wind remained from the north at about 10 mph hour, switching to the west late in the morning.

All our fish came from 20-23′ of water today and blades were again the best bait of the day. We did catch one nice 20-3/4" sauger on a jig/minnow combo but blades caught all the rest.

Despite the tough bite, our average size was better than normal with three out of the six caught being over 20" long.

Jim caught two saugers that were both 20-3/4" long and I caught a 21" long walleye. The other three, all saugers, ran 17-1/2, 18-3/4 and 19" long.

Looks like the weather is going to be quite nice this week with lots of sunshine and warmer temperatures predicted for the entire week. Should make for a great Thanksgiving.

Happy Turkey Day everybody and good luck to all you deer hunters!

JWB