Memorial Day Wissota Walleye roundup, 5.28.07

What a wonderful weekend to be on Lake Wissota, and what a difference a little bit of sunshine can make on an early season walleye fishery!

My usual weekend and holiday strategy on Lake Wissota is to hit the water for the afternoon and evening of the last day of the holiday period….this thins the herd of cruisers and recreational water enthusiasts, and makes it easier to chase old marble-eyes. So, off to the landing I went on Memorial Day afternoon to spend some time relaxing and scouting for upcoming guide trips.

With water temps just beginning to creep into the upper 60s, Wissota walleyes remain in the pre-summer pattern that they have been in for several weeks. In my boat, that means a healthy dose of trolling cranks, interspersed with periods of pitching live bait on key shallow holding areas.

My father-in-law Tim and I started our day in the Chippewa River, pulling cranks on leadcore through stretches that have been productive for me during the past couple of weeks. We’ve been focusing on sand flats adjacent to the main river channel, working depths between 10 and 14 feet. Several passes through this area yielded only a small gator, so a change in tactics was in order.

Next, we ran far up the river to bounce cranks on long lines through the boulder flats. This can be an expensive way to fish at $5 per snag, but the boulders hold nice populations of both walleyes and smallmouth bass. Pulling jointed SR5s in firetiger and red craw produced our first few respectable fish of the day, including this walleye that was just under the 18" mark. Cranks also produced my first two smallies of the year, brown footballs that were puking up crayfish in the bottom of the boat.

Pitching jigs has been a streaky business lately. We typically encounter short windows when small pods of feeding walleyes will move on top of sand and rock flats and are susceptible to live baits (minnows or leeches) fished with the current on light jigs. We had two such windows yesterday, each of which lasting about 30-40 minutes. The first yielded a number of fish in the slot, like this 17" fish that Tim is holding, as well as a few dinks and the chunky 22+" fish that is shown in the first photo. All of these fish fell to a jig and minnow presentation. A key aspect of this presentation, much like ringworm fishing in the cold water period, is to let the current do most of the work for you. We cast upstream and work the bait only with gentle lifts, during which the current carries the bait downstream. By the time the bait is past the boat, it’s time to pick it up and cast again. Bites have been very subtle all season, and yesterday was no exception. The vast majority of our bites were detected only by the presence of some deadweight during the next lift of the bait. Long pauses before hooksets were needed to bring these fish to the net.

We fished from 2 until 8, and ended up with around a dozen eyes, a couple of smallies, one pike, and one (very) little rockbass. We enjoyed some aerial acrobatics from a sturgeon as he cartwheeled around the boat for about 45 minutes. We were also treated to brief visits by not one, but two very nice walleyes caught pitching jigs. This second fish is a 23+" dandy that is still showing some signs of wear on her dorsal and tail from the spring spawning period. Like nearly all of the walleyes we tangled with today, she fell to a jig and minnow fished through 10 feet of current-swept water.

Memorial Day has passed, and summer is officially underway. Drop me a line if you’d like to cash in on some of the bountiful walleye opportunities that Lake Wissota has to offer!