Lake Wissota walleyes and smallmouth bass, 7.28.07

Are you ready to do battle with a bunch of beautiful mid-summer walleyes? Can you handle a boatload of football-shaped smallmouth bass? If you think you’re up to the task, then drop what you’re doing and come to Lake Wissota, RIGHT NOW! The summer bonanza is upon us.

Joining me on Wissota today was fellow IDA pro-staffer Don Hanson (HJI Outdoors). Don and I teamed up this year to offer guided trips to large groups on our home waters of Lake Wissota and Lake Menomin, but today was the first time all year that we actually had the chance to fish out of the same boat.

Mid-summer is a time when the Lake Wissota walleye bite can be streaky, but our resident smallmouth bass do their share to take up the slack. Don and I hit the water around 9, and we didn’t budge from our first spot until after 11. For those two hours, smallies ruled the roost. Dandy smallies. 14-16" footballs with an occasional larger fish mixed in. We targetted these fish in depths of 10-12 feet with a mixed rock and sand bottom. We pitched light jigs tipped with crawler halves or leeches, a presentation which will trigger both smallies and walleyes. After about an hour, I remarked to Don that I wished I had kept count of our fish, as hooksets were flying on just about every cast. Here’s a shot of Don holding a pair of typical Wissota smallies.

Our early bite started to fizzle by late morning, and Don and I headed far up the Chippewa River to target a current seam that was stacked with fish on the previous day. Well, as luck would have it, the flow from the Jim Falls dam was substantially less today than it was yesterday, and the fish that used to be stacked up on the seam were now scattered over the neighboring rocky flats. So, Don and I dragged our way downstream, and were still able to pop a few decent walleyes and smallies. We were dragging crawlers as well as catalpa orange/chartreuse tail paddletails from B-Fish-N Tackle. Here’s a shot of Don with a typical Wissota slot eye that we dragged up.

As the morning turned to afternoon, I suggested that we revisit the spot that started our day off with a bang. From my experience, fish will move up on this area from surrounding deep water from time to time during the day, and I was hoping that a couple of hours was enough time to allow the spot to recharge with fish. Was that ever a good decision!

As soon as we arrived in this area, we started getting bit, but not with the authoritative thumps of aggressive smallies. Instead, our bites were subtle taps, tell-tale signs that we soon would be dancing with mid-day walleyes. After a number of slot fish came to the net, I set the hook on the beautifully colored, FAT 23" fish that is shown in this report’s first picture. A very nice mid-summer walleye on any lake, and an absolute dandy from Lake Wissota!

Sure enough, our mid-day walleye bite slowed after an hour, and I talked Don into one more spot before we called it a day: a piece of main-lake structure that we could target with spinners and crawlers on bottom bouncers. Well, one and a half passes on this structure gave up three more nice slot eyes, a pike, and a crappie, of all things. Thirst and the mid-day sun chased us off the lake, but I know those deep water fish are still going strong. Thanks for sharing the boat with me today Don, I had a great day!

As I mentioned above, this is a great time of year to enjoy some fast smallmouth and walleye action on Lake Wissota. This last photo features another pair of beefy Wissota bronzebacks from today’s trip. These little footballs sure do a great job of filling the time between walleye bites . I guess some people even fish for them on purpose . Well, I sure understand why! They are a blast on light tackle, and together with the walleyes, are very willing biters even in the heat of a late-July day.

I have some openings for guide trips on Lake Wissota as we head into August. Drop me a line if you’re ready to go toe-to-toe with some of Lake Wissota’s smallies and walleyes!