Lake Wisconsin Late Fall Fishing Report

This fish was just to good to not put on the front page. So my report is going to start with a quick story about Jim Saunders and his huge Lake Wisconsin Northern Pike.
Jim flagged me down out on the lake and he wanted to know if I had my camera along. I always carry my camera which proved to be a really good thing today.
Jim claimed he had a really, really big one and he wanted a picture before he let it go. When he first pulled this fish out of the live well, we all thought it was a muskie. But once we got the sun out of our eyes, we were even more impressed to see that it was a northern pike.
Wow, what a fish! It measured 44 inches long and was caught on a custom painted blade bait. I wanted to put a tape around it and get a girth measurement but Jim thought we should get her back in the water. He very much wanted this fish to swim away unharmed.
Jim did me a huge favor by allowing me to perform the release. I can’t even put into words how good it felt to hold a fish like this in my hands while reviving it by the side of Jim’s boat.
Thanks much Jim for letting me document your fantastic catch and for releasing her back in to the waters of Lake Wisconsin where she came from.
Hopefully, this won’t be the last time we hear or see from her!

Sunday, November 4th

The early morning hours were a little warmer than the last two days. No frost on the wind shield at all this morning. And the fishing was much better in the early morning hours today also.
Greg Schmitz, his son Ryan and father-in-law Ralph were all anxious to catch some Lake Wisconsin walleyes and saugers.
Ralph had a serious heart attack this past summer and only wanted to spend a few hours in the boat. Ryan is in seventh grade at Lodi Middle school and he had some serious home work to get done before Monday, so the plan was to fish for a couple of hours with Ryan and Ralph, then head back to the pier, drop those two off and pick up a couple of Greg’s buddies
I really wanterd to see Ryan and Ralph catch a couple of walleyes or saugers but Greg had the hot hand early on using a 1/4oz B3 blade bait. He probably put 5 fish in the boat before either of the other two caught any. Ryan finally did connect on a nice keeper sauger and shortly after, Ralph pulled in a keeper sauger as well.
Unfortunately, we had to head back to the pier all to soon. With the fish still biting, we had a hard time tearing ourselves away from fishing, but Greg’s phone kept ringing and we knew we had to go back.
Of course by the time we got back to the hotspot with Greg’s buddies, Rich Appenzeller and John O’Brien, the bite had pretty much quit. For the most part, the rest of the day was slow.
I caught and released an 18-1/2″ sauger and Greg caught and released a real nice sauger that measured up at 21 inches late in the afternoon.
You really have to take advantage of those feeding windows this time of the year. Do your best to be on the right spot when they do bite because thats the time to make hay!
For the day, we caught 13 saugers and 3 walleyes. Nine of those were between 15-20″ long but the guys only kept four.

Saturday, November 3rd

Jim Linder and Scott Wright limited out on walleyes & saugers while fishing with me back on June 2nd this past summer. Scott let it be known early on that he was expecting nothing less on this trip than what they experienced this past summer. Just for the heck of it, I went back and looked at what they caught back in June. Only a whopping 47 walleyes and saugers! Well that sure didn’t happen. Sorry Guys!
Actually, I don’t think anyone really went home disappointed today. The fishing was better than yesterday and both Scott and Jim each caught a bigger fish than any of the 47 fish they caught back in June. Scott caught a really nice 20-1/2″ sauger early in the morning and Jim pulled in a real pretty 22″ walleye in the early afternoon hours. Aside from that, the three of us caught 8 walleyes and 4 saugers on a variety of different baits. Of those 12 fish, 4 were between 15 – 20″ long and two others were over 20″ long. Most fish came on either a B3 blade bait from B-Fish-N Tackle company or a jig/minnow combo.
Scott also caught a bonus fish today. Actually, the sheephead Scott caught is probably the biggest one that ever came into my boat. We do see a lot of sheepies here on Lake Wisconsin, but not many that are this big. Nice fish Scott!
These two guys have a great sense of humor and just like the last time, it was a real pleasure spending a day in the boat fishing with the two of them. Take care guys. Sure hope to see you back again next year!

Friday, November 2nd
Fishing for walleyes and saugers started out slow on Friday but it did pick up a bit by Sunday.
Friday I had repeat customers Kevin Reynolds & Frank Gavin in the boat. Last fall these two guys had a really good day using blade baits and they were definitely hoping for a repeat performance. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen.
A look back at the fishing reports from last year revealed water temperatures of 42 degrees compared to current surface water temperature of 50 degrees. Just the same, fishing was a little bit better than last weekend and it should continue to get better each week. Colder weather will continue to bring water temperatures down and that, along with a decreasing number of day light hours, will give the walleyes and saugers a greater sense of urgency when it comes to feeding.
Kevin, Frank and I only managed to put 7 walleyes and saugers in the boat on Friday using mostly blades or jigs tipped with minnows. One fish did come on a jig/paddletail combo. Fortunately, four of those fish were of legal size.