The late, late fall sauger fishing this year on Lake Wisconsin is quickly becoming a year to remember. It used to be that if you caught one sauger over 20 inches long mixed in with the rest of your catch for the day, that was considered to be a pretty good day indeed.
Now, catching two, three, four or even five saugers over 20 inches long in one day isn’t unthinkable, but a reality.
So far, four over 20″ is the best we have done but I have heard of at least one group who claims they caught and released five in one day.
Friday, November 16th
Spent another great day fishing with Dick Majcher and Rob Linde and not much really changed from last Sunday when we went out. Weather was about the same and so was the fishing.
We ended up with 11 saugers and 3 walleyes, five of which were kept. Three saugers were over 20″ long, including one “extremely fat” 21 incher that Rob caught right at the end of the day.
Nice fish Rob!
Needless to say, Rob had the hot hand once again. Seems like this guy is on “automatic” lately. Give him a jig and a minnow bucket, then turn him loose on the saugers. After that, you better have the net ready. I hardly ever get to fish anymore with this guy in the boat. Seems like all I’m doing is netting fish for Rob!
Seriously though, I always enjoy fishing with you two. Your both dedicated and determined walleye fishermen and undoubtedly, that has a great deal to do with why you guys always seem to catch fish.
Saturday, November 17nth
Marty Lenns jumped in the boat for his second fishing trip of the year with me. Marty works at the Dane County airport with my wife, Nancy, and his co-workers put their money together to purchase a half day fishing trip for him because he’s such a nice guy! Ah, okay, I don’t remember why they gave him a half day fishing trip, but he is a nice guy. He even bought a dozen glazer donuts to share with the guide. Apparently, they were the really lite and fluffy kind of donuts. Most of them disappeared while I was fishing from the bow of the boat. Flew out of the boat with the wind or something I guess. Man I hate when that happens!
Well anyway, didn’t have a lot of time to think about it because the fish were biting this morning. I was catching them on a blade bait and Marty was catching them on a jig tipped with a minnow.
Some pretty decent saugers too! Only one over 20″ but two more were 19-1/2″ and two others were right at 19″ long.
Later in the morning a light rain kicked up and wouldn’t go away. Worse yet, the hot early morning fishing slowed down. At least it didn’t quit and we were able to pick up a couple more but by 11:30am, we had seen enough and headed for the boat landing.
Our total for the morning was 12 saugers and 2 walleyes.
My one regret for the morning was that I didn’t take some pictures of Marty and his 19-1/2″ sauger. Normally, I only snap photo’s if saugers are over 20″ long. Thats a mistake on my part and I apologize for that. It would have been nice to have a shot for this report of you with a couple of those better ones you caught today.
It was great fishing with you again Marty, and thanks again for the donut!
Sunday, November 18nth
This morning was sunnier, but much colder than the previous couple days. Kurt Guenther was fishing with me for the second time this year. His first time out with me was a half day trip this past June, which resulted in him catching only one fish. Fortunately, that fish was a 26″ long walleye. Sometimes, it only takes one fish to make for a pretty good day.
Today, the fishing wasn’t as good as it had been the past couple of days. But despite that, Kurts first fish of the day was a dandy 22-1/4″ long sauger which he caught on a jig tipped with a minnow. Nice fish Kurt!
The rest of the morning didn’t really go all that well though. Fish were few and far between. We ended up with only five. All except one was over 15″ long but Kurt only kept one for the table.
I going to have start calling you “Big Fish Kurt”. Don’t seem to catch a lot but what you do sure is worth catching!
Nice to fish with you again Kurt!
Monday, November 19nth
Dewey Schultz originally started out as a client. But after fishing together quite a few times over the last couple of years, he turned into a pretty good fishing partner and friend. Definitely one of the better things that came about from being a fishing guide!
Dewey and I always have really good trips. For some reason the walleyes, saugers or even crappies seem to be on the chew when Dewey gets in my boat.
But today it seemed, things were going to be different. We had fished hard, using a variety of different colored blades and jigs tipped with minnows but by 10:00am, the fish still wanted nothing to do with us. We thought we may have had a bite here and there but never put the hook into anything other than a couple of stumps or other bad snags.
Around 10:15am, I started playing around with a bunch of different colored paddletails and ringworms from B’Fish’N Tackle. It didn’t take to long and I started to catch some nice saugers. Dewey made the switch after I caught the second fish but it took a little long for the fish to warm up to him.
The rest of the day was much different than the early morning hours were. We saw very few fish caught by any of the other boats out there today and admittedly, we did try to keep our fish catching as low key as possible. Sorry guys, but when there’s that many of you out there, we just didn’t feel like drawing a crowd. Especially, when we knew Big Dave had John Gillespies T.V. crew out in his boat . Apparently, they were attempting to film a segment on late fall sauger fishing for his show. I don’t have any idea how it went for them because we were too busy with what was going on in our boat to pay any attention to those guys.
I have had some pretty good luck on both paddletails and ringworms in the past on Lake Wisconsin. But this year, I just couldn’t get them to go real good until today. We would catch one here and another there, but never anything consistent. I think today, the fish just got tired of seeing all those blades and jigs bounced off there heads.
By the end of the day, Dewey and I had put 17 saugers and 3 walleyes in the boat. Four saugers were between 20″ and 21″ long and five others were between 18-1/2″ and 19″ long.
Guess our streak of good fishing trips isn’t going to be broken just yet Dewey!
First photo – sharing a beautiful sunset after a great day on the water with Dick Majcher and Rob Linde. (courtesy of Dick Majcher)
2nd photo – Marcus Kemblowski, a bass fisherman working on converting to walleyes & saugers.
3rd photo – Yep, another 20″ plus sauger.
4th photo – This year, it seems like theres no end to 20″ plus saugers in Lake Wisconsin.
Wow! Awesome fish! Great report Joel!
Great report and pics, Joel And to think that I was supposed to fish there yesterday, but my buddy changed his mind to stay home and clean up the yard….
So instead, I hit the Rock which is much closer to home. Oh well, good to see the plastics doing their jobs…fun stuff.
Joel,
Any specific colors you found that seemed better than others? So far for me, the colors of the year have been charteuse green core, firecracker chartreuse tail, and catalpa orange chartreuse tail, in that order. Haven’t done much on other colors. Ringworms have seemed better than paddles so far, at least for my boat.
Now that was a truly great report Joel! Those are some of the nicest saugers, and sauger pics, I’ve seen! I’ve never fished Lake Wisconsin, but thanks to your reports, it is quickly moving up my list of “places to fish”!
Excellent report. Those saugers are incredible
Greatb report as usual Joel. Those are some dandy Saugers.
John
Purple w/white tail has been best for me. Believe it or not, paddletails have out fished ringworms 4 to 1 in my boat. Very odd how some colors work for one guy and not for another.
Was out all day today and the action was quite a bit slower.We ended up with 7 saugers and 3 walleyes. First day out in quite some time with no fish over 20″ long.
Dang wind was brutal today! Wore my trolling motor batteries down to nothing.
Boog
Thanks John!
If your ever interested, I would gladly do a trip swap with you. I always look forward to spending a day in the boat with a good fisherman from another area. Great way to pick up on the little things that work for them and may be useful here as well.
Boog
Thanks for the kind comments guys! I know most of you are a long ways away from Lake Wisconsin, just so know, it really is appreciated when you guys read and reply to my reports. If no one ever did, it would eventually seem like a waste of time to even put a report up.
So thanks again for responding!
Boog
Mam moo Sauger.
Nice report Joel.
Great Saugers Boog! Nice report
I will gladly invite you to join Al Erickson and I on LBDN or P-4 out of my boat…we would love to fish Lake Wisconsin with “da Man”. Did you try any blades?
I will gladly invite you to join Al Erickson and I on LBDN or P-4 out of my boat…we would love to fish Lake Wisconsin with “da Man”. Did you try any blades?
Tom,
You bet! I will gladly take you and Al out for a day on Lake Wisconsin for a day on LBDN. Sounds like fun to me!
Shoot me a p.m. and lets set something up!
I was using blades up until the water temps went below 40 degrees. But since then, paddletails and ringworms have been better out of my boat.
Still seeing a few guys out there using blades though and at least a few of them are getting some pretty nice fish with them.
Boog
Them are some very impressive Saugers, great job putting the hammer on them