Lake Wisconsin Catfish Report

Anyone know how to make a 6’9" ex-UW Badger offensive lineman with two Rose bowl rings squeal like a little girl?

Nope, I don’t have any idea how you do that either.

However, I’m pretty sure I know how to make him smile like Mr. Incredible, the main caricature from the animated movie!

Just have him tangle with a 41lb flathead catfish for 15 minutes or so, then make him hold the fish up for pictures while his forearms are still burning from the battle.

I met Luke Hilgemann, his dad Bill and Mauricio Jaine early Sunday morning at the boat launch. We all climbed in the boat and headed out for a morning of walleye fishing. These guys all own house’s on the lower end of Lake Wisconsin and they were very much interested in learning new spots and new techniques to catch walleyes & saugers.

We started trolling shad raps along an area that had given up some real nice fish for my clients a week earlier and after only a short time, Mauricio hooked into a fish. Unfortunately, it came unbuttoned just before it showed itself. Could have been a keeper size walleye but we’ll never know. A few short fish and a few white bass was all we had to show after several passes so we moved on to the next spot.

We started trolling shad raps along an area that had given up some real nice fish for my clients a week earlier and after only a short time, Mauricio hooked into a fish. Unfortunately, it came unbuttoned just before it showed itself. Could have been a keeper size walleye but we’ll never know. A few short fish and a few white bass was all we had to show after several passes so we moved on to the next spot.

The second pass through this small spot produced a nice 19" sauger for Bill. It was another pass or two later when Luke hooked into a good one. At first we thought this might be a really big walleye. The early portion of this fight was similar to how a big walleye would fight. It only took a few minutes and Luke had it below the boat. That’s when it became real obvious that this was not a walleye, but a big catfish. Luke was doing his best to pull it to the surface but he wasn’t even close to winning this battle. He wanted to tighten down the drag but I assured him that would be a mistake and the best course of action, if he wanted to have any chance of seeing this beast, was to take his time and enjoy the battle.

It seemed like it took a long time and everyone in the boat was watching the surface carefully for any sign of the big fish. After about 15 minutes, it finally rolled on the surface and everyone in the boat let out a simultaneous: "Whoa"!

I wasn’t to sure that big kitty was going to fit in the net.

Another minute or two later and Luke had it close enough for me to slip the net under it’s head and then power through the water engulfing the big cat inside the hoop. From there though, it was physically impossible for me to lift it out of the water. I worked the net handle hand over hand until I able to grab both sides of the hoop and even then I was apprehensive about picking it up. The net held together just fine though and we were able to bring her aboard.

The big flathead had a humongous belly and it appeared to be full of eggs. She measured up at 41" and weighed in at 41lbs. After holding the beast up for several pictures, Luke had just enough strength left in his arms to put her back in the water. She pretty much let him know that she was fine but not to happy with him as she immediately swam down and away from the boat.

That was pretty much the story of our morning. Along with several white bass, we ended up with 8 walleyes & saugers, most of which were under 15" long.

That’s the great thing about fishing. Even though most of the morning was slow, one really big fish and 15 minutes of adrenaline filled action was all it took to turn this into a great trip for everyone involved.

This was another one of those trips that will stick in my memory for a long time! It sure was fun fishing with you guys Luke, Bill and Mau.

Thanks for your help at the boat landing Bill! It makes a big difference when the boat landing is busy like that.

Saturday afternoon, May 31st

Julie & Michael Rogers live in nearby Sauk City. We met at the boat launch parking lot at 2:30pm and prepared for an afternoon of chasing walleyes.

Unfortunately, the strong west winds were not letting up and that was affecting where we were going to fish. Some of my better spots of late were getting the full force of the wind.

I decided to start by slow trolling crawler rigs behind bottom bouncers. This extremely effective technique is way under fished here on Lake Wisconsin. It is not only effective at catching walleyes but it is also a great way to locate willing biters. Once located, you can always slow down and work them over with a jig tipped with a leech or half a crawler.

We spend most of our time working the 14-16′ zone. The bite was slow though and the wind didn’t let up until late in the afternoon. Finally, after pulling in only sheepshead and a couple of small walleyes, we headed to a new area and switched to trolling crank baits. It didn’t take long and Julie’s line got hit hard.

After a nice battle, I slid the net under a nice looking 21" sauger. A few quick pictures and back in the lake it went.

It felt like this was going to be the start of it but in reality, it was the end of it. The wind finally did let up as the sun was going down but we never did get into them this afternoon.

Saturday morning, May 31st

Ken Deja’s wife did what many of us die hard fisherman would love to see our wives do. She bought him a fully guided fishing trip for a Christmas present last year.

Ken is a pretty nice guy himself and he invited his father-in-law to come along.

Ron Smith just retired from his career as a teacher. A professor I believe. He’s looking forward to many things but one of them is getting back into fishing. This trip was a good start towards that goal.

We started bright and early in the morning by trolling shad raps in 10-12′ of water. That didn’t pan out to well and around 9:00am or so, we switched over to slow trolling crawler rigs. That seemed to impress the sheepshead more than the walleyes. Ron finally did hook into a decent fish and after a short battle he brought a very nice looking 20-3/4" sauger to the net.

Other than that one decent fish though, we couldn’t hardly get anything going at all. We did catch seven walleyes & saugers but they were all under 15" long.

To make matters worse, the wind was blowing harder all the time. Even though it was coming out of the west, it was about 5-10mph to strong.

To much unsettled weather over the past few days appears to have had a negative effect on the fish this morning and we just couldn’t get them going.