Lake Wisconsin Fall Walleye & Sauger Fishing Repor

The fish gods giveth and the fish gods taketh away! Today they felt like teasing us with what could have been and the end result is that I now have nightmares about the big fish we “almost” caught.

Sunday afternoon, 11-02-08

This afternoon was filled with disappointment for myself, Art Green and Uncle Baldy. Sorry, but Art & Uncle Baldy never did give me his real name. Guess it was a secret or something.

It wasn’t disappointing because the fish didn’t bite. It was disappointing because we kept losing the big ones that did bite. All told, we lost three big fish, two of them we never saw and the third….well, I kind of wish I had never saw that one either.

We started out trolling cranks and right from the get go, the bite was on. First pass, two fish. Turned the boat around and went right back through and caught another one. Trolled back the other way and lost a big one on the turn. Then Art hooks up with another really good one and battles it within 20′ of the boat where it surface’s for the first time. Holy crap! My first though was that’s the biggest muskie I’ve ever seen on Lake Wisconsin. Then I realized it wasn’t a muskie but a northern pike. That was even more unbelievable. At that point I threw the net back on the floor of the boat. There was no way, no how that fish was going to fit in my frabil. Just for reference, 30″ walleyes fit in my net with no problem at all. My plan was to have Art tire it out and then slide my hand down the line and pull the fish in by hand. The big pike had other plans. He stuck his monstrous head out of the water and with his mouth wide open began thrashing back and forth. That was too much for my 15# fireline. It cut right through and lay there on the surface for about five seconds before sliding back under the surface and out of site. Art and I were left standing, jaws hanging, knees knocking and a feeling of total disbelief that there could ever be a northern pike of that size in Lake Wisconsin. Don’t even ask me how big it was. To big to believe, that’s how big.

We slowly put ourselves back together while discussing what just happened. I tied on another snap, dug out another crankbait and onward we went. Later, Uncle Baldy lost another big fish after a short battle. It definitely hurts less when you can’t see how big they are!

The hot bite died down and we finally decided to move on and do some blading.That put a couple more fish in the boat as darkness approached.

We ended up with nine fish total, five keepers & four shorties. Still, I was left with the feeling of what this day could have been had the fish gods smiled on us once more.

An awesome afternoon on the water just the same. Art, you always seem to bring a little bit of magic with you on your trips. I definitely hope to see you in my boat again next year!

Sunday morning, 11-02-08

Scott Billings & Steve Fausnaugh spent a day in my boat this spring chasing crappies. They decided that was kind of fun and now they wanted to give the walleye fishing on Lake Wisconsin a shot.

The last two days we had almost zero clouds but today it was mostly cloudy. I was hoping that would help turn the fish on a little bit.

I decided to put the blade baits on first thing this morning and after a quick demo on how to work them, we all got after it and proceeded to land several good size sticks over the next 15 minutes. Good practice I guess!

I saw Steve set the hook on something that didn’t move to much and I kept my eyes glued to his rod to watch two things in particular. First, I wanted to see how he would react and second, I wanted to see if his rod was going to “thump” or just remain bent over. Steve was definitely listening doing the instruction session because he kept steady pressure on his rod, long enough for the big fish on the other end to make the first move. “Thump, thump….oh, oh, this sure ain’t no stick. After a pretty good battle, the first walleye of the day and Steve’s first ever blade bait walleye came in the boat. A very nice, healthy 27 incher.

Now thats a great way to start the day!

We did put a couple of shorties and one legal in the boat after that but unfortunately, the bite slowed down quickly. We hit several more spots and then finally switched over to trolling crankbaits. That worked pretty good and the guys put two more legals, a 21-1/4″ sauger and another shortie in the boat before the morning came to and end.

Great fishing with you two guys again Scott & Steve!

Saturday, 11-01-08

Spent the day fishing with Brian Baird & his dad George.
Fishing was much slower for us today. We started out using blade baits, tried some jigs and live baits and then ended up going back to blade baits around mid-morning. When the fishing is tough, its always a tough call as to where the best spot is and what the best bait to use is.

These two didn’t let up though. Other than taking a break to eat lunch at Fitz’s restaurant in Okee, they hit it hard the entire day.

Later in the afternoon we switched over to trolling crankbaits for an hour or so and that produced a couple of keepers for us as well.

We ended up with a total of eight walleyes and saugers. Five of which were in the keeper slot range and none over 20″ long. Pretty slow day compared to the numbers and size we had been putting up.

Friday, 10-31-08

We enjoyed some unusually warm weather while fishing on Lake Wisconsin this past weekend. The walleyes and saugers didn’t appear to be impressed by the warmer weather though and we had to work very hard to find active or willing walleyes & saugers.

Surface water in the main lake is running around 47-48 degrees on average and with very warm weather predicted till later this week, it doesn’t look like its going to be getting any colder over the next couple of days.

Friday I enjoyed a day in the boat with Larry Wilkinson and his co-worker, Joe Scheib. Larry & I graduated high school together and we used to do a bit of fishing with each other back in our younger days. We still touch base now and then but getting out fishing together has become nearly impossible. He’s got a family and I’m just plain busy. Kind of like most of the rest of the world!

Anyway, the early morning bite was pathetic at best. We didn’t put a single walleye or sauger in the boat until at least 10:00am. But then between the hours of 11:00am and 1:00pm, we hit them pretty good. It went dead again for the most part until around 3:30pm when we started picking a few off here and there.

Blade baits were our best bait today by far. We tried trolling, jigging and live bait with little or no success at all. Blades were definitely the way to go for out boat and by the end of the day, we had put fifteen walleyes & saugers in the boat. One sauger at 21″, 10 walleyes/saugers between 15 – 20″ long and the rest were short. We threw one 19″ sauger back because it was snagged in the belly and we threw one 15″ walleye back because we weren’t sure it would measure 15″ on a game wardens ruler.

All in all, it was a superb way to spend a fall day! It was a pleasure to fish with the two of you Larry and Joe!