Lake Wisconsin Sauger/Walleye Fishing Report

Feeding windows are everything this fall on Lake Wisconsin.
Fishing can be slow all day but when the feeding window finally opens, it suddenly becomes easy to put fish in the boat. This has happened time & time again this fall for us while fishing for saugers & walleyes on Lake Wisconsin.

The key is to make sure you don’t miss those windows of opportunity. Solunar tables are helpful in this regard but they are not always exact. For whatever reason, the walleyes & saugers appear to have there own schedule at times. One day the solunar tables will be dead on and the next, the fish just decided to wait until a few hours later to have there major meal for the day.

For us, the key to consistent catches was to switch baits often. If we went 15 minutes without a bite, it was time to change. Either change the color of our blade bait or plastic tail or change from a jig to a blade bait. When the feeding window was closed, these fish were very finicky and getting them to bite meant that you had to have everything right. It was not unusual to have five, six or seven different colored blade baits laying out or more than a dozen or so different colored jig/paddletail combinations laying on the dash boards of my boat. Ringworms were given a pretty good work over as well but they never did produce a fish for us this week. Hair jigs were only okay for us. For the most part, the most consistent baits for us were either blade baits or jig/paddletails tipped with minnows.

Our best day was last Friday when the guys put eighteen fish in the boat. Three over 20″ long, eleven more in the keeper slot and the rest shorts.
Our worst day was Saturday when we could only muster up nine total. (two over, six keepers) Despite my best lobbying efforts, my client had enough by 3:00pm and wanted to quit right when the feeding window was opening. Local fishing fanatic Jim Saunders pulled up as we were pulling the plug. I told Jim the spot we were vacating was just heating up and he should get right in there. Sunday, I saw Jim on the lake and asked him how he did. “Lights out” was his answer. Best one hour of fishing he’s had this fall so far. Nine fish in one hour, four over 20″ long and the rest all legals.
Sure wish we hadn’t missed that bite!

Surface water temperatures out in the main lake are running 41-42 degrees. Our best depth was again between 19-21′ of water.