Wisconsin River Walleye Fishing report – Dells Dam

By Joel Ballweg 0

Wisconsin Dells is well known for its spring walleye fishing. The river itself isn’t all that big and because almost other waters in this area are still locked up under ice, this is one of the few places in Wisconsin where people can launch a boat and shake off the effects of a long winter. Because of that, it can and will at times, get pretty crowded on the river.

This 25″ hen walleye made a quick visit aboard our vessel today.

Long time friend Wayne Henn and new friend Darren Dykstra made the trip with me to the Dells today. Overall, the bite was kind of slow but we stuck with it and popped a fish here and there through out the day.
We started out with a minnow rig right over the side of the boat and casting either another plain minnow rig or a jig/plastic combo. The plain minnow rigs ended up catching all our fish today. We just could not find the right combination of jig/plastic to entice them into eating.

This plump hen walleye measured in at 23″ long.

I carry a very large selection of plastics and I’m not afraid to use them but one thing I have learned over the years is that when confronted with small rivers and high fishing pressure, then reverting back to the most simplistic and basic rig can be a very good thing. And that reason alone is why I rarely head out without a bucket of minnows in the boat this time of the year.
Night fishing on the other hand, is completely different. I can’t even remember the last time I’ve taken live bait along at night.

Darren with a 18-1/2″ walleye.

We called it quits around 4:30pm. Heavy fog was rolling in and if you’ve ever tried to navigate this river after dark in heavy fog, you won’t forget it. It is pitch black at water level. Looking up, you can see only a little light between the tall canyon walls on both sides of the river. With my gps on the fritz, I knew better than to wait around until it got dark. Been there and done that before and I’m not interested in doing it again.
We ended up with eighteen walleyes between the three of us.
Eleven under 15″ long, three in the keeper size range and four more between 20″-25″ long.

This walleye was 21″ long.

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Joel Ballweg

56, Married (Nancy) no children, 1 yellow lab. Professional Fishing Guide on Lake Wisconsin for past 10 years

0 Comments

  1. Nice report Joel and congrats on a successful outing! Good point – sometimes we over complicate things and we just need to keep it simple when there’s a tough bite.

  6. You just missed us. Jon and I fished the same water on Monday. Same report only we didn’t have minnows along, we still popped a few fish stewarts pro blue took the biggest one. and one keeper sauger on a chartruese ringie. Jon really took me to school if you consider school, catching short fish. He had a bunch of those.

  7. Great report Joel. Those are some dandy fish. I’m starting to get the itch to get in the boat – – – but there’s ice yet that needs to have holes drilled in it.

  8. Quote:

    Great report Joel. Those are some dandy fish. I’m starting to get the itch to get in the boat – – – but there’s ice yet that needs to have holes drilled in it.

    I wonder how many feet of ice you and Bret drill in an average winter?

    If an alien from outer space was watching you two walking on the ice with a Lazer Mag Express in your hands, I can imagine what he would be thinking?
    What in the heck are those two guys doing drilling all those holes!!!

    Be careful out there on that honeycomb stuff!

  13. Way to go on the catch. Boy, after the 40 mph winds and the 5 degree temps, I am looking forward to getting out this weekend in the 50 degree weather and subdue a few of our favorite fish:) Again, nice catch!!

  19. Quote:

    Hi guys,
    NIce Eyes, now i know i got the fishin bug? have to get on the water soon to get the cure!

    Hey Victor! Welcome to IDOfishing.com

    Better look into getting something done for that bug. A guy doesn’t want to let that kind of thing linger to long ya know.

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