Walleye fishing on Lake Wisconsin was both good and not so good this past weekend. Saturday and Sunday morning were a bit on the slow side but by Sunday afternoon, we were back on them again. The numbers were not quite as good as the week before but at least the ones we were catching were quality fish.
Tom Strahota caught his personal best walleye on Sunday afternoon. He released this 28″ walleye even though it would have been legal to harvest. Thanks Tom!
Trolling crankbaits on lead core had been our go-to technique for the past two weeks but on Saturday, that accounted for a single 21″ sauger.
Dragging jigs & live bait produce a couple of keeper size walleyes for us but we were hoping to find something more. We pulled out the regular trolling rods and hit multiple spots but found only a few fish in most of the locations we went to.
Dick Majcher holds up a 25-1/2 incher.
Sunday morning was slow again and when we finally did find what appeared to be a decent size pod of fish, the wind kicked up and made it very uncomfortable for us to stay there. We gave up on those fish and headed back to the area where our lead core bite had been hot. Turns out we missed out on an early morning hot bite at this location but my afternoon clients were able to cash in on a pretty decent bite over the second half of the day.
Tom Strahota’s previous personal best was this 23-1/2″ walleye.
We went out for a full day on Monday also but the fishing was a bit slower over the course of the day. We caught about half our fish trolling lead core and the other half came while vertical jigging large fatheads on H20 Precision jigs. Funny how seven walleyes & saugers ranging from 16-1/2″ to to 23-1/2″ plus one 35″ pike and a handful of crappies constitutes a slow day. A few weeks ago, that would have been a darn good day.
Greg Schnoebelen with a 35″ pike caught on a crankbait.
Sorry for the late report. Relatives from California were staying with us over the weekend and Monday was our 7th wedding anniversary. Even when I did get off the water, jumping on the computer for an hour or two was out of the question.
1st picture – Dick Majcher with a 23″ walleye.
2nd picture – Dick with a 21-1/2″ sauger.
3rd picture – Jim Schnoebelen with a 23-1/2″ walleye.
4th picture – Jeff Schnoebelen with a 21-1/2″ sauger.
Nice fish like usual Joel.
Better late than never Joel, Nice report & congrats on your 7th. The wife & I just had our 25th. I must be getting old. LOL
The walleyes are great but those saugers are incredible. I really dig the coloring and your photos are very well done. What are you using for a camera? L. Wisconsin is quite the fishery. Thanks for sharing it all with us with your reports, Joel.
Must…make trip soon!!
If…only…I…lived….CLOSER! I’d love to get into some of those saugers. Good stuff, Joel!
I dropped my Nikon CoolPix in the river while night fishing this spring. My new camera is a Cannon SX110 IS.
At first I wasn’t real impressed with the pictures. I was still using the same memory card from the camera that went in the river. Put in a new card & bingo! Great pictures.
It pays to always pay attention to the angle of the sun and I always advise clients on how to hold the fish properly for quality photo’s.
Finally, I always, always take at least three photo’s of every fish. Two of the photo’s will always get deleted, execpt on really impressive fish. Quite often one of the three photo’s will be far above the other two for various reasons.
All my photo’s are cropped before resizing. If these pictures were going in a photo album, I would have cropped them differently. Because all the photos are being posted on a fishing website, the cropping eliminates a lot of unnecessary digital data which eat up space.
Great explanation and guidelines for picture taking. It’s surprising to me how many people take bad pictures. They follow your tips and they’ll be on the right track.
Great report Joel along with the new camera pics
Did you find a good deal on that Cannon? Time to start looking
Great report Joel. Good to see you’re still getting some dandies to the boat. Great pictures too. I myself really try to concentrate on good pics too. I love taking pictures of big fish just as much as I love catching them.
Thanks guys.
I don’t remember exactly what we paid for the Cannon but I think it was around $250-$280.
Happy seventh ann. to you and mama.Any fishing day is worth while if your catching or not.I think i learn more when the bite is tougher.What,no smelly jelly plug in the photo’s like Mendotaeye.
Just kidding,sweet report Joel,see ya on the water. 
One other suggestion for taking a better picture is to use the flash on one of them. You will be surprised how many times it just the thing to eliminate unwanted shadows even on a sunny day.
Mark
Another great read and pictures Joel
I’m not that far away and you have got me drooling
Don’t be surprised if you see me floating around on the lake one day soon trying to figure out a bite
Great Report Joel! Those are not only great looking Walleyes, but amazing saugers!
Pete