Lake Wisconsin Walleye & Sauger Fishing Report

The hot lead core trolling bite that has been going strong here on Lake Wisconsin since the end of April has finally died down to only a few fish per outing. It sure was fun while it lasted but now that the fish have spread through out the lake, its time to figure out the next pattern.

Reg Acker caught & released this 28-1/2″ walleye.

I had a couple of good ideas based on my records from previous years. Last Wednesday, Rob Hatch and I spent most of the day fishing in a steady drizzle. We started by running flat lines behind planer boards and it worked so well we never tried anything else.
For the most part, we just used #5 jointed shad raps in red craw and firetiger. We did mix in a few different colored 200 series rip shads as well.
We ended up putting 12 walleyes & saugers in the boat (five legals, two overs & the rest shorties) plus six nice crappies.

Rob Hatch with a 23-1/2″ walleye caught behind a planer board.

On Thursday, I hooked up with Reg & Tyler Acker for a half day fishing trip. We went right back to the same program that work so well for us the day before and pulling cranks on flat lines behind planer boards worked pretty good for us again.
Reg Acker had a real good fish come off shortly after we started but he got a 2nd chance later in the day and ended up landing his personal best walleye to date. A dandy 28-1/2″ beauty that he released.

For the year, my clients and I have put seven walleyes between 28 and 30.5″ long in the boat. I’m very happy to say that six out of seven were released alive and well.

Rob Hatch with a pair of 14-1/2″ crappies.

Unfortunately, the planer board trolling bite died down to almost nothing for the entire weekend. Kind of surprised me but thats the way it goes with fishing.
We did have a little luck pulling crawler rigs on Saturday afternoon when we managed to scrape up four keepers. But other than that, it was pretty tough fishing.
We also tried draggin jigs tipped with crawlers at various times and locations with little or no luck.

Mike Werner with a healthy 23-1/2″ walleye he caught on a flat line behind a planer board. The only decent walleye we caught on Monday.