Lake Wisconsin early Fall Crappies & Walleyes

The screwy weather we had in September definitely had an effect on fishing here on Lake Wisconsin. Overly warm weather kept the crappies from setting up in there usual fall patterns and my fall fishing success suffered because of it. We did get on some crappies, but nothing like a normal September of the past. One of the benefits though, was that we did get into some pretty nice bluegills that were taking advantage of the warmer than normal weather by feeding aggressively in the shallows.

Picture – Carla, Irene & Jeff Heeg with a bunch of nice crappies.

Walleye and crappie fishing was better this past weekend but it still wasn’t exactly easy pickin’s. The bite on Saturday was definitely better than it was on Sunday and even though the temperature was colder on Sunday, if still felt colder on Saturday due to the wind.
Jeff, Carla & Irene Heeg drove down from Marshfield for their first ever fishing trip on Lake Wisconsin. The temperature was hovering right around 30 degrees when we left the boat landing in the early morning fog. I’m sure the ladies were wondering what the heck are we doing going fishing in below freezing temperatures and weather predictions that included both rain & snow for later in the day. We did get some snow around 9:00am but the rain never did fall. Thank god for that! Thankfully, everyone was dressed for the weather and we were able to find a few locations that were somewhat out of the wind which also held some walleyes & crappies.

Our best bait for the day was a 1/4oz jig tipped with a large fathead minnow. We did managed to catch four legal walleyes & saugers but we had to sort thru plenty of small fish in the 13 to 14-1/2″ range along the way. Judging by the number of small fish we caught, It appears as though the 2007 year class of walleyes & saugers was a good one on this part of the Wisconsin River.

We also ran into some good size white bass and crappies which is always a nice bonus. Especially since we didn’t really have to do anything different to catch most of them. We had a live bait rod tipped with a fathead minnow out at different times through out the day but most of the crappies still came on the jig/minnow combination.

Picture – Irene Heeg with another nice crappie.

Jerry, Derek & Marc Hopper came up from Indiana this past Sunday to sample the fall walleye & crappie fishing here on Lake Wisconsin. It was their first time on Lake Wisconsin and even though the guys had to work for everything they caught, they were still very happy to be sharing a day on the water with each other.
It was a cold 24 degrees when we left the boat landing at sunrise this morning. Thank goodness the sun came out early and didn’t hide behind any clouds until later in the morning. I was thankful the wind didn’t blow like it did on Saturday as well. Of the two weekend days, the weather on Sunday was definitely better to fish in.

Jigs tipped with fathead minnows was again out best bait. I did give some plastics a try but that was a no-go for me. We caught quite a few small walleyes & saugers today and we were hoping to sort thru all the and hopefully pick up a few keepers along the way. Unfortunately, that never happened. Instead, the guys had to settle for some nice crappies which they are planning on giving a hot oil bath back in Indiana.

All in all, the fishing this past weekend was definitely better in my boat than it has been the last two weeks but it should get quite a bit better over the next couple of weeks.

Our best jigs this past weekend were the 1/4oz Precision jigs from B’Fish’N Tackle. Out top color in the mornings was Orange/Tiger Glow Eyes & Orange Chartreuse. Purple Pearl & Sour Apple were both good in the afternoon.

Surface water temperatures in the mail lake above the rail road bridge were running right around 52-53 degrees and 54-55 degrees down by Moon Valley. Two weeks ago, our water temperatures were at 75 degrees. We needed the water to get colder in order for our fall bite to start picking up but I’m not sure having them drop that fast was really a good thing when it comes to triggering a good bite from the walleyes & saugers.

Picture – Cathy Schields with a nice crappie that she released after a quick photo.