October walleye & sauger fishing on Lake Wisconsin seems to run hot & cold. Some years it’s really good and other years, not so good. This year is running mostly in the not so good category and because of that, I’m hearing plenty of regulars wondering out loud about why that is.
We do have an abundance of baitfish on Lake Wisconsin this year and many of the better fish that we have caught don’t appear to be having any problems catching and eating more than enough to sustain themselves. But this is by no means the first time we’ve had a large crop of baitfish. Actually, having an abundance of baitfish is more common than not.
A look back at years past shows that the really good bite doesn’t usually start until November.
It may be that the water still isn’t cold enough to really give the walleyes & saugers that urge to pack it on before the lake is covered with ice. Water temperatures actually rose from 48 to 50 degrees in the main lake this past week. In my experience, rising water temps in the fall are “NOT” a good thing when it comes to good fall walleye fishing and maybe that is why October walleye & sauger fishing always seems to be inconsistent. Good one week and not so good the next. Not that you can’t have a bad day in November, but it does tend to be more consistent on a week to week basis verses October.
We also have an extra large crop of one & two year old walleyes & saugers here in Lake Wisconsin right now. Which has meant making a choice between targeting numbers of fish in the hopes that one out of seven, eight, nine or ten will be a keeper or attempting to target bigger fish with a different technique.
Plastics would normally be one of my go to tactics here but that has not produced at all for me so far. Blade baits & trolling crankbaits behind lead core are two other good methods that tend to catch bigger fish and that has been working, it’s just not working great. Not yet anyway.
The two 16.5" saugers that Jeff Gearhart is holding in the picture at the top of this report both fell for crankbaits behind lead core. All the rest of the fish pictured in this report fell for blade baits.
We did not catch a lot of fish this weekend by any means and all the walleyes & saugers we caught that we’re over 20" long came within the first hour of sunrise.
The afternoon hours have been really bad for us. We did not catch a single walleye or sauger over 15" long in the afternoon hours. I’m sure that will probably change next week but it’s something worth paying attention to. If you have a choice, fish in the early morning hours right now and go hunting in the afternoon.
I sure wish I would have done that this past weekend!
Fantastic read, Joel. I’ve been wondering when it would be the right time to come out and fish with you and this report more than answered my questions.
Great Job Joel, Thanks for the report!
Those Lake Wisconsin Saugers are truly awesome! I really hope I can get my schedule to work here in the next week to come and pay you a visit
I am sure your bite is just around the corner for ya.We were a bit slow to get started as well.
I think you’re right about that Dean.
Could start as early as this weekend.
Only one thing to do in the meantime. Keep fishing!
I guess I’m not missing anything sitting down here in Florida. Maybe the fish are just waiting for me to return. I’m going to go out and do some snook fishing on Thursday. I’ll just pretend they are walleye and enjoy fishing in shorts again.
You sure didn’t miss much this weekend.
I thought you were going down there to work!
Another awesome report Joel, Them saugers are lookin’ fat and healthy
Great report Joel. Looking forward to reading more as your fall bite improves in the days to come.
Working… I heard there was a huge die off there so nobody should
go there for the next three weeks for sure. It is much better to go bow hunting or shoot your rifle or duck hunting or really anything. All you’re likely to get are short fish and too long fish. Be easier to go to the fish store and buy them from Canada.
Great job Joel….that hot bite will be there. I believe you hit the nail on the head about rising fall water temps. Can really mess with the bite. Good luck and stay on them Boog!