With high water already making its way into Lake Wisconsin and the first chilly weather arriving the night before my first crappie fishing trip of the fall on Lake Wisconsin, I wasn’t expecting big numbers of fish to come over the side of the boat.
Justin Fjalstad and Ken Driver didn’t seem to mind though. They were just interested in learning their way around Lake Wisconsin, catching a few fish along the way and enjoying a day off from work.
Since there was plenty of current out in the main lake, I decided to check some of the deeper bays first. We spent the better part of an hour in Weigens Bay but didn’t find any active fish in there. Next we started working our way up and down the shorelines. This worked out about as I expected with a fish here and another there but no one spot that seemed to really concentrate fish.
We used ultra-lite rods rig with 4lb Suffix Elite to cast 1/32oz jigs tipped with tiny plastics and waxworms up shallow, then slowly worked them back. Slowing the retrieve to almost nothing as the jigs got closer to the boat allowed these baits to pendulum down to deeper water. That little trick has put the hurt on a pile of big Lake Wisconsin crappies in years past but not so much on this day.
A second rod was set at about 10′ deep and hung right over the side of the boat rigged with a single colored bead, split shot & large fathead minnow. We were after large crappies and they have shown no hesitation when it comes to gulping down large fatheads. Both rods caught fish but it sure wasn’t fast action on this day.
I believe we ended our trip with an even dozen good size crappies, three decent size bluegills, along with several smaller panfish, smallies & saugers.
The weather was a little chilly when the sun didn’t shine, but not bad overall.
The sun did seem to be the key ingredient on this day. When it was shining, the fish bit. Not fast but we were able to catch them. When the sun stopped shining, getting fish to bite was darn near impossible.
Regardless of how many fish we caught, the company was good and it sure felt good to have fish pulling on the ends of our ultra-lite rods once again.
Very nice pies
Nicely done Joel!!! Flow down here on the Mississippi is 144k, so we aren’t fishing.
Good job catching some very nice specks regardless of the conditions Joel
Bummer Jeff. Hope it goes down soon so you guys can get out and chase crappies yet this fall.
Conditions on Lake Wisconsin went down hill in a hurry after our trip. By Sunday, debris, mud, trees, grass….you name it started showing up in the lake. It has started going down already now and hopefully fishing will pick up again soon.
Nice fish
Nice fish Joel!
Great report Joel Nice work in less than ideal conditions
Exactly what Pat said. Way to adjust and nice pics Joel!
Joel
Great report Joel. Sounds like a fun day.
Nice crappies Joel. It will get better
Joel,
Nice to see you found a few. Sure hope the water conditions improve so we can start looking for some of those dandy saugers. This summer like weather won’t help water temps so may be awhile.
Michael
Very nice crappie Joel!
The hot walleye bite over there should be just around the corner too shouldn’t it?
It should be, but with the amount of shad and baby white bass around this year, it may be a tough fall. Only time will tell.
What John said!
It’s going to be an interesting fall. Not necessarily a good one although I hope I’m wrong about that.
Last year on the 10th of October we were wrapped up tight in winter clothing. This year we’re still fishing in t-shirts and water temps are 10-12 degrees warmer with no cold weather is sight for now.
Last year on October 10th
This weekends record setting warm weather brought back all the knuckle heads in over sized, gas hogging, noise making pleasure boats. Could’ve done without that for sure.
All a guy can do is take what we get and keep plugging along!