Late Fall Wisconsin River Walleyes, Crappies, Pike

The annual late fall, jig & plastic bite on the Wisconsin River system continued to produce walleyes, saugers, crappies and pike for my boat over this past weekend. Colors changed a little bit from day to day mostly depending on the amount of light that penetrated the water.

River conditions were a bit of a challenge as we were faced with falling water levels. On Saturday, flows were at 10,900cfs, Sunday they dropped to 10,300cfs and Monday they were down to 9,030cfs.

As water flows came down, we found we were able to downsize our jigs from 1/4oz to 3/16oz in most of the locations we fished. The fishing also improved noticeably as the weekend progressed. I’m sure the big front that rolled in late Monday afternoon had everything to do with that.

Dewey Schultz & I spent Saturday pitching ring worms, paddle tails & moxi’s in various colors & locations up and down the river in less than ideal conditions. Temps started out in the mid 20’s, barely rose above freezing around mid-day and didn’t stay there long before dropping quickly below freezing again in the afternoon hours. Chartreuse paddletails on 1/4oz green tiger Precision jig heads were our top producers on this day. We had to work for our bites but we ended up with 18 walleyes & saugers, most of which were shorts but four did make there way home for a dip in the hot grease at Dewey’s house.

Mike Concannon and Mike Benthaus met each other for the first time aboard my boat on Sunday. Both were very interested in catching fish first and foremost but also in learning the finer points of casting jigs tipped with plastics. I gave them each a St. Croix Avid rigged with a jig/plastic and had them start casting those while I busied myself rigging them each up with a dead stick rod. Next I rigged up a St. Croix with a jig & plastic for myself and then gave a quick demonstration on the basics. It’s always nice when you catch a fish on the first cast of the day and its even better if that happens while your giving a demo. Two cast later, our first keeper size walleye found his way into the box. Nothing gets clients to pay attention better than pulling a couple fish in the boat during a demonstration. Sure wish I could get that kind of co-operation from the fish on a more regular basis.

Mike Concannon found a good rhythm later in the morning while pitching a chartreuse pepper ring worm on a 1/4oz green tiger precision jig head and Mike Benthaus joined in on the fun after quickly switching over to the hot color.

The numbers of walleyes and saugers were not quite as good as the day before but the average size was better with five out of twelve fish caught reaching keeper size. We also took a 1 hour detour chasing crappies with minnows which paid off with six nice size, bonus crappies for the guys.

Monday was by far our best day. The primary reason for that was a big weather front heading our way but another reason for that was the other guy in the boat. Michael Collins & I have fished together on several occasions over the last few years and is no rookie when it comes to pitching jigs & plastics. Most of you know him from his salmon fishing post here on IDO but no one should under estimate his ability to catch walleyes.

I knew this going into our day out on the water and looked forward to standing toe to toe with a guy who could fish equally with me cast for cast. Most of the people I fish with want to learn something. Today was an opportunity for me to see and compare tricks, techniques and color choices from another good walleye fisherman.

The fish let us know they were willing to co-operate with us right from the get go and the action didn’t really slow down much until late in the morning. After that we had to work quite a bit harder for our bites.

Since I don’t usually get to keep fish, I let it be known early on that I planned on keeping a few for the pan today. It sure was a good day for that as we ended up catching 19 walleyes, 18 saugers & 14 crappies. Nineteen of the walleyes & saugers were keeper size. As a bonus, Michael also landed a hard fighting 31" pike.

Mike’s top colors for the day were a plain electric blue ring worm on a 3/16oz black jig head and a chartreuse orange core moxi on an orange jig head.

My best colors were a chartreuse pepper ring worm on a 3/16oz black precision jig head and a electric blue/pearl tail ring worm also on a black precision jig head.

All in all, it was a blast fishing with all these guys and I hope we get another weekend or two to get out there and pitch some more plastics before it all come to a screeching halt due to iced over waters.