Fishing has been more miss than hit for me the last two weeks but we’re still managing to put a couple decent fish in the boat or in-hand here and there.
I spent Saturday, April 2nd fishing below the Dells dam with Joel Pieper and his buddy John. Water levels rose over 3,000cfs overnight and surface temperatures dropped 1-2 degrees along with the rising water. Apparently this turned the fish off and we struggled getting anything to bite at all. (Fishing on Friday was reported as being very good) The plastic bite was pretty much non-existent for us on this day and the only thing we found that put fish in the boat was live bait rigs. (fathead minnows)
The night bite has been tougher as well for me lately. With high water eliminating some of my better night time locations, I’ve been forced to try and find some new “hot spots” to target. It’s been a work in progress to say the least. Water levels dropped slowly over several days last week and things were starting to look pretty good but then they shot right back up and pushed me out of two spots that were starting to show some promise.
Such is fishing on the rivers this time of the year. It’s still been a lot of fun looking for just the right current seam where fish will hold and very satisfying when you actually find one that holds more than one or two fish. (which I haven’t found lately)
One thing I have noticed as the water temperature slowly climbs up into the upper 30’s & lower 40’s is that the plastic bite is definitely starting to pick up on my night time wading adventures. The 25″ walleye in the photo above fell for a chart/orange core moxi presented on a 1/8oz black precision jig. I have also noticed more & more smaller male walleyes have been willing to hit my plastics at night lately. The moxi’s and ringworms will both be getting more time in the water on my next couple of night time excrusions as a result.
One other note to those of you wishing to take up night time fishing & photography, don’t forget to clean you lens on a regular basis. A drop of water probably fell off my hand while setting up the camera for the walleye in this picture and I did not check the lens, which means that all my photo’s on this night would turn out with a big blotch right in front of my face. Yes, I’m sure some would say it was a nice improvement but just the same, I will be a little more diligent on future trips because of this little mistake.
The muskie above and the walleye in this last photo both fell for the same stick bait. Sure wish I would have check my camera lens after taking pictures of the walleye!
Nice report Joel. I think the water spot couldn’t have been in a better location.
A few other fish from this weekend.
1st photo – this crappie inhaled a purple/chart tail ringworm.
2nd photo – same crappie as above.
3rd photo – first dogfish of the year. (I think)
anyone know for sure whether or not it’s a dogfish?
Looks like a dog fish to me.
Good to see you had few for the effort needed to fish at night. Yup, rivers are raging and tuff fishing. Nice that crappie will take the ringworms and had a few last fall on them where you got yours. I had a 13.5″ crappie on Chart/pepper at DePere a week ago.
Michael
Certainly looks like a dogfish to me.
Defiantly a Dog Fish, other wise known as Bowfin. They do fight hard
Great report and pics Joel
It did fight hard.
I always thought dogfish had a big green eye spot right on there tail. If that’s dogfish, what is it? (the one with the big green eye spot on the tail)
Tail spots are typical on a dogfish, but they do come without them as well.
Yep, sometimes you will see a dog fish with more than one spot near the tail also!
Dog fish with no spots and a dog fish with 2 spots near tail.
Not trying to take away from your report Joel but just letting you know there are many different color variations with dog fish.
Very nice report Joel.
No problem at all Bret.
I appreciate your clarification since I obviously did not know that about dogfish.
Thanks!
Nice report Joel and water is high all over for sure. In my backyard its up to the top of the bank and came up some more last night. On Puckaway we even get dog fish on spinner biats. Takecare
Nice job Joel
Great report with some dang nice fish. I love the papermouth photo
That 25″ inch fish looks like a big saugeye. You can see the splotchy pattern and not much of a white spot on the tail. Very nice fish either way.
Great report Joel Nice work
Thanks guys.
That’s actually the 2nd one of those I’ve caught this year. John Schultz noticed the same thing with the first one I caught, which was also 25″ long.
Check the other one out in this post. (4th picture in the report)
another 25″ saugeye?
Thanks for sharing Joel. Sounds like the water temp is on the upswing now.
Looks like a dawg from here too…
Great job of the fish Joel and Co. !!
Nice fish & report
Great Job Joel!!
Great Report Joel
Nice fish
Joel, I’m starting to think you could catch fish in a bath-tub during a cold front! Must be the name?
Congrats on the fishing you’ve been into lately, and thanks for keeping us up to date.
Joel