Fox River Mayhem Part 2… Bumper Boats & Walleyes

This report was emailed to me on behalf of my friend Pete Yake (Leatherman) who is working an outtage since Monday…

The weather was a bit nicer but Ohhhh the boats, probably 200 in 3/4 mile on river…

The fish were definitely not as aggressive as our last trip but some steady catches in the AM hours. Also some nicer females starting to bite – judging by their bellies they are not yet on the spawn. The first photo was the largest @ 26.75”…her belly still firm. Also caught several between 20 and 23”. Almost all of the fish were caught on ringworms again. Did catch a few on blade baits. Tried some Berkley Gulp for a bit but at the time the ringworms were much hotter so I ended up sticking with them. Tried a few new colors including Fire&Ice with chartreuse tail (see photos 00211 and 00219). Also had some success with bright colored greens with black jig heads this time.

The shallower (8-12’) depths were good in the AM but there was a unbelievable stretch of boats from the dam to the highway 172 bridge – hundreds of them! As usual everybody got along pretty well despite the fact that the average elbow room between boats was around 40’, sometimes less than a single boat length. Most everybody drifted with the current which made it a little easier to “go with the flow”. Had better luck in the deeper part of the channel (18-22’) while the traffic was thick. Boat control was more difficult with all the traffic due to boat wakes and deeper channel depths. Had to switch up to 1/4 oz jigs for awhile to compensate and help locate bottom while making boat position corrections. Did notice some guides pitching on the near shore edges for awhile in the morning hours. Did not fish in later part of the afternoon / evening as this trip was combined with a trip to Green Bay with the family. Guessing by the females, I would expect that the run has another good week left but alas I have weekend duty next weekend and will probably not make another trip this year.

Had a much higher foul catch rate this week versus previous trips – this indicates that the fish in in the river in larger numbers but more neutral, likely due to pressure as well as improved water clarity.

Gave my new LTW 6’8” St Croix “river jig” a good shake down this trip, using it in my right hand and switched my 6’3” to left hand operation. The LTW 6’3”MXF is a bit more sensitive and seemed to improve my odds when used in my left hand vertical jigging. Both rods handled the bigger fish very well – there was no doubt when a “good one” was on the end of the line. As far as numbers, I believe that I caught 25 to 30 fish each day give or take.

Used the Perfoski launch on Saturday as it was closer to our hotel. This landing is also a very nice facility with more parking space (good to know for future reference).

River conditions:

Current was strong fueled by the recent snowstorm at 11600 cfm on Friday (data for Saturday unavailable). Drift speeds were 0.8 to 1.2 mph.

Water temp was 40 deg both days.

Clarity was moderate – managed to miss the mud slide after Sunday’s rain.

Weather:

Skies: Overcast / partly cloudy both days. Had a brief few moments of sunshine, enough to give me sunburn with some nice knit cap and sunglass tan lines to boot.

Air temp: Peaked in the mid 40’s both days.

Wind: Came from the South on Friday at 5-10 mph. West on Saturday at 5-15 mph.

Barometer: Flat on Friday at 29.7” Hg. Saturday it rose from 29.6 to 29.9” Hg.