Lake Wisconsin walleye & sauger fishing has been quite good this fall. Especially if your looking to put a few fillets in the frying pan. We’re not seeing a lot of big fish but plenty of string stretchers and keepers in the 15-18″ size range.
We’ve been averaging around 30 fish per outing and approximately 1 out of every 3 fish caught ends up being a keeper.
The best thing about Lake Wisconsin so far this fall is how consistent its been in giving up good numbers of keeper size fish. Lots of clients have either gone home with a limit or nearly a limit.
Judging by how fat these fish are and by how many shad they’ve puked up in my live well, there doesn’t seem to be any shortage of bait fish this fall. Despite all the shad in the system at this time, the fish generally continue to bite fairly well.
As for techniques, a plain old jig & minnow seems to work just fine on most days. More fish can be enticed into the boat by refining your jig color and jigging technique but even a novice can catch at least a few fish by doing nothing more than staying as close to the bottom as possible.
Adding plastic to that jig can indeed enhance you’re catch considerably. So far this fall, two plastics have really stood out for anglers in my boat. The first is a 3″ orange core moxi and the other is the 3.25″ chartreuse pepper paddle tail.
There has not been a single trip this fall where these two baits have not accounted for close to half the fish boated on any particular day.
The last bait that has really stood out this fall would be the blade bait and I’ve really grown found of one particular color pattern.
That would be silver with a splash of color.
On any given day that splash of color may be orange, blue, black or just plain silver. I can’t say for sure it has anything at all to do with the improved water clarity due to all the zeebs, but that color pattern has been producing extremely well this fall. It could very well be something completely different next year but I’m finding that a bit hard to believe. This particular color pattern is something I’ve slowly been migrating to more and more over the past 2 or 3 years and there’s a very good reason for that. Simply put, they catch fish!
We’re reaching that point and time of the year where outdoorsmen are thinking more & more about deer hunting and ice fishing and I totally understand that. But this year more than ever, I’m going to be very, very disappointed when I can no longer pull the boat over to Lake Wisconsin or the Wisconsin river because cold weather and ice have put an end to the 2013 open water fishing season.
I for one am hoping it extends well into December and possibly even early January.