|
|
Member
Posts: 2567
Location: Manitowoc, WI | Based on the reports of reduced shad and the numbers of 12-14" fish last year, there should be a great bite this year. What are your thoughts on this? |
|
| |
|
Location: WI | I hope so, I have been on a crank bait buying binge lately. Yes I think it could be good.In 06 we might be talking about
30 inch fish too.
|
|
| |
|
Member
Posts: 284
| I think we will have a bite similar to last year. The forage base is always at a low in the spring even in years with lots of shad like last year. Many of them die off.
I personally feel the bite on the upper lakes will be better this year for longer. The tremendous amount of water that we had last spring with all the rain really changed things. Many of the fish got flushed through to the fox in oshkosh and out into bago sooner than usual. If we have a "normal" water year, I think things will be better up there.
Lots of big and small fish in the system. I'm really looking forward to a fun season. |
|
| |
|
Member
Posts: 3899
| Gotta be better for me, now that I'm so close! I'm looking forward to learning a lot this year. And fishing with some great guys, too. |
|
| |
|
Member
Posts: 1656
| Interesting theory, Dave. We all know the fish return to 'Bago I've always wondered how the water levels and temps force fish back down.
I heard plenty of others say that last year do to the high water that the fish hung around the river longer.
Just interesing how everyone has thier own ideas of why the fish come back down. I'm not saying your right or wrong, because I don't know. |
|
| |
|
Member
Posts: 2567
Location: Manitowoc, WI | I've got to agree with Dave. I fished some of my good upper lake areas and didn't do much of anything. Started to hit the lake in late May and the fish were there, ready to go. |
|
| |
|
Member
Posts: 284
| I truly believe that theory. These fished are cashed when they are done spawning. It takes a big toll on them. Many of them ride the current as far as it will take them and expend the least amount of energy. We usually fish Poygan and butte well into June with great success. Didn't happen this past year. The amount of water we had last spring was unheard of and it did change the fishing.
Here is an interesting story that I may have already put on the board at one time or another. While fishing in winneconne last year as the walleyes were coming back down it took a lot of thrust from the bow mount to pull rigs with the high water we had. My buddy and I were pulling next to each other and I actually said I think my bow mount is messed up, it keeps klunking, you think it is getting hot or something from all this current? Mysteriously, he was having the same thing happen. These were walleyes floating down the river 2 to 3' below the surface that we were wacking with our props. When I cleaned some fish from there, some of them had fresh gouges in their heads and body. Most likely from all the people fishing the area. Those that were fishing vertical noticed it less because their bow mount wasn't always running.
Another story, early May fishing on a reef off of oshkosh in the same day I caught two tagged fish that came from the cable crossing near Northport, tagged just 16 days before. Those fish were swimming pretty fast.
I also feel that regardless of current there are fish that live in the wolf and that is simply their home. High water or no water they will be there. There are a lot of them too, but the forage base certainly supports them. River rats from new london to orihula who know the river do well all summer long, and they don't see too many boats from the white bass run being over until fall when the more publicized fall fish push in.
Thats my theory, and some of the reasoning behind it. |
|
| |
|
| Dave,Your theory is valid. I too have witnessed
the "flushing" effect of high waters and how
it affects the fish in the upper lakes. Many
times fishing the river in Oshkosh your
graph will be full of suspended fish heading
for winnebago.
During some lower water years we caught
fish in Poygan into July. When the water got
too warm, the fish went up the wolf.
|
|
| |
|
Member
Posts: 1656
| Great lines of logic, I truely do appreciate your opinions. The jury is still out in my opinoin.
But now for the curve ball.
Last year August biggest weight for a two day tourney for the whole season was at the Ranger Fleet Farm open. This weight from my understanding did not come from 'Bago. This would suggest to me that fish got "hung up" in the upper lakes.
I will admit weather might of had an influence on the June tourneys, but still food for thought. |
|
| |
|
| SO may factors come in to play as to how the fish respond in the spring. Low water starts in the past drew fish all the way to the Shawano dam and high water late held them in the system and didn't "flush" them back to Winnebago. Where they are when the water temps hit 42 is as important to where they will be in May and June as is forage, water levels and more. To say that those factors that produced good fishing on the lower Lakes of the Wolf River system in one year, even closely replicated in another year, would produce the same results is not a hard fact. Walleye are very opportunistic and weather is very unpredictable and just when you think you have them figured out, they change. |
|
| |
|
Member
Posts: 859
Location: Appleton wi | Doc and Dave your information you just shared is very important for anyone that wants to learn the winnabago system and thats the first thing someone should try to understand is exactly what you said in your post!
Edited by eye Lunker 3/9/2005 3:13 PM
|
|
| |
|
Member
Posts: 284
| Jayman:
That time of year is an interesting one on this system. #1 is that is august and many times the bite on bago slows because of a shad hatch. This past year was no different. I shouldn't say slows. More like screaches to a hault. Fishing the week before Fleet last year was intersting to say the least. There was plenty of big fish in winnebago. I could see their arches wrapped in the schools of fresh shad on my locator. Just weeks before those fish were biting. The fish that were in the upper lakes were easier to catch it seemed. I am aware of where the fish you are speaking of came from and they shifted in and out of there all summer long. Wasn't too far from bago though. I am speaking of big fish here. The smaller reef fish, bit late into fall.
Lots of fish in the system and different batches of them do different things. My earlier comments were in reference to the mass run of post spawn fish in the spring.
Good topic. Gets us all thinking! |
|
| |
|
Member
Posts: 2445
Location: Fremont, Wisconsin | There is one thing that I have always said and it seems to fit into this conversation rather well. "If you can fish the Wolf river and the connecting lakes, and be somewhat consistant, you can fish anywhere". |
|
| |
|
Member
Posts: 1656
| Dave, thanks for the response. I have an appreciation for the fish that get "flushed" out of the river. In my mind I'm trying to connect more pieces of the puzzle between what they do when they first hit the upper lakes and by time they get into 'bago. I think this is the major variable and the most shifted piece of the puzzle from year to year.
We truely are blessed to have 'Bago in our backyards....come June you can catch walleye any way you like.
Keep the ideas coming. |
|
| |
|
| Of course jayman that depends on whether the bulk of the fish go up the Wolf on a typical snow melt type of spring. The variable for the "upper lakes" changes on a warm wet spring to the west which draws large numbers of fish to the Fox. All of the fish that spawn in the Wolf do not spawn there every year. THIS in my mind is the most changable variable, that is, WHERE the bulk of the fish spawn and what Mother Nature does to them after they spawn. Large schools of white bass change feeding patterns too. Now add lots of warm calm days that adds to early weed growth and warmer water on Poygan etc etc etc. Remember, just because they are done spawning doesn't mean the bulk of the fish return to the big lake. Example a few years ago when plenty of food up river kept the main body of the big fish in the river almost the entire year. They didn't get in to the marshes before water temp had them dump their eggs then there was plenty of water and food to hold them. The conversation went on here for weeks about how wrong the DNR was about big fish in the system because no one was catching any in bago when in actuality they were still in the river and pretty much stayed there until the next year when spawning conditions were better. Of course the pattern is different for the males |
|
| |
|
Member
Posts: 284
| I've talked to a few folks from the DNR and people that were on the shocking boats in the marshes last year. They couldn't say enough about the numbers of smaller males that were jammed into the marshes and even better, the numbers of big fish. They told me that last year had an extraordinary amount of fish all the way to Shiocton. With the abundance of 14" fish in the system and in the marshes last year one would have thought that the bite would have lingered in the upper lakes all summer long. Didn't happen. Of course, there were batches of fish here and there but not a widespread "good bite" during the typical time of year up there.
I do believe that for a variety of reasons there are a larger percentage of fish that are spawning right in Winnebago.
I fish the fox from butte to eureka quite extensively. Last spring was not that good of a year for me. Doc, that is the first time I have heard of increased fish in the river due to a lot of warmth and wet to the west. I will say that the fox may be some of the most underrated water in the system.
Edited by Dave 3/11/2005 7:43 AM
|
|
| |
|
Member
Posts: 514
Location: Darboy USA | Dave,
I can "second" your opinion on some of the walleyes spawning in the big lake each year. We had some great fishing on the east shore last season from the first of April all the way through early June. Some of the fish we caught in April were fat and full of eggs and others were the skinny saggy kind that you see after spawn. We also saw some nice sandpike action there too, biggest being 20-1/2" and almost 5#. I can imagine fishing like this can be seen at many other parts of Bago where the bottom is attractive to these fish.
Just like the lakes up north, some walleyes prefer to spawn on the gravel and rock, which the east shore has a lot of. I'm hoping that we can tap into this good bite again this coming April.
I agree with what everyone else is saying, great topic and very informative. Nice to have a "river rat" like Doc giving some very good observations about many years fishing the Wolf. Thanks Doc! |
|
| |
|
Member
Posts: 859
Location: Appleton wi | Just one point of disagreement. There was a very good bite in the upper lakes well into july  |
|
| |
|
Member
Posts: 859
Location: Appleton wi | nm
Edited by eye Lunker 3/12/2005 8:19 AM
|
|
| |
|
| I agree with eye lunker as I too had a good bite going in to July on Poygan. A point of interest is that the DNR tagged a large number of big male walleyes, to 21+ inches. What was interesting is that my best bite of the year for those big males was in August and September almost 50 miles up stream of Lake Poygan. Lindy Timbr'rock jigs with a leech in as little as 5 feet of water in trees and on humps that are probably old buried trees.
Edited by Joel "Doc" Kunz 3/12/2005 5:49 PM
|
|
| |
