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| Sounds like the water is mud... What's the verdict between those of you who fish the lake a lot - fish still have to eat, but I'm not driving all that way for no good reason. |
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| thumper - 5/3/2012 8:48 AM
If you have any baits that work good in chocolate milk, now's the time to pull them out.
Cookies are always the best baits to use in chocolate milk. mmm, mmm, good!  |
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| Thanks for the help, Tiller..
Suppose I have a decision to make; fish a local lake down here in SE WI and see if we can jig some up, or make the trip up and drag around the brightest stuff we've got. Leaning towards my neck of the woods down here, plus if it gets boring I can raise my buddies excitement level by making them musky fish for an hour or two |
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Location: Menasha, WI | Sam,
If you're thinking about tomorrow, I think you'll be OK. The lake has been calm all day and looks like it will be through the night. Other than some of the inlet areas, I think it should settle out fairly quickly. |
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Location: Menasha, WI | I retract my previous post. The wind picked up overnight. |
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| Winnebago will have some clean water, but areas of mud too. Butte des Morts was already noticeably muddy when I went over 41 bridge last night. |
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| Went to put the boat on the water drove out a half mile.......turned around and put the boat back on the trailer.....absolutely miserable out there! Unfortuantley its housework time  |
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Posts: 27
| Okay, I'm all sorts of mixed feelings on this one. I'm less stressed about where to fish during a tourney than I am about doing a walleye trip with a couple buddies for fun, haha  It's rare these days that these two good friends and I have a day where we three can go on an adventure like we used to before families, careers and homes gave us all a reality check. I saw Vikings post last night and since I'm already on the fence, I started siding more towards the Winne trip, and still now I'm thinking this way. One thing that is concerning to me is that I've never fished Winne, neither have the guys. I know there are reefs out there and that a big lake like that can get real nasty real quick,; being that I've never navigated those waters I'm going to rely on electronics and a hotspots contoured lake map to get around if we do, in fact, make the trip out. One thing is certain and something I've learned in all my years chasing ski's is that fish have to eat.. Water color, stained or not, they have to eat. That said, if it's the weather that kicks our @$$, I'm sure there are plenty of taverns to visit in the area
I've got a couple handfuls of #5 flicker shads, several boards and rods, room in the boat for a cooler and time to kill.. I'm still leaning towards Winne. Thanks for the updates on the water conditions, you guys, this is good stuff and beats the heck out of LL. Keep 'em coming if you wouldn't mind, I'd like to keep as close of tabs as I can on the clarity and conditions out there leading up to Sunday. |
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| Freddy the Fish - 5/4/2012 7:54 AM
Went to put the boat on the water drove out a half mile.......turned around and put the boat back on the trailer.....absolutely miserable out there! Unfortuantley its housework time :(
The winds? I'm seeing 10-15 MPH's on the Weather Channel right now and in the forecast for next couple days. Looking like 50% chance of scattered T-storms Saturday and 60% on Sunday. Rain won't melt me or my boat.. but wind - what's "scary" windage for Winne, I know it's big water. |
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Location: Menasha, WI | Sam,
In general anything over 20mph is tough. But 'scary' wind speed is relative to where you fish and what direction the wind is from. For instance, a 12-14 mph East wind can make the west side pretty scary. Looking at the forecast for E winds at 12-15mph all weekend, fishing from the east side might not be too bad. |
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Member
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| Thanks for the advice, I'll stick to the lee side, and by the sounds of it, I'll probably find the best clarity along the East shore, anyways. Are there any reefs that come up quick with little warning out there or is everything pretty adequately marked with boueys? |
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Location: Menasha, WI | I can't offer any really useful info as I rarely fish the east side, but you shouldn't have to worry too much. |
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Posts: 2300
Location: Berlin | Definitely stick to the east shore. Tons of structure on the northern half. Water will be clearer. Personally I would just long line Salmo's until I found some fish then work them however you like. You should not have any trouble catching fish over there. The west side will be the dead sea. The rivers are dumping mud out. Upper lakes looks like a glass of Nestle Quik.
As for navigation, you will not have any problems. Dont sweat it, just go fishing. |
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Member
Posts: 27
| Nice, sounds good gents. Just piucked up a mess of #5 flicker shads in Clown, Chartreuse/Pearl, Firetiger, Black/Orange Belly and speckled shiner color and I've got some Salmos and Shad Raps to boot. I've got 4 boards and line counter combos, so we'll troll around and see what gives. Game plan will be 12-14' of water, two boards out on each side and 25' of line out on furthest starboard side, increase 5-10' more line on each board coming across. I'll run to flat lines, too, and try to cover all the depths to start and if we pop a couple I'll adjust from there. Figure 2 mph trolling speed to keep those baits from rolling too bad..
I've got the lake map and good electronics, so we'll do our best to read the structure and keep the baits in the strike zone. Hopefully I've got the right ideas here, but that will be part of the fun of the adventure. I'll be sure to touch base on Monday with a report out and hopefully some pictures. After Sunday it will be back to the musky hunts, but this should be fun.
Thanks again for the help, guys, and please, keep the reports on the conditions coming - it's very useful to folks looking to make the drive.
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| Almost forgot - where's a recommended launch site on the North East shore? Calumet Park or High Cliff??
Edited by Sam Ubl 5/4/2012 1:20 PM
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Posts: 921
Location: Manitowoc, WI | Either launch will work. More room at High Cliff. There is also Stockbridge a little further South that is also nice. If the water is kind of cool, don't hesitate to pull those cranks at 1.5 in case they are sluggish. Good luck! |
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Location: Green Bay, WI | Don't be afraid to run a little shallower too 6' to 10' |
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Posts: 141
Location: Oshkosh, WI | And don't forget to pack a little lunch - enjoy
There are a lot of fish right outside of the mouth out of oshkosh - we had to troll around big sticks and stuff, but did well in 8-11. We didn't just run parrallel to shore like most guys were doing. |
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Location: Berlin | There are fish everywhere right now, what a year! |
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| Yes...the fish are everywhere ..many in the 16-18 inch range. Seems like we were catching a bunch of bigger ones about a week ago but they have seemed to disappear overnight. Not like I'm complaining, but it sure is fun to catch those 20 plus fish just to let them go. |
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| Thanks for all the help guys, I'm glad we committed and gave it a try. Not bad for our first time on this water. The strong winds out of the east couldn't have made for a more perfect reason to fish the East side of the lake given the mudded up waters along the West shores. We didn't have our second board out before we hit our first eye. After our second rod was down we pinged another, then another. In the first 3 hours we caught 3 walleye up to 20", 3 white bass and a drum... and then the storms came.
We had lunch at a bar & grill at 11 and waited out the lightening and buckets of rain before venturing back out into the wind. Lesson learned - fishing the lee side of the lake doesn't mean calm waters, it just means calmer than the other side, lol. No problem though, waves don't scare me - at least not these waves; they were managable. After three more ours of trolling, we put three more 20" eyes into the livewell and caught a couple saugers up to 17".
What a trip! Thanks again everyone for the updates on conditions and tips. Back to musky for a while for this guy, but we'll get back to Bago again I'm sure. Good luck out there!
EDIT: We've all heard of "pink in morning, sailor take warning!" Well...
Edited by Sam Ubl 5/7/2012 9:04 AM
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| Way to go Sam! You just never know what to expect when you come to Winnebago. All I can say is that this year the walleyes have been VERY cooperative for anyone who goes out. Trolling, slip biobbering, jigging and drifting ...all of it is working to catch some nice walleyes. AND..it doesnt seem to matter where you go in the system..they seem to be EVERYWHERE!!! |
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Location: Berlin | Very nice, congrats! |
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Posts: 1314
Location: Menasha, WI | Glad you got on some fish! |
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| Has anyone tried trolling the mud in winnebago yet? I know it seems kinda early but this spring everything seems to be ahead. I know that there are fish along the shorelines reefs and rocks but there are also a lot of boats in there as well.
I was thinking of trying the mud if I'm able to get out in the next week or so. What do you guys think? Is it worth the time or no? Cranks or Spinners? |
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