Wisconsin Fishing Reports: Sheboygan Harbor Trout Fishing

Rather than head to the mall and partake in the Black Friday shopping madness over the weekend, I chose to get out of bed early for a different purpose, Harbor fishing for Trout! Mother nature made things interesting in the morning, dropping the first snowfall of the season, bringing with it slippery roads and unprepared drivers.

After the long drive going way under the speed limit, I finally reached Sheboygan at 7:00 am. I headed out onto the docks of the harbor and began the pursuit of the Great Lakes Trout that can be so challenging to catch!

It didn't take long for my first action of the day. A Great Snowy Owl flew overhead and landed at the peak of the Harbor Centre Marina! This is the second year in a row that the owl has made its way to the Sheboygan area, which is a rarity I am told! After snapping a quick shot of this furry fella, it was back to fishing!

At around 8:00, I had a 3-4 pound Brown Trout follow my X-Rap in, so I quickly did a figure-eight and to my surprise, the Brown Trout followed it! The fish followed the lure around for a couple laps, but just wouldn't bite! About 20 minutes later I had another Brown do the same thing! Not sure what the deal was, but these fish both seemed very interested in the bait, but for whatever reason wouldn't eat it!

I was just about to change lures when my X-Rap got hammered! Fish on! I wrestled the fish to the dock and slid the fish into the old Frabill. Finally I had connected with a Trout casting crankbaits! The fish was a 6 pound buck Brown Trout, which I decided to release.

At 9:00, my friend Cameron Lewis of Walleyes Extreme Guide Service showed up with his boat in tow. We launched the boat and began covering some water with our crankbaits. It didn't take Cam long to get into the action, as he landed a nice buck Steelhead within the first 15 minutes!

After an hour of casting with nothing to show for our efforts in the harbor, we decided to check out the gap and also the power plant just south of town. We didn't mark anything special hanging around the gap worth fishing, so we headed out into the lake and down to the power plant.

The water was a nice milky color and as warm as 49°, but we began to realize quickly that today wasn't the day for this spot. Every cast resulted in green moss on our baits. You could actually feel the lure foul with moss after only a few cranks, and there were large clumps of the moss floating on the surface. With this option quickly eliminated, it was back to port. This time we chose to head upriver and do some exploring of the Sheboygan River. Water clarity in the river was great, but water levels were very low and there seemed to be an absence of fish as we worked our way down the river without a bite.

To end the day, we decided to take another swing through the area we had landed the Steelhead a couple hours earlier. Cam maneuvered the boat back into the spot and began fan casting the area. Third cast was a charm as Cam had a nice Brown Trout hit his bait just inches from the surface at the end of his cast! I quickly grabbed the net and landed a beautiful hen Brown Trout that was all spawned out! We took a few pictures and left her on her way to be caught another day!