Thursday, May 10, 2012

Lake Poygan Walleye Bite Remains Red Hot

The fishing on Lake Poygan for Walleyes continues to be nothing short of spectacular!  There are Walleyes everywhere out there!  Over the past 2 weeks we have caught them on the west end of the lake, horseshoe hole, near the river mouth, in the deep, shallow, and I would imagine they are also already being caught in the cane beds!

With fishing like this, a guy could use a few more days of vacation to get out and take advantage of the great fishing and weather that is currently in place!

After spending the day on Saturday planting grass and checking as many things off the honey-do list as possible, I was given the green light to fish all day on Sunday.  This sounded good in theory, but unfortunately for us the skies had other ideas! 

Despite watching the radar only to see a large batch of rain heading in our direction, my dad and I chose to hook the boat up, grab the rain gear, and hit the water.  We had the boat in at 7:15, and by 7:45 the rain began.  For the next 2.5 hours we caught 16 Walleyes in the pouring rain.  There were times that we couldn't even hear the kicker motor due to the sound of the heavy downpours!


I had hoped to fish all day, but after getting poured on for 2.5 hours and no end of the rain in sight, we chose to call it a day and head home for a warm shower and some dry clothes!  Surprisingly, the fish bit right through the storms, and remained quite aggressive!  We again caught our fish in 6-8 feet of water running our baits 5-7 feet down at 1.5-1.8mph.  Color mattered today, as a orange and white Salmo caught 6 fish alone!  #5 Shad Raps were also productive, in purpledescent and hot steel.



Since we had so much fun on Sunday in the rain, we planned another outing for Wednesday afternoon.  I also invited a friend that doesn't get out much to hopefully cash in on the good action.  The fishing actually started off slow for us, as the high fishing pressure in our area had apparently slowed the bite.  After 3 passes and only 3 Walleyes in the boat, we decided to head west and try some new water with less fishing pressure.

This was clearly the right move, as a board dropped back before we even could get all 6 lines in the water!  The fish turned out to be a chunky 17" Walleye.  We continued our pass catching 2 more Walleyes in a short stretch.


The next pass resulted in several more nice Walleyes, including a 24.75" beauty that decided to hit a #5 Firetiger Shad Rap.  We also noticed that the brighter colors worked better today, probably due to the sunny skies.  We also noticed that trolling 1.8-2.0 mph yielded more fish, but also resulted in more White Bass. 

24.75" Lake Poygan Walleye

By the end of the night, we again ended up with a 2 man limit of Walleyes, catching a total of 13 and releasing 3, including the big one.  I expect this bite to hold strong for another 2 weeks, until water temps drive the fish back to Lake Winnebago. 


If you have a chance this weekend, take advantage of the great weather and get on the water, the fish are waiting!+

Saturday, May 5, 2012

Lake Poygan Trolling Bite

Made it out on April 29th for a few hours to break the planer boards in for the year.  My dad and I fished from 11-3:30 on Lake Poygan, near the mouth of the Wolf River.  We setup in 7 feet of water and began to troll with the wind to the west.


We started with a mix of Salmo Hornets, #5 Shad Raps and #5 Flicker Shads.  We ran these behind our planer boards anywhere from 15-40 feet back, covering depths of 4-6.5 down.  It didn't take long for the first planer board to slide back with a fish!  The first fish of the year turned out to be an 8" Walleye!

Over the next 4 hours we landed a total of 16 Walleyes, varying in size from 8"-20"!  Our best bait was a #5 Shad Rap in Purpledescient, followed by a Blue and Silver Salmo.  Trolling speed was also a big factor, as 1.5-1.8 mph worked the best for us, it seemed that if you went faster than that you didn't catch anything!

The fishing on the upriver lakes of the Winnebago System should continue to improve over the next few weeks as the water temperatures rise and the weeds begin to grow.  The cane beds are just starting to green up, which means the Walleyes will be lurking in them soon also!


Until next time, get out and enjoy our fantastic fishery here in northeast Wisconsin whenever you have the chance!