Lake Wisconsin’s Spring Slabs

courtesy via:  Gary Engberg Outdoors

Lake Wisconsin’s Spring Slabs If slab-size crappies are what you’re after, then Columbia County’s Lake Wisconsin is the place to be during April and into May. Lake Wisconsin is actually a flowage formed when the Wisconsin River was dammed at Prairie du Sac and Wisconsin Dells. The lake (or flowage) is over 5,000 acres with a constant flow of water passing through and replacing the lake’s water every four days during normal flow periods.

Photo Gary Engberg Outdoors
Crappie fishing starts soon after the ice leaves the lake in late March and steadily improves after the water temperature hits the magic 50 degree mark. Lake Wisconsin has plenty of crappie structure with many shallow bays that warm quickly attracting hungry crappies. Crappies will move into the bays for the warmer water and forage early in the spring and spawn there when the water temperature reaches the low to mid 60’s. Concentrate your efforts near brush piles, around any shoreline cover, by fallen trees, and around and under the lakes many docks and piers. There’s scattered weeds in the bays, but the constant water flow prevents weeds from growing in most of the main lake.

The average crappie is around 10 inches, but there are numerous larger fish. There are days when most of the crappies that you catch are over 12″. These are usually the spawning females and try not to take too many of these, so that there are future year classes of fish. It is not unusual to catch numerous fish in the 12 to 15 inch range and larger fish are always present.   

Lake Wisconsin has many older wooden piers that can be found in many of the lake’s bays. The piers provide shade, cover, forage, and the wooden piers warm quicker than metal ones which help warm the nearby waters. The wooden piers also seem to hold more fish because the wood gets algae growing on them which soon attracts small insects and bugs and gets the food cycle going for the hungry crappies. The number of wood piers is diminishing due to the large number of new homes and lake development. Lake Wisconsin used to be full of wooden piers and downed timber, but much of this is disappearing due to the continued development. The wood piers are being replaced with new metal piers and much of the shoreline brush and wood is being cleared from the lake’s shoreline. So, when you find wood, timber, and or brush in any of the lake’s bays fish it because there will be crappies nearby.
Though, crappies can be found all over Lake Wisconsin there are some traditional locations where you can usually find spring crappies and is a good place to start. These “hot spots” are;

• Weigands Bay which is divided into a north and south bay. There’s an old pump house (painted light blue) that splits the bay. Stay to the left and go to the back of the bay and fish the piers and fallen trees. Watch out for shallow water just past the pump house. There’s also some deeper water in the back of the bay where spring crappies will suspend if the weather cools.
• Moon Valley is at the north end of the lake and warms quickly in the spring attracting crappies. There’s a shallow stump at the entrance to the bay that provides early crappies. Fish the cribs that are located throughout the bay in seven feet of water. If you go thru the bay at Moon Valley, there’s an underpass under Highway 78 that takes you into Gallus Slough. This shallow and weedy slough has both crappies and bluegills, but fish it early in the spring before it becomes weed choked.
• Okee Bay is a spot that has many cribs and slack water that holds crappies during the spring and even in the summer. The area around the Okee Bridge is a good spring location for walleyes with shore anglers catching many fish along with crappies.
• Sticky Bay, at the east end, has four fingers or boat channels that are shallow and warm early attracting and holding crappies throughout the spring and spawning period. The channels have some early weed growth and piers, so concentrate your fishing here.
• Sunset Bay is another quality location with some weeds, cribs, and stumps on the bay’s west side.

Lake Wisconsin also has cribs scattered around the lake, put there by the DNR to act as fish attractors and structure for crappies and the many other fish species. The cribs are easily marked on your electronics and some areas to look for them are; off and near Tipperary Bluff, Stoners Point, Breezy Point, Pine Bluff, Moon Valley, and Weigands Bay. Plus, there are many more cribs located around entire lake.
The water in most of the lake’s bays is stained with a muck bottom that warms quicker and attracts food for the spawning crappies. The crappies will move in and out of the bays depending upon the weather. When the weather is nice and the sun shines, you can find Lake Wisconsin crappies in 2 to 3 feet of water near any structure be it wood, piers, or shoreline brush. There is no reason to start fishing early in the morning because the crappies like to wait till the water warms in mid morning. The best time in the spring to crappie fish is during the middle of the day, if the weather is stable. If you have a stretch of weather that is up and down, try fishing a little deeper because crappies will move in and out of spawning areas depending upon the weather.
The equipment needed to catch Lake Wisconsin crappies is nothing special or expensive. A 6 ½ foot graphite rod is ideal and allows you to make long casts and spook the shallow water crappies. Next, you need a good quality spinning reel (Daiwa or Garcia) and spooled with 4 # Berkley Trilene in green color which blends in with the lakes stained water. The 4 # test mono works better than 6 # for these early fish. Next, use a slip bobber with a small split shot and an ice fishing jig (have a good assortment in different sizes and colors) tipped with a few wax worms and or spikes. Black has seemed to be an under used color and seems to work well on Lake Wisconsin. The nice thing about a slip bobber is that you can change depths easily when searching for crappies that have moved or even suspended over deeper water. Make long casts and slowly work your rig back, stopping and letting the bobber rest now and then. Another rig that works well is a # 8 VMC hook fished below a Thill “mini-stealth” float and baited with a crappie minnow. The last rig to try on the lake is to fish a one-inch tube jig below a small round float. Set the floats anywhere from 15 to 30 inches below the float and cast the shoreline twitching the bait back to the boat.
Be sure to bring some different size crappie minnows because fish want different size bait at different times. Another option, that works on active fish is small plastic noodles or wedges in different colors and dressed with a wax worm or two. The old standard “pinkie” jig under a float still works with and without a minnow.
All that is now needed is stable weather and a warming sunshine. The “slabs” will be active on the lake, why not give Lake Wisconsin a try? The immediate area has everything that you may need; motels, resorts, eateries, campgrounds, boat rentals, and bait shops. The boat landings are good and numerous and give access to any lake location.

Contacts; Wilderness Fish and Game, Sauk City, Wi. (608)-643-2433. They have everything you need including the best live bait.
Guides; Wally Banfi, (608)-644-9823. Terry Frey, (608)-220-6366.