A week of unstable weather and near normal temperatures has sparked the Winnebago system back to life.  Heavy rains created heavy water runoff into area lakes and streams, resulting in a mud-line on the main lake.  Inside of the mud line visibility was at near zero; outside of the mud line, visibility was nearly 3-4 feet.  By the end of the weekend, much of the dirty water had mixed with the clean water leaving limited visibility in most areas.   Water temps are moving toward 60 degrees currently, an increase of nearly 10 degrees from last week.

Fishing has improved greatly.  The warm water has reinvigorated many fish species to start feeding again.  With the conclusion of the lake fly hatch along the western shore, food sources have been reduced.  The fish are hungry!

Crappies have started to spawn in many areas of the system.  Lakeside Park in Fond du Lac has been producing solid numbers of the paper mouths.  Many channels are also producing crappies, along with area reefs and shallow bays.  The huge recent year classes of crappies are producing plenty of opportunities for quality fish.

Walleyes are back to being active.  There are some really good bites working on the system right now.

Along the East Shore, Pipe/Columbia Park area is holding large schools of fish.  The fish are concentrated and feeding aggressively.  Be sure to make waypoints on your “hit” locations to dial in the bite.  There is heavy boat traffic in these areas currently.  Average fish length I found in this school is about 20 inches.  Targeting 10 -13 feet with crank bait presentations tight to the bottom were best.  Mixed in these schools are white bass, sheephead and small mouths.  Key colors in this area are chanteuse, pink, and purple.

Brothertown has a similar scenario brewing right now.  Average size fish in this area was running in the 17 inch range.  Key color here is orange or black/silver. Size 5 Flicker shads and size 4 Salmo hornets were the best lures.

The West Shore had tougher conditions because of the dirty water and strong east winds, especially near Oshkosh.  More aggressive baits, which create a lot of vibration, are required to attract fish here.  Shallow water crank bait casting was producing vast numbers of walleyes, prior to the rain.

The area near Blank’s Supper Club and the HWY 45 wayside in North Fond du Lac, had heavy concentrations of walleyes and small mouths also.  This was a shallow water bite with crank baits or swim baits.  These fish were most commonly targeted by wading into these areas as opposed to boat traffic.

The Third Reef was holding ample white bass, many of which were four to six inches.  Largemouth, sheephead, walleye and catfish can also be found here.

Lake Poygan and Lake Winneconne are also holding a lot of walleyes.  The trolling bite, which picked up last weekend, continues to be the best tactic to target these fish.  Natural colored baits, especially Salmo hornet (Dalmatian), were the bait of choice.

An interesting note:  I did keep a batch of walleyes for a rare meal (mainly catch and release).  All of the fish either had empty stomachs, or had leeches in their belly.  This would indicate limited food sources right now, which should drive the fishing activity for the next few weeks.

Tournament News:  No results were noted from this past weekend.  This coming week has the Boat Doc Walleye Invitational on Sunday from Miller’s Bay.  CRITTER’S /WOODEYE’S WALLEYE TOUR is on Saturday in Lake Poygan.  North America Bass Circuit (Sat/Sun) and BABBLING BROOK WALLEYE Tournaments are scheduled for Lake Winnebago on Saturday.

Please remain courtesy on the water, and be aware of other anglers.  Should you have questions or would like to contribute to this report, please contact me at [email protected].  Get ready for some hot action this week!