Lake Wisconsin Walleyes/Saugers

Walleye fishing on Lake Wisconsin was consistent if nothing else this past weekend.
Water levels are tapering off nicely. Last week flows ran at around 13,000 cubic ft/sec thru the Dells dam. Over the weekend, they averaged just under 10,000 cubic ft/sec.
We ended up putting 12 legal fish in the boat, none of which were in the slot limit range. Along with those 12 were many more smaller walleyes and saugers.
One thing that always surprises me this time of year is the size difference in the fish we catch. All on the same crankbaits. You may get one in the 18-19″ range and then the next 3 will be anywhere from 9-12″ long. (or smaller in a few cases)
Typically, what we did to catch our fish was start out by trolling cranks on the 12-17′ breaks. Then after a 1/2 dozen or more passes over productive spots, the fish would usually quit hitting the cranks.
Then we switch over to crawler rigs and use the Minn-Kota electric to go over the better spots a little closer. This worked out pretty well and almost always resulted in a few more walleyes and saugers from the same areas where they would no longer take the cranks.
Of the fish we are catching, most appear to be very fat and chunky. Especially, the saugers. A few of the walleyes are kind of long and skinny. Not sure why this is as they are being caught from the same areas.
Of the ones we took home for supper, they are literally rolling with fat. Or should I say, the fat literally rolls out when you open them up!
On another interesting note, we’ve noticed that on Friday night, almost all the fish we caught from one area were walleyes. The next morning in the same spot, they were almost all saugers.
I have no idea why this is but would be curious to hear any ideas you may have for this.
On a more frustarting note, we had some trouble on Friday afternoon with fish coming un-buttoned prior to finding there way into the net. Every once in awhile, I’ll run into a bite similar to this. We find some willing fish, but only about half of them take the crank baits well enough to stay hooked up. The rest managed to get off after a short battle.
We checked the hooks and they were sharp.
I had the same experience while fishing the first day of the RCL on Devils Lake earlier this year.
Also, when we switched over to crawler rigs, the same thing happened. We only landed about half the fish we hooked up with. On Friday evening, we could have easily doubled our catch if we had managed to get those others to the boat.
Anyone care to give me a few tips on how to get these other fish to stay hooked-up? Things to try or do differently next time I run into this situation?
Sorry, no pictures this week!
JWB

JWB,

Nice Report! Couple ideas I have for you to try. I have done it in the past and it has worked for me. First, when dealing with the short bites or bites coming unbuttoned try adding 1-3 split rings on the back of your crank. That will extend the treble back just a little and hopefully elmintate those short bites. OR try downgrading the size of your crank. If you are running #7’s try using #5’s.

As far as fat fish and skinny fish. I would think that some are resident fish of the area you are fishing and the other fish are in transition to there summer spots.

Catching walleyes in the eveing and saugers in the morning. I would say different feeding times during the day. Other thing would I can think of isbwhat the sun(light levels) was like during the evening and then morning, Partly cloudy or sunny, shaded area.

Just my two cents.

Sounds like some good ideas. Will give them a try next time I run into that situation.
The light conditions from the night before to the morning after were in fact different. We had quite a few clouds rolling thru in the evening and the next morning there was not a cloud in sight.
Thanks, Jarrad.
JWB