Labor day weekend Wissota report

My father-in-law and I were on Wissota for most of the day on Sunday and had a consistent trip for walleyes and bonus brown bass, pike and jumbo perch. We spent most of our time in the Yellow River arm, with an unproductive trip up the Chip and a small amount of time on the main lake. To my surprise, we caught most of our walleyes (~ 3 dozen over the course of the day) shallow, that’s right, shallow (< 10 FOW), pitching jigs/minnows or dragging crawlers. A few eyes came from typical deep (20-25 FOW), main lake spots, but our best action was shallow. Picked up a nice pike (~ 30″) up the yellow river past the K bridge, as well as a handful of jumbo perch (10″ +) and a 15″ brown bass on some shallow rocks. We picked up a couple more bass while dragging bait for walleyes.

The water temp was 73-76 degrees. The main lake and yellow river were just a little green, but the chip was much much worse. The cool-down this week should get us started in the transition to fall patterns, and will also scare away most of the weekend water warriors. Lots of boat traffic over the holiday weekend, of course, but that should come to an end soon. Tight lines everyone!

P.S. Big sturgeon registered at Gordys on Saturday, I think it was 53″.

Good report. I like fishin the upper parts of the Yellow as well. Did you git up to Jim Falls for the Sturgeon Fest? There was a 63” Sturgeon up there.

Didn’t make it up there. The Yellow River arm has become one of my favorite “close-to-home” areas on Wissota this year. In years past I have spent most of my time on the main lake or up the Chip but the Yellow has been the winner for me this summer, hands-down!

I agree it is very good.

I was out again last saturday in the wind. The water in the lake and the main stems of the Yellow and Chip has cooled to just under 70. The Chip is noticably less green than it has been over the past two weeks. Come on fall, lets get the water cooling off some more!

My best spots were main-lake sand bars, not on the top or on the bottom but somewhere in-between (16-18 FOW on a drop that would end at 20-25). Jig and minnow was the ticket for a nice mixed bag of eyes (with one pushing 19″ and a bunch of short fish), SM bass and a bonus 30″ musky. Jig and crawler produced MANY more bites but far fewer hook-ups. Plastics attracted no attention. Not much of a troller so I didn’t break out the cranks. The jig bite was pretty consistent once we found pockets of fish….we found active fish on only 2 of the ~ 8 spots we tried during the day, the other 6 spots were dead! Tight lines everyone!

Thanks for the update, any action on the little lake?

Don: Haven’t been out for about 10 days now so I can’t give you any insoights regarding the little lake. Last time i was out I found some average smallies along the deep rock leading from the big into the little lake, and some hammer handles along the shallower rock. I think Krisko is a little lake guy, maybe he can provide some insight.

Oh, and this is the reason I’ve been landlocked for a bit now:

Better than a 30″ walleye…

I have a leave of absence from work that will kick in next week. Once things settle down on the home front, I hope to be able to chase some of those fall Wissota eyes.

Don I haven’t been out on Wissota for what seems like a long time now. A few weeks ago I tried the little lake and caught a couple of eyes off of Mermaid Island or what ever you want to call that motor wrecker. I also went across from their by the sunken island and caught a couple of dandy gills and some little eyes. The fish were stacked up but not biting. I gave up there and went over by the View and caught a couple of bass on the rocks nothing really big. I was going to wait a little bit for temps to go down. They were still pretty high upper 60’s and lower 70’s. I’m hoping it cools down a little bit this week should help out. I may have to have one of you guys help me out on the big lake sometime. I never seem to do very good out there and it is such a big area to fish….I’m hoping to get out on the lake again sometime next week. I’ll keep you updated.

Congradulations on the new addition to your family brooktrout. I hope the wife and new baby are doing well. If you guys are ever going out on Wissota durring the week and need an extra rod in the boat let me know. I get off at 3:30 and can be at the lake quick. Thanks for the updates. Steve