Lake Wisconsin Late Summer Crappie Fishing

Late summer on Lake Wisconsin means excellent crappie fishing has already begun. And with the cooler weather from the on-set of early fall, it only gets better and better.

This time of the year is easily my favorite for crappie fishing. Spring crappie fishing is fun but spring cold fronts have a much greater effect on the activity level of these speckled fish than fall cold fronts do. Cold fronts in the fall will certainly slow down the bite some at times, but not like they do in the spring.

It seems the older we get the busier we get. That sure has been true for me. None the less, it was time to squeeze in a fishing report.

The past two weekends has found me and my clients back on the waters of Lake Wisconsin chasing specks. The huge crappies of the past couple years are fewer and farther between but lots and lots of two, three and four year old crappies can be found in their place.

The usual tactics are working just fine. Start with a live bait rod right over the side of the boat. I prefer a 12-16” lead to a #2 or #4 gold Tru-Turn hook with a 1/4oz sliding bullet sinker above a swivel to hold it down. Drop it to the bottom and crank it up a couple of turns. Now set that rod in a holder and grab your ultra-light.

On this rod, I like to tie on a 1/32 or 1/16oz round headed jig in white, yellow chartreuse or pink. Slide on a number of different plastics and tip it with a wax worm and your ready to go.

Some of the better plastics out there are made by Southern Pro. They have an assortment that is hard to beat. Lit’l Hustler tubes, Crappies Slugs, Crappie Stingers and Tiny Worms are all top notch baits. Just remember to always use a contrasting jig head color to tail color.

Now hold the boat along the first major drop off from shore. Preferably, one that occurs right around 10 to 12’ deep. Use your electric motor to hold the boat in position as you work your way down the shoreline casting the jig/plastic combo into the shallows.

Start your retrieve slowly as soon as the bait hits the water and slow it down even more as it gets closer to the boat. When the bait is approximately 10-15’ away from the boat, stop your retrieve and allow the bait to pendulum down below the boat. Be ready to set the hook at the slightest tick of the line.

That right there is the basic formula that I have been using for the past five years to help my clients put fish after fish in the boat. Not just crappies either. We’ve caught tons of bluegills, white bass, sheepshead, catfish, walleyes, saugers, smallies and bucket mouths. Granted many of the game fish are on the small side, but not all of them. We have caught some pretty nice size walleyes, saugers, catfish and bass on tiny plastics and lost many more that were just to big to handle on ultra light rods and four pound test line.

It’s getting to be that time of the year. For many of us, fall just never last long enough.