fishing reports Yellow Lake Fishing Reports near Webster, WI

[Ogaa_Persuit]

zan13-

How do you get fish that big into the boat?

Why do you have those towels laid over the bow carpet?

What's the release technique for fish like that? I assume you can't just flop them over the side.

[Guest]

Ogaa- I use a big Frabill landing net and scoop then fish then I grab the bag of the net and lift it into the boat. With this fish it was me and a buddy to hoist it in. The towels are on the floor so the carpet in the boat doesn't get all slime coated. Release wise, I usually slowly put the fish back in the water and grab the tail until they start kickin'. But sometimes I get them over over the water and they start floppin' so i just kinda drop them in. Sturgeon are very tough fish so if you get them in as fast as your gear will allow you, then 99% of the time they'll be ready and you can just drop in basically.

I'll be out this weekend and next weekend. Still debating on what to go for. Muskies or walleyes. But after these next two weekends, it'll be time to yank the boat and pump the pink stuff.

But there's a bright side. Ice fishing will be here soon enough. Oh boy!

Good luck out there fellas,

-Zander

[Guest]

Was up this past weekend...got lucky and got into a few crappies. Also, I had a 40" muskie follow a walleye-colored glidebait and my little fishin' buddy (about 10 or 11 years old) hooked up to a 45" incher using a 3" sucker minnow.

We just got a new Ranger Reata 2050LS w/ a 225hp Suzuki and a 9.9hp Suzuki kicker so we'll be up this weekend to close up the trailer and test out the new rig.

Good luck guys,

-Zander

[Guest]

Take that back...will just be up for the day Saturday to yank the other boat out and close it up for the year...

All in all, I had a great year on Yellow and will be doing some ice fishing on Yellow and on some other lakes in the area.

Have a great fall and winter!

-Zander

[DTro]

I would love to see a pic of any sturgeon under 60" with a girth over 30"

[DonBo]

I would love to see a pic of any sturgeon under 60" with a girth over 30"

Come on Darrin, you know these fish are MUCH fatter than those weenie little St. Croix ones.

[Guest]

Very true Don.

Back to Yellow...the water is down to normal and the surface temp. is in the mid/low 50's. I'm all done up there for the open water season. Well actually I might head up there for muskie fishin' or to try a little walleye fishin'. Until then I won't have a ton of stuff to say about Yellow but I'll write what I can.

Good luck,

-Zander

[DTro]

I would love to see a pic of any sturgeon under 60" with a girth over 30"

Yellow, Rainy, Croix, or anywhere in the country. Lets see em!

[DTro]

with a 60" Yellow Lake fish it's almost common to have a fish with a 30"+ girth.

[Alagnak]

Beee S. Almost common to get accurate info on interwebz.

[Alagnak]

It's easier to get you to bite than yellow lake sturgeon I know that! :-)

[perch yerker]

OK, after reading all this talk about girth and length I thought I was on the wrong forum! So I just took out a measuring string to 30 inches and made a loop. I'm not sure about fish under 60 inches, but I've caught quite a few sturgeon with a bigger belly than the loop I just made.

I know without hesitation the 64 incher we caught a few weeks back was bigger than that....The mid 50s were not. The 67 was fatter yet.

The original challenge was a fish under 60 with a girth over 30 and I seriously don't think its far off. Some of those females are absolute footballs out there.

[Alagnak]

I've caught a decent amount of them in my time to prove this

Well, quit talking smack then. Lets see the 30" girth you claim to have proof of.

[Alagnak]

OK, after reading all this talk about girth and length I thought I was on the wrong forum! So I just took out a measuring string to 30 inches and made a loop. I'm not sure about fish under 60 inches, but I've caught quite a few sturgeon with a bigger belly than the loop I just made.

I know without hesitation the 64 incher we caught a few weeks back was bigger than that....The mid 50s were not. The 67 was fatter yet.

The original challenge was a fish under 60 with a girth over 30 and I seriously don't think its far off. Some of those females are absolute footballs out there.

Tape measures and your 'calibrated' eye might be just a little different. ;-) Let me get out a tape measure to eye ball to see how big that walleye was I caught last weekend while we're at it. I love it, keep pumping your chest out guys and you might have an extra 25 boats up there next year.

I'm from Spooner. I've spent a lot of time on the lake. In fact it was one of my favorites to guide on when I started guiding for musky in 95 for a few years before I started working in Alaska. Before moving to MN that stretch of Croix was my main cat water in which there is plenty of sturgeon bycatch, along with fishing yellow for them. I have NOT fished it for a few years and am happy to see how fat they are getting. See you next fall.

I'd still like to see a tape measure shot though.

[Alagnak]

Look on the last page or two...whatever one has the picture of me and my 65" fish.

C'mon bud it's not that hard to look back and see

It looks just like this one only shorter. Girth looks similar. My ONLY point is no matter how big, or how big it looks- if you are going to talk smack on the interweb, you better have it on a tape measure (crappie, sturgeon, whatever) to back it up or some 'internet a-hole' is going to call bee S.

[perch yerker]

"I'd still like to see a tape measure shot though."

haha...your probably right. I've been trying to convince the wife that its actually 10 inches for years. No seriously tho...its a good point. I've never messed with putting a tape around a fat one but now I'm really curious.

[Alagnak]

haha...your probably right. I've been trying to convince the wife that its actually 10 inches for years.

LOL! You and me both buddy.

[DTro]

A fish of 60" or under length and girth of 30" or greater is just a rare fish plain and simple, no matter where you catch it. It takes a special fish to break the 30" girth. I've literally seen and caught probably 50 fish over 60" and not one really even came close. That one Alagnak is holding is the biggest fish I've seen in person and that one still was a few inches shy.

Oh the fish are out there I have no doubt about it. Common? We'll have to agree to disagree on that one I guess.

Here's what a 30" girth looks like:

The Croix absolutely has skinny fish, some are sickly looking even. But they sure are all not toothpicks. Here is one I caught the other night and is probably the second fatest fish I've laid eyes on and still only managed to hit 26.5 girth.

Anyways who cares, back to catching 100 lbers.... and slingin 10"ers.

[Nick Kuhn]

Girth is not something you can eyeball, it is extremely deceptive. For every 40% girth goes up the size of the fish doubles. It's something you simply have to measure, because we make approximations based on linear scales.

[DonBo]

Okay everyone, let's play nice. I'd hate to delete the last few pages because we can't all get along. Let's drop the debate and get back to "Yellow Lake Fishing Reports".

[Guest]

My apologies fellas...my fish was probably close to 30" in the girth but like you guys say, won't know for sure until you get a tape on 'em...

I heard from a buddy who fishes walleyes all the way to ice up out there and he says they're snappin' right now but it's hard to get any 15"+...not a good sign.

Good luck,

-Zander

[JBMasterAngler]

Just out of curiosity, why does yellow lake have so many sturgeon, and why do they get so big? It's certainly not a small lake, but it's not huge either. Are they all resident fish, or moving in and out from the st. croix?

[Guest]

They're all resident fish and I have no idea how they get big. Their main food source is red worms and they're only about an inch long so evidently they filter feed on those and just gorge themselves on them. Also eating dead things that fall to the bottom but other then that I have no idea how they could get so big...

-Zander

[Nick Kuhn]

Just out of curiosity, why does yellow lake have so many sturgeon, and why do they get so big? It's certainly not a small lake, but it's not huge either. Are they all resident fish, or moving in and out from the st. croix?

They were part of the St. Croix population, but they have been trapped since the Danbury dam was built. The Yellow River is large enough to provide spawning ground. There actually aren't "so many", the population was last measured by the DNR at 0.88 fish per acre, which is close to half the DNR's target of 1.5 fish per acre. The size structure is also undersized compared to the DNR's goal. Most fish are age 35 and less, the DNR would like to see all age classes up to 60 represented, with fish older than that also around. Yellow is not really in great shape for sturgeon.

This means the St. Croix population is actually in worse shape. It is comprised of a lot of even younger fish, so it will be longer before that population recovers. There are still a few big ones around, but most fish in there are just juveniles, and even younger than those in Yellow.

For comparison, the Winnebago system is actually close to the DNR's goal. Now, they don't allow fishing there, just carefully regulated spearing (I don't know why it's that way). Last spearing season, 99 fish over 100 lbs were taken, and there have been several fish topping 200 lbs taken the past few years. If the St. Croix and Yellow were in as good of shape as those lakes, 70"+ fish would not be all that uncommon to catch.

[perch yerker]

There actually aren't "so many", the population was last measured by the DNR at 0.88 fish per acre, which is close to half the DNR's target of 1.5 fish per acre. The size structure is also undersized compared to the DNR's goal. Most fish are age 35 and less, the DNR would like to see all age classes up to 60 represented, with fish older than that also around. Yellow is not really in great shape for sturgeon.

I've also read the 2011 report. The main moral of the story being that the fish are still recovering from over harvesting from the 1920s to around 1960. Simply needs older fish which obviously = bigger!

This underscores the importance of catch and release. Having the hardware to land the fish safely and quickly, leaving your walleye gear at home, taking a picture and getting it back in the water. Nothing good can come from killing or injuring one of these fish.