Fox & Wolf River, Lake Winnebago & Area Fishing Reports

[GatorBait]

Slowly the walleyes are starting to bite a little better. The Fox has been producing the best so far. Eureka has been hit n miss, find a good hole and work it over with a river rig for results. Above the dam in princeton has been producing a good amount of fish also.

Winneconne is a no go for a few days. Ice has been letting go and has taken over the river. Hopefully this will clear out soon so I can start dragging flies.

Wolf River has been slow thus far. Many many walleyes are already up in Shiocton. Was watching them swim by on the wolfrivercam which was cool. This bite will be taking off very shortly as they simply aren't worried about feeding right now.

[perchking]

I will be hitting the fox next weekend, cant wait.

[GatorBait]

Was out in Eureka on the Fox this morning. It's an early slow bite right now. Popped 5 in the first hour or so on the drift just below the dam. Later on in the day we hit a 6lb 23in fat momma. Her belly looked like a football, beautiful gator. I'll post a pic of her tonight when I get home from work. I suspect a good steady bite within a week. Good Fishing.

[perchking]

GatorBait,

I will be down this weekend, I think it should be pretty decent from what I have been hearing.

Cant wait.

PK

[GatorBait]

Indeed, the bite will be getting better everyday from here on out, regardless of the weather. Guys are hitting limits now consistently and nice females are mixed in too. I'm hoping to get out this weekend. Good Luck!

FYI: Just got a call from my DNR friend. He says it'll estimated the main spawn will happen within 7 days. Take that as you may.

[perchking]

I hope he is off by about 5 days:)

[perchking]

We fished the Fox river this weekend and it was a tough bite to say the least. We ended up with about 20+ eyes and the biggest being 27 that was just over 8lbs. I ended up hooking 2 sturgeon the 1st battle ended after a minute when he broke me off but the 2nd dragged me around the river for over 45 minutes. Never saw him, and I am not even sure he knew he was hooked. I just know with a medium 7 foot rod and 20lb power pro I could not move that fish.

I think I will be back next weekend, that is a great fishery and I just love going there.

[GatorBait]

I would hit it this weekend, it'll probably be the last good shot at it. They are pounding them right now, and here I sit at work. I'll be out wed, fri, sat, sun fishing on the Wolf River.

Grats on the 8lb mama, can't beat that. Sounds like a decent outting as it could have been worse.

[GatorBait]

Well, it's been a little bit but with the weather finally straightened up around here and I've been living on the Winnebago Chain for the past few weeks. Mainly concentrating on Trolling for Walleyes things have been up and down as of late. The past few days with this Hot spell we had, I couldn't produce an eye to save me from starving. The white bass and sheephead were abundant, yet fun and broke up the time. I'll be out most of this week yet as the temps dip down to a more normal level which should trigger the eyes back into biting.

Most eyes have been coming in on Bleeding Blue Shad Raps/Gold Clown and Perch Wally Divers/Crawler Harnesses. Best Luck on Poygan has been coming from running the E/W route in 6-8ft of water, course this all depends on wind conditions. If on Poygan I wouldn't be afraid to slip bobber the shallow reeds and weed beds on the East Side as I know a few guys taking some in that area with crawlers and leeches.

[sconnyslayer]

Posted by perchking: We fished the Fox river this weekend and it was a tough bite to say the least. We ended up with about 20+ eyes and the biggest being 27 that was just over 8lbs. I ended up hooking 2 sturgeon the 1st battle ended after a minute when he broke me off but the 2nd dragged me around the river for over 45 minutes. Never saw him, and I am not even sure he knew he was hooked. I just know with a medium 7 foot rod and 20lb power pro I could not move that fish.

I think I will be back next weekend, that is a great fishery and I just love going there.

My question is how deep did you find those eyes at?

[GatorBait]

Don't put that boat away yet!! Walleyes have been hitting hard on the Wolf River and are currently being taken between Orihula and Fremont. Limits of decent fish including some nice females in 20+ range. Trolling flies up stream has been successful along with vertical jigging. They are there now and will be working their way back down into the lakes very shortly. Get there while you can. I know it's cold in the morning...but this is fun fishing before the ice comes. Good Luck!!

[GatorBait]

The ice is slowly approaching yall. I haven't found anything "Safe" yet, few local smaller lakes in the area had a couple inches on them but not totally capped. I wasn't going to risk it yet. Couple warm days here and it's been unfavorable. With the rain coming in tonight, followed by arctic colds things may be looking up for next week sometime. Details will follow on Ice Conditions. Feel free to broadcast your area ice depths here and in the Ice Fishing Forum on the Sticky!!!

[GatorBait]

Was down in Harrisville in Marquette County this morning on the millpond. Was successful with obtaining my limit of gills. Sizes were mostly 6-9in with very few small ones. Bite was pretty good early on and feel off around 10am. This has been flip flopping the past few days. The marcum came into play as they are finicky to a point. Using a small diamond jig tipped with a red plastic wedge. Ice was 5-6in thick with no bad spots to be found.

Most other lakes through out the area are finally capped with deeper lakes about 80% capped over. With the negative temps and high teens coming in this weekend, most if not all lakes in the area will be accessible within a weeks time.

Good Luck and Stay Safe.

[GatorBait]

Walleye fishing on Lake Winnebago and the chain is in full swing. Trolling cranks has been successful on L.Poygan and L.Butte des Mortes. Crawler harnesses and slip bobber rigs on the reefs in Winnebago has been producing good fish.

Rural Lakes have been very active in the Panfish and Bass department. With the panfish off the beds, look for them in the weedbeds on the edge of the breaks. Dusk has been producing big gills on the flyrod rigged with floaters, an all-time favorite technique for myself.

Good Luck and Feel free to report back with your own fishing reports.

[GatorBait]

Finally have a free day to head out to L.Poygan tomorrow. Taking my 2 boys with me to get in on the Walleye action. From the sounds of it still, I should be limited out within a few hours if all goes as planned. Keep everyone updated when I get back tomorrow afternoon.

[GatorBait]

12-09-11

As most others in the southern half of Wisconsin are wondering....Where is winter?!?! Well the cold temps have arrived and are finally here to stay, and the ice making process in the area is slowly starting to form...Be it with this wind, it's not as fast as I'd like obviously. So far, most shallow lakes and millponds have ice coverage, not navigatable as of today. All other lakes with any depth over 10ft is still wide open. I'm hoping to punch the first hole in the area by sometime next week.

[GatorBait]

12-16-11

Well, now that the rain and 40 degree temps have decided to move out of our way, it appears to be steady low temps for awhile now. Ice is recovering and rebuilding once again on most lakes.

On 12/10 I spoke to a few guys fishing on the west end of Lake Poygan that had 3-4inches and were doing good on the pike. "Eyebrows" raise....could this be a sign to a Poygan Pounder year. Pike don't bite if there is shad in the system. Could be a year w/o shad, which is hell for the beaver dams, but much fun on my end. I'll be watching this with a microscope. Ice conditions, umm 4 inches is suicide in my opinion on this lake, i'll venture after 6-8inches.

Other than that, just patiently waiting for this ice to get solid again. Going to check out some potholes in the morn and some smaller lakes. Tightlines Ya'll!!

Gator

[GatorBait]

12-27-11

I am finally venturing forth amongst a few barely frozen lakes tomorrow morning. What ice there has been for people to fish has been producing early ice fish as usual. I'm drooling at the bit to get on Lake Poygan to tie into the trophy northern. After the rain last week, the ice shoved and only allowed travel 100yds out...that's about 3ft of water..impossible to get to any drops. So, still patiently waiting to hit the honey holes on the wheeler. Temps in the 40's during the day just isn't helping our lack of ice problem. AA will definately be in full affect tomorrow. I'll give a report tomorrow afternoon, mainly targeting gills and crappies.

[GatorBait]

Walleyes are running on the Wolf as we speak. Was out today and had my limit within a few passes. Decent 18in fish. Continued to kill some time and do some C&R which netted me a few more including a dancy 24" 6lb female. She looked like a football. Good times, was just south of fremont.

[BeezNeez920]

The fox is on its way, i live here in DePere and took a stroll down to voyager park the other day and checked it out. Nothing more fun then sitting right off the pier and pull walleye threw the ice all day

[GatorBait]

It's freezing cold, people are itching to hit the big waters. But please tread safely. A majority of the west end shore of Winnebago is sitting in a giant heap on shore now. It's a rare and exotic sight to see.

So, either way, new ice will now have to reform in this area. Up to 300yds out from shore there was open water from Oshkosh to Neenah. This also occurred on the East side of the lake around Pipe and Brotherstown. Sturgeon Spearing is fast approaching, more anglers are anxious to get out scouting and do regular fishing, so please use common sense. Yea the temps are cold, but the wind wreacks havoc with pushing the ice all over, as you can see above. Don't be a statistic.

On the other side of things, I've been picking a good mess of Perch in Waushara County. The fish have been testy due to weather conditions. Saturday before the front came through, fish were jumping through the whole. I caught 6 different species, which normally I would catch 2. It was an awesome day. Ice conditions continue to improve, there was approximately 8 inches of solid ice throughout most lakes in the county. After my outting tomorrow, I would have to think atleast a foot or more.

[GatorBait]

Have a monster gill to share with everyone. But with finding out the news about Jim Hudson, I'm going to just go say some prayers and hope for the best.

[GatorBait]

Well here is the picture from the other day of my largest bluegill through the ice. She was approximately 11 1/4 inches. Unfortunately the picture didn't do much justice as the tail folded back towards me. Either way, it was awesome fighting that thing on 1lb test, then looking down the hole and seeing this gigantic pancake coming to the top. This lake has been producing just gigantic bluegill and perch. These are like finding a rare black diamond, we just don't have the fishery in this county to produce this kind of size on a regular basis. But I love it, and am enjoying the time that the good lord is offering me.

Below is a pic of my lil fishing buddy. He outfished dad this day, somehow the fish couldn't resist his setup. He was super excited and had just a great experience on the ice with dad that day. Great times.

[wigoosehammer]

The kids smile tells it all!! Awesome.

Any word on ice conditions out of brotherstown or pipe.

Phil

[GatorBait]

I haven't heard much good news about the big girl. I know Brotherstown Fishing Club pulled their bridges and landing due to the amount of water on the ice. Obviously this was pretty consistent all across the lake, now add 12in of snow and the amount of slush now. I won't be venturing out there any time soon. It's just a complete mess. Unless things magically turn around very soon, I doubt I'll even chance spearing this year.