Wisconsin Statewide fishing report 2.18.09
Spearers on the Lake Winnebago system harvested 1,293 sturgeon as of Feb. 18. Spearers on the Up River Lakes registered 64 juvenile female fish, which exceeded the 90 percent harvest trigger, causing the Upriver Lakes season to close on Feb. 18. The Lake Winnebago season remained open as of Feb. 19. Spearers need to harvest 58 more adult females to reach 90 percent trigger closure, or 121 adult females to reach the 100 percent closure trigger on Lake Winnebago. At the current harvest rate, the season on Lake Winnebago could remain open for several more days and may go into the upcoming weekend. Officials counted 6,853 shanties on Lake Winnebago system for the opening day last Saturday.
The cooler weather of the last week firmed up the ice surface on many improving access for ice anglers, who have been out in force, but fishing success has been a bit erratic. In the north walleye continue to provide the most consistent action. Northern pike success has only been fair. Panfish action has been generally slow, with just a few nice perch and crappie being caught.
Ice fishing continues along the south shore of Chequamegon Bay from Ashland through Washburn, with some northern pike, perch, smallmouth bass, trout, and smelt reported. On Green Bay, perch fishing continued to be generally slow, with fish spread out and anglers moving a lot to stay on top of the most active fish. Anglers continue to report success for whitefish and some walleye.
Ashland
Ice fishing continues along the south shore of Chequamegon Bay from Ashland through Washburn and out to Long Island. Some northern pike, perch, smallmouth bass, trout, and smelt have been reported. Remember that ice conditions can change rapidly on Lake Superior; always use caution when venturing out on the ice and check with local bait dealers for more detailed ice conditions. At this point most of the snow pack on the ice disappeared after the recent warm weather. Caution must ALWAYS be taken seriously when venturing out on Lake Superior ice. Water currents around the islands such as the south channel near Long Island can make ice very dangerous for traveling on. In the Bayfield area, anglers were catching Lake Trout "bobbing" (jigging 1 ounce to 3 ounce beetle jigs tipped with cut herring on wire or heavy no stretch line) in 180 - 200 feet of water. Many people have been "Bobbing" for lake trout along the ice road from Bayfield to Madeline Island. Whitefish action has been variable with some good and some bad days. The use of Swedish Pimples and Buckshot spoons tipped with a lake shiner head have worked the best. Target Whitefish in waters of 40-80 feet. The Long Island area seems to hold the best Whitefish numbers taken by local fisherman this year.
Upper Chippewa Basin fisheries report (Price, Rusk, Sawyer Taylor and inland Ashland and Iron counties) -
Cooler, more seasonal temperatures in the last week have firmed up the ice surface on most lakes and ice depths are currently in the 18 to 22 inch range. Last week's thaw took care of most of the snow that was on the ice and there's just an inch or two of new snow on top of a rather slick surface. Both ATV and vehicle travel has been good to most areas on the lakes, though there are many rough spots due to frozen ruts. While the weather was nice and anglers were out in force, fishing success has been a bit erratic in the past week. Walleye continue to provide the most consistent action and some fair catches 11 to 15-inch fish were made in the late afternoon hours. Sucker minnows fished in 8' to 12' of water, along the deeper break lines and mud flats has been the most productive method. A few of the smaller walleye have had mayfly nymphs in their stomachs and it seems these fish have moved near the mud flats to exploit this common forage item. Northern pike success has only been fair with the nicer weather, with most anglers reporting just enough action to keep them interested. While most northern pike anglers have been getting just a fish or two per trip, a few nice pike in the 28 to 32-inch range have been reported. Panfish action has been generally slow, with just a few nice perch and crappie being caught. Crappie anglers have had an especially tough time finding fish lately and they've moving around quite a bit trying to find active fish. Both the crappie and perch also appear to be utilizing the mayfly nymphs as food, so anglers may want to adjust their tactics a bit to capitalize on this.
Door County -
Perch fishing continued to be slow off Potawatomi State Park. The few that have been caught were spread out and most anglers that were finding perch were moving a lot to stay on top of the most active fish. Anglers have been using jigging raps tip with wax worms, minnows have also been used with some success reported. Ice conditions off of the landing have deteriorated watch for pressure cracks; there has been reports of a truck braking through on Friday. Anglers have been also been fishing out of stone quarry park with limited success for walleyes and perch. Larsons Reef has also been producing some walleyes and whitefish. Anglers have been doing very well on the walleyes here over the last few weeks. At Little Sturgeon Bay, perch and whitefish seem to dominate the action with limits of whitefish being caught in 30 – 40 feet of water. The best action has been coming on small jigging raps and spoons tip with waxwarms. Most anglers have been fishing off Henderson’s point. Please use caution when crossing shoves with the last week’s warm spell and recent snow shoves are hard to identify.
Potawatomi State Park
A truck went through the ice on Sawyer Harbor this weekend. No one was hurt. The truck was retrieved the next day. Anglers are reminded to use extreme caution on the ice. The Coast Guard ice breaker was breaking a path through Sturgeon Bay late last week.
Oshkosh
The 2009 Upriver Lakes Sturgeon Spearing Season closed Wednesday, Feb. 18. The Lake Winnebago season remained open as of Thursday Feb. 19. The System-wide harvest total was 1,293 as of Feb. 18. Spearers need to harvest 58 more adult females to reach 90 percent trigger closure, or 121 adult females to reach the 100 percent closure trigger on Lake Winnebago. At the current harvest rate, the season on Lake Winnebago could remain open for several more days and may go into the upcoming weekend. Spearers on the Up River Lakes registered 64 juvenile female fish, which exceeded the 90 percent harvest trigger, causing the Upriver Lakes season closure to be enacted. The season on Lake Winnebago has not reached a closure trigger yet and remains open to those persons with a Lake Winnebago sturgeon spearing license. This is the third year of the lottery fishery on the Upriver Lakes which has been very successful. There were 4,031 people who submitted applications for the 2009 Upriver Lakes sturgeon spearing lottery, up from 2,795 in the inaugural year 2007, and 3,902 in 2008. Spearers are drawn to this high quality fishery as the success rate averages over 60 percent, whereas the success rate on Lake Winnebago averages only 13 percent. During the course of the year the Upriver Lakes are a nursery ground for juvenile sturgeon, but in the winter thousands of adult sturgeon from Lake Winnebago join these juveniles for a short stay prior to finishing their spawning run up the Wolf and upper Fox rivers come spring. Adult female sturgeon don't begin spawning until they are in their 20s, and then spawn only once every four years, while males begin spawning in their late teens/early 20s with about 60 to 70 percent of the adult male stock spawning every year - hence the much higher proportion of male sturgeon in the sex ratio of the Upriver Lakes harvest compared to the harvest from Lake Winnebago. The Upriver Lakes sturgeon spear fishery was first initiated in 1952, put in place to replace a set-line fishery there that was closed at the time out of concerns about illegal sturgeon harvest on set lines. Upriver Lakes spearing seasons were held annually from 1952 to 1957, with no limit to the number of spearers on the three lakes (Lakes Butte des Mort, Winneconne, and Poygan). Also at this time spearers could spear both Winnebago and the Upriver Lakes in the same season. Concern about excessive harvest in these first six years led to holding seasons on the Upriver Lakes once every three years, then later every five years. In the year 2000 an unlimited fishery on the Upriver Lakes produced a harvest of 2,169 in two days, emphasizing the need for a restricted fishery there which in turn gave rise to current lottery fishery in place since 2007. The illegal set-line harvest of juvenile lake sturgeon that took place from 1932-1951 was severe enough to be noticed in size distributions of sturgeon system-wide in the 1950s through the 1980s. There was an entire group of fish nearly missing from the population in those decades. Many of the large 150-plus-pound fish we are seeing in the harvest the past few years were the first juvenile fish afforded protection from the excessive illegal set-line harvest beginning in 1952.
Lake Michigan fisheries team report
Ozaukee County –
In Port Washington shore anglers have been catching occasional brown trout. Spawn sacs have taken fish at the power plant discharge, and spoons have caught fish off the rocks at Rotary Park. Flows and water clarity on Sauk Creek are good, but steelhead fishing has been slow.
Milwaukee County –
In Milwaukee, some ice has formed again in the river under the Hoan bridge. In McKinley Marina there is still sufficient ice for foot travel, but fishing there has been slow. The Menomonee River near the MMSD offices is muddy, and fishing there has been tough. However, further upriver on the Menomonee and in the canals, there have been some browns and rainbows taken on crankbaits. There is some construction going on at Riverfront Ramp, but one lane remains open to boaters.
Racine County –
In Racine a few anglers have been open water fishing near the Pershing boat launch, and brown trout have been hitting both spoons and spawn. The Root River is open, and stream flows and water clarity are good. Steelhead have been taken on spawn in Lincoln Park downstream of the Root River Steelhead Facility.
Kenosha County –
In Kenosha anglers continue to ice fish near the boat launch, and they have been catching browns on spawn or jigging with tube jigs and wax worms. Open water can be found near the Holiday Inn, and anglers there have been taking occasional browns and rainbows on spawn sacs.
Dane County –
Ice fishing has been off and on this past week on Dane County Lakes. Bluegills have been biting some days on Waubesa off of Goodland Park and off of the Green Lantern. It depends on the day, but fishermen have been getting some 7-9 inch fish. Some reports of good crappie fishing south of Hog Island before dusk have received. Perch fishing has been very slow on Waubesa and Monona, but some anglers are having good success on Mendota off of Fox Bluff and Mendota County Park. Walleye fishing has also picked up on Mendota. Ice conditions are still very good on all the lakes with ice thickness ranging from 12 to 20 inches. Some of the bays and inlets opened up with last weeks thaw. All Dane County snowmobile trails remain closed.
Vernon County –
The ice went out below the Genoa dam on Feb. 11. Some walleye anglers were fishing from boats below the dam. A few large fish were caught over the weekend and most anglers are releasing the larger pre-spawn females.
