We’ve just past the mid-point for the month of June and fishing on Lake Wisconsin for walleyes and saugers remains very good. The fish are widely dispersed from the mouth of the Wisconsin River to the Prairie du Sac dam. Trolling with crank baits with either planer boards, long-lining or lead core line has been the most efficient means of getting fish for the last three weeks; however I will say that long-lining and pulling lead core sets has out fished planer board sets 2 to 1 in my boat. I have not found any particular preference for color or brand of crank bait
which is unusual. On my scouting trips as well as guide trips, I have routinely been intentionally pulling a different color and brand of bait on each rod and have yet to determine a preference. #7 Storm Smash Shads, #7 Berkley Flicker Shads and #7 Rapala jointed Shad Raps have pretty much had equal success while long-lining and pulling lead core. #5’s have worked to but the #7’s have been the most consistent for me. Other brands of baits than
those mentioned above will work too.
Multiple locations and depths are producing fish regularly, but I have been concentrating on two main areas: 8’ to 10’ flats and 12’ to 16’ break lines. What I do, is to mark a GPS way point when I get a fish, and soon a line of way points will be established so that you can easily return and pull baits over the same productive locations at a later time.
When pulling lead core lines, one trick that I’ve been doing to get extra fish off of a break line once the bite seems to slow, is to change colors and styles of baits. I can run back and forth along a contour 8-10 times picking up one to three fish on every pass and then it will seem like the bite stops. For example, if you’re running Smash Shads and Flicker Shads and it seems like you’ve worn out the spot, changing out the baits from the straight models to jointed Shad Raps in different color patterns has worked like a charm to get a few more.
Another trick is to work the area over by slowing down and pulling Slow Death rigs on bottom bouncers in order to finesse a few more fish. Once you’ve fished area, look at your Lake map to identify areas with similar features elsewhere and go fish those. Pretty soon you will have a “milk run” of spots established allowing you to keep moving and maximize your time on the water.
Good fishing to you,
Gary Sanders
Lake Wisconsin Walleyes, LLC
