Big Sea Charters Fishing Reports

Green Bay Walleye Fishing Report, July

2009-07-28T08:36:00.003-05:00

Well July has been a very un-predictable month as far as the fishing has gone. We have seen fish in locations they have not spent alot of time in, shallow water. Good numbers of eater sized fish are still being caught at low light periods in shallow water. August should bring more warmth and more school of fish out in deeper water.

As far as our best fishing goes we have had success on big fish. Over the past week we have had a 5.5 pound average with two fish over 10 pounds. Our best location has been from Charles Pond to Pensaukee Shoal in 28'-32' of water. The fish have been scattered and when you locate them they are usually concentrated in what seems to be about a half-square mile. We have been driving over the same set of waypoints for over a week and have pulled consistent numbers and size off of that small location each time we visit. That shows just how important good electronics can be.

Other areas producing fish are the 20'-25' depth range in front of Geano's Reef, there are huge schools of bait fish running from Suamico Bay north to Geano's. The walleyes are not far behind, this area has been spotty yet there's great numbers of fish behind the reef in 7'-10' or water which are mainly being caught at low light periods. North-South also has fish on it as well as Vokes and Two Mile. Needless to say the fish are very scattered at this time with anglers finding fish from 7'-35' of water. You need to find the presentation that works best for you and your strengths and just stick to it.

We have spotted our first thermocline in a long time, it resides 25' down in 32'-35' of water nearly straight out from the second lighthouse going north. This is a good and welcome sign of things to come. We need some very warm weather for about a week to send the numbers of shallow fish out into deep water to set-up a more consistent pattern.

Our best baits have been Crawler Harnesses trolled behind 1oz weights anywhere from 10' down to 28' down in 30' of water. Color seems to vary by the day and light conditions as you would expect.

As always we are always available to provide a more detailed and up to date report via telephone or email. (920) 660-7275 OR chris@bigseacharters.com.

Green Bay Fishing Report, end of June

2009-07-01T07:49:00.002-05:00

The month of June has seen many fish accessible in many locations, as well as several techniques. We have seen great fishing from 6' of water trolling crankbaits on out to 20'-25' trolling crawler harnesses, both of which are producing numbers and size.

Our most consistent location as of late has been the Geano Reef area from 18' on to 23' of water. The school which has parked itself there each year has been impressive to say the least, this year is no exception. We have been targeting these fish from 7' down to 15' down using 1 oz weights to present our spinners in the strike zone. Speeds from 1.1-1.2. mph have been our best producer. Our best colors have been Purple Hot Tiger blades from Bait Rigs Tackle, along with Warrior Lures: Happy Hooker, Perch, and Huckleberry patterns in multiple colors.

Over on the other side of the Bay, the East Shore, we have still been finding success in the Vincent Point area, both on the rocks and out in deeper water. The rock fish have been falling for crankbaits while the deeper water has been god utilizing crawler harnesses. Most of these fish have been "eater sized" (15''-19'') fish, yet there is a lot of action to keep you busy. We have even seen success drifting over thee fish with small jigs and Night crawlers or a Lindy Rig. Best bait here are our old trusty Reef Runner Ripshads and Berkley Flicker Shads. We have also found that some larger minnow style baits have been effective for the little larger fish and it helps in keeping the Sheephead catches down to a more manageable, less frustrating, number.

Down to the Southeast there is another large school of fish still using the Eagles Nest area and the entire Eastern shoreline from University Bay north to Point Sable. Again we have targeted these fish with crankbaits from the 6'-8' depth range. There is a lot of fish in this area yet there are a lot of fish in this area which are smaller fish. We have even seen several fish in this area which are not legal sized fish, which is a great sign for years to come.

Looking ahead into July we should be looking at fish moving into the deeper water and becoming suspended. Areas to the north where water has been cold should begin to warm and see the fish spread out more. Looking at the present there really seems to be great fishing within 5 miles of every boat launch in the southern end of Green Bay.

I would like to take a moment to thank Frabill. This week we received our Conservation Series Nets from Frabill. Needless to say Frabill has hit another home run. If you're in the market to replace a net or looking to add one to you set-up check these nets out at www.frabill.com. They also make the finest worm bedding out there, Fat and Sassy, the finest bar-none. Thank You Frabill for your continued support and for making some of the finest products on the market.

In our next report we will begin posting waypoints of some of our top locations. I can be reached for a more detailed report including waypoints at chris@bigseacharters.com or by calling (920) 660-7275. Good Luck and have a safe productive fishing trip.

Green Bay/Winnebago Walleyes June Fishing Report

2009-06-08T08:58:00.002-05:00

The start of June has lacked acceptable weather to say the least. Several days that have been temperatures struggle into the high 50's with overnight lows in he upper 30's to the far north. This hasn't stopped the Walleyes from biting on Green Bay and it certainly hasn't stopped them from biting on Lake Winnebago. This past week was one of our best as far as big fish on Green Bay. We found a very large and cooperative school of fish in the Dykesville area roaming the 20' to 25' depth range. If its size you want, size you'll get, over the past week we landed 4 fish over 30 inches and several others topping the 28 inch mark. A majority of these fish were caught near the 25 foot depth range. Our lures of choice were crawler harnesses trolled behind 1oz weights from 20 feet to 40 feet behind our Offshore Planer Boards. There is still a school of smaller, "eater sized", fish near the Vincent Point area. These fish can be fished with either crankbaits or crawler harnesses, look to the mid-bay humps and the edges of the structure for the best action from 12' to 17' of water. Our best cranks were Reef Runner Ripshads in Kryptonite. There is also a nice school of fish outside the Geano Reef area. Their depth varies by the day, we have caught these fish in as shallow as 8' and as deep as 20'-22'. Our best baits on the West shore have been Crawler harnesses with Warrior Spinner Blades. The best advice I can provide for Green Bay at this time is to stay versatile and stay mobile. Don't place all your lures at a consistent depth, and don't live and die on a spot which may have been good yesterday. These fish are really on the move more than they have been in quite some time.

Lake Winnebago has also been giving up fish despite the weather. Saturday, June 6th, we ventured down to Winnebago to begin preparation for Walleye Weekend. Stopping at our first spot in the Northeast corner of the lake we found fish immediatly in the "Mud" pulling 12 fish in our first short pass in the 17'-18' depth range. We made 1 more pass in the Northeast end of the lake and ended boating 25 fish on total prior to making a move. There was also fish which were blown up on the rock reefs on the west side of the lake. Blackbird and Little Blackbird both gave up good numbers of smaller fish throwing 1/8 oz jigs tipped with crawlers. We also pulled a few fish near the Oshkosh area and the Blackwolf area. Needless to say the fish were cooperative everywhere on saturday, making it tough to nail down a really good patern. Our best baits were Reef Runner Ripshads, Berkley Flickr Shads, and Grapler Shads.

The weather is supposed to finally take a trun for the better this week with weekend temps in the 70's. Look for this to finally start to school up fish in areas where they have been scattered and bring some consistancy and predictability to the fishing. We will be on the water every day until next monday so if you need a more up to date or detailed report we can be reached at (920) 660-7275. Good luck everyone, stay safe, and enjoy the warm, NORMAL HIGH's, weather this weekend.

Green Bay Walleye Fishing, Memorial Weekend, May 22

2009-05-22T18:29:00.003-05:00

Finally some stable weather and calm winds. After two weeks of roller coaster temps we finally have some stability. Water temps are on the rise and the fishing has also followed suit. Looking ahead this next weeks temps look to be as consistent as they could be over a one week period, finally a week where an angler can have some sort of predictability.

Anglers all over the Green Bay system are finding success in multiple depths and utilizing multiple presentations. Our best presentation has been Crawler Harnesses anywhere from 3' to 10' of water, depending on the weather. #6 Colorado Blades in purple, gold, and perch patterns have been our biggest producers. Trolled from 1.0-1.2 mph.

Crankbait trollers have also been doing very well. We have been targeting fish with crankbaits from 12' to 16' of water on the East shore, covering water until we find the most productive areas. Reef Runner Deep Little Rippers and Berkley Frenzy Divers have been our best baits, colors have varied depending on water clarity in most areas.

There is also a nice school of fish near the Vincent Point area and the rock humps which make up the bottom structure in that area. We have fished these fish with both Crawler Harnesses and Crankbaits finding equal success. As with any structure oriented bite we've seen these fish relate to the structure tops at low light and/or windy conditions, when there's high skies or flat sea's the fish relate to the transition bases of the structure or they will push off to the deep side and slide out into the deeper water to the west.

The Fox River is still holding good numbers of eater sized Walleyes and plentiful White Bass. Our best spot to target the Walleyes is near the 172 bridge footings throwing 1/8 oz and 1/4 oz jigs tipped with Nightcrawlers. You can also troll the expansive flats north of 172 with crankbaits to target these fish. As far as White Bass look to the washout areas of the current or current seams near the DePere Dam. We threw small Shallow Shad Raps at these fish the past few days and had a blast just cranking fish to the boat. This would be a great bite to bring young children to as they would have plenty of action to keep them busy.

We would like to wish everyone a safe and productive Memorial weekend, enjoy the time off and the great weather! Hopefully we'll see you on the water!

Green Bay, May 7th 2009

2009-05-07T15:18:00.003-05:00

Well it is again our favorite time of year, time to troll Green Bay. The past few days have been very good with most boats reporting good catches of Walleyes. Fish can be had right now trolling either spinners or crankbaits.

Earlier this week we had seen the best response on Reef Runner "Little Rippers" trolled from 5'-8' of water. As the water temps continued to rise we saw the fish really show their interest in crawler harnesses in the same water.

Our best spots have been the Geano Reef area along with the East Shore near Dykesville. There is still a good number of "cookie cutter" sized fish in the Fox River. The Fox also has an extremely fun White Bass run going on right now. We fished them today (May 7th) throwing crank baits. Small #8 Husky Jerks in Silver seemed to produce the most bites casted into slower moving current "wash-out" areas.

I would also like to take a moment to welcome our newest sponsor, Warrior Lures. Warrior makes a wide variety of high quality Spinner Blades as well as Great Lakes Spoons. Mike is an old friend from many seasons past and we wish him the best of luck!

I also would like to wish luck to all of the fishermen/women, taking part in this weekends Fox River Spring Walleye Classic. GOOD LUCK GUYS/GALS!

Ice Fishing SOLID start to the season

2009-01-17T11:52:00.002-06:00

The Ice Season in Wisconsin has gotten off to a great start with sub zero readings on the mercury meter. Average ice depths around the state are reading from 12'' to 24'' depending on location and snow cover. Most of our attention has been placed on Lake Winnebago in the Oshkosh area. We have been seeing a mixed bag of fish including great diversity; Walleyes, White Bass, Perch, and the occasional Catfish or Crappie all make for a good days worth of fishing. This all takes place out of the same hole on some occasion!!!

Concentrate efforts on the 16' and deeper depths out in the "mud" and stay extremely mobile. If we're not marking good numbers of fish within 10-15 minutes we're on the move. Our movements range from 1/4 to 1 mile with each move until we find what it is we like to see. Consistent marks mean you're close, sparse marks mean a farther maneuver to find the key location.

Our best baits have been Jigging Raps and Forage Minnows. Both tipped with a minnow head of your choice. These fish like the bait moving constantly and quite aggressively. Tip-ups are also taking fish once you find the key location to spend a significant amount of time on.

Is it spring yet? Come on Mother Nature, bring it on....

As always we can be contacted at (920)660-7275 or reached via website at www.bigseacharters.com Safe fishing! Hope to see you on the water!

Green Bay Walleye Fishing / July 24th

2008-07-27T06:43:00.003-05:00

Green Bay is still the place to be for walleyes. It's amazing to watch this system spit out 4 pound fish after 4 pound fish. It's actually tougher to catch a small fish in Green Bay than it is to catch a quality fish. However I have seen more 15 inch fish this year than in years past and thats a good thing to see.

We have been focusing our fishing on the 18'-25' depths north from Suamico up the the "Charles Pond" area. Each day the depth of the fish varies. Yesterday we caught a majority of our fish in the 20'-23' range while the day before we were doing very well in 18'-19' of water. The name of the game is mobility right now. Watching some of the other boats out there I have been noticing that they are making very long passes, this is the absolute opposite of what we try to do aboard our Ranger. If an area is producing numerous fish I will lay a waypoint on the GPS and go back over that area as soon as I have a short lull in the action. So for us there is no big secret, just staying as mobile as possible.

Our fish catches have been right around the 30 fish mark per trip, lots of these fish are in the 4 pound class. There have also been some big fish mixed in with these catches, over the past five days we have put 7 fish over 8 pounds in the boat, one (the photo above) of these fish went 31 inches and 11.5 pounds!

Our best baits have been crawler harnesses trolled behind 1oz and 1/2oz weights. Lead lengths are dependant on the day but have ranged from 15' back on a 1/2 oz weight to as deep as 45' back on a 1 oz weight. The key is to also keep your baits mobile in the water column , each day we start with baits high and low in the water column and we let the fish tell us what they want. Our best colors have been Purples, Perch Imitations, Bubble Gum (Pink/Chartreuse Blades with matching beads) and Anti-Freeze (Green/Chartreuse Blades with matching Beads).

Hopefully this report helps, if you need a more detailed up to the minute report give me a call (920) 660-7275. Good Luck and Great Fishing!!!!

Join us at our Green Bay "Late Summer Walleye" seminar sometime in August at the Sportsmans Warehouse in DePere, WI. I will have giveaway items from my sponsors like Reef Runner, Frabill, Bait Rigs, and Tica. Someone will win a Frabill Troll N' Shovel Net!

Kewaunee Salmon Fishing Report (July 10th)

2008-07-11T07:17:00.003-05:00

Fishing on the West Shore of Lake Michigan has been very inconsistent all season. A lack of stable weather and an abundance of west winds have kept surface temperatures near shore (inside of 100 feet) hovering a few degrees under or just over 50 degrees. This has left fish scattered throughout the water column for a majority of the season.

Our best fishing lately has been in 40 to 80 feet of water. In this water you can find a mixed bag of Chinooks, Rainbows, Lakers, and even a few Coho's with an occasional Brown Trout. Fishing is not fast and furious but if you pick away at them you'll end up with a good cooler of fish.

Our best baits have been 75' of Opti Copper wire with a 40' leader of 20# test monofilament line followed by a spoon. Our other top producer has been 150' of Opti Copper wire with the same leader/spoon. I run both of these on Offshore's SST planer board, one of each on either side of the boat. Running the 75' on the outside board and the 150' inside of that makes things alot easier for turning. When you get a fish on the outside board you must reel in the inside board to avoid a tangle. It is worth the hassle as well over half our fish have come on these set-ups.

Other lines that have worked well for us have been a 100' 12oz. "Pump Handle" down the middle with a White/Glow/Chrome Opti Inticer with a 44 mag. Fly. Wire Dipsey (dialed at #3) at 120' with a White/Glow/Chrome Opti Inticer and a White/Pearl Opti Fly. Wire Dipsey (dialed at #1) 75' back with a Green/Glow/Chrome Inticer with "Kermit" fly. Downrigger at 63' with a White/Glow/Chrome Opti Inticer with an Opti "Super Blue Glow" Glacier Fly.

Good Luck to everyone fishing Trout Fest this weekend. Stay safe, hopefully we will see you on the water or at the cleaning station!

Green Bay Walleye Report/July 4th weekend

2008-07-07T09:30:00.002-05:00

Walleye fishing on the bay is still red hot although the fish have scattered a bit. Some fisherman are battling weeds and rough fish in shallow to get their limits when the wind is right. Other fisherman are combing open water to locate the roaming nomads.

Fishing on the East shore has been good around Vokes Reef and over the Humps near Vincent Point. Our best fishing has come on the West Shore in 20'-25' of water from Little Tail Point to Charles Pond trolling crawler harnesses behind 1oz weights at 1.0-1.2 mph. Our best leads have been 20'-25' behind our trusty Offshore Planer Boards. I have also seen alot of big fish in the past few days, numerous fish topping out over 28''. However these fish are healthy yet skinny, the bigger fish we have seen haven't had much for girth yet it is still exciting to put them on the measuring board.

Our best blade colors have been Anti-Freeze, Erie Watermelon, Metallic Chartreuse, and Happy Hooker. We have also noticed the fish responding to willow blades. They have actually out fished the Colorado blades as of late, when you use willow blades make sure that you build your harnesses with more beads than you would usually tie a Colorado harness with. A willow blade is not only longer than a Colorado blade but it also lays more flat as it spins. This means you need to add a few more beads to prevent the blade from hitting the hook as it rotates.

Good Luck everyone, stay safe on the water and stay mobile.

Green Bay Fishing Report/June 18th

2008-06-18T08:47:00.003-05:00

Walleye fishing has been fantastic, as it has all year. I have said it numerous times but this system (the Green Bay system) is absolutly amazing. Great numbers of 3-5 year old fish being caught from 6' to 17' of water.

You can attack these transition fish in numerous ways...you can fish the windswept shoreline in shallow dirty water, or you can fish suspended fish over 12'-17' of water. Our best numbers of fish have come fishing windswept shorelines in shallow water pulling crawler harnesses with no weight from 30' to 45' behind planer boards. Color selections change with conditions, water clarity and weather. In a sunny situation we have chossen copper blades, and in cloudy conditions we select glow and silver blades. This color selection is the same when we venture out deeper but we add a 1oz fish weight in front of the crawler harnesses to get them down to the target depth. The rule of thumb when using 1oz weights is to multiply your target depth by 2 when letting them out. For example, when you want to put a bait 10 feet down you would let out 20 feet of line. This stays true when trolling 1.0-1.2 mph. Remember that the faster you go the higher your baits will run.

Good fish catches are coming from Bayshore down to Vincent Point on the East Shore and from deeper water in from of Suamico up to Geano's and Pensaukee. There are multiple schools of fish in multiple locations leaving you multiple ways to catch fish right now. Stay versatile and try not to get stuck fishing one area for an extended period of time. Play the wind whenever possible and it will help you catch more fish.

Good luck to everyone this week, we will be salmon fishing all weekend so look for our salmon reports to start Monday!

Green Bay Fishing Report/June 1st

2008-06-02T07:19:00.004-05:00

This past week brought more good fishing to the Green Bay area. This system never ceases to amaze me, it has been an awesome year for numbers of fish on Green Bay. Most of the fish we are seeing are 4 and 5 years old which is amazing to see them in the 22'' to 23'' size class. If good numbers of these fish reach maturity then we will see plenty of fish in the 28'' to 30'' class in a few years. In conversation with one of the DNR's lead fisheries people we heard that this season may have provided another record spawn in Green Bay. This would be great news providing a bit of an insurance policy for us!

After the big west blow on Saturday the fishing on the east shore was awesome. We fished in 4'-8' of water along the dirty water line Sunday and did really well. The fish were stacked in that key depth all along the east shore. Fry Pan Shoal was also good to us this weekend providing some nice action during Saturday's big blow. It is very important to pay attention to the direction of the wind over a period of a few days. When the wind blows into an area for a day or so that area will "load up" with fish, the fish move in and it's for one reason only, EAT. This weekend was a prime example of that situation.

Our best colors this weekend ranged from our usual more natural colors to the brighter colors we ran through Saturday and Sunday's dirty water lines. In the cleaner water we ran Purples, Greens, Perches, and Golds. When moving into the dirty water we ran Fishlanders in: Erie Watermelon, and Anti-Freeze along with Bait Rigs metallic Chartreuse. A plain #6 Gold hammered blade also worked well paired with the "Bumble Bee" bead pattern. We ran our leads from 30' to 45' back at 1.0-1.2 mph.

Now that it has been calm for a few days we will see things change to the deeper bite, as soon a we get another blow things will heat up shallow again. Good Luck to everyone and stay safe.

Green Bay Walleye Fishing Report, Memorial Weekend

2008-05-28T07:28:00.004-05:00

The fishing over Memorial Weekend was very good fishing, mother nature threw us a curve ball on some very windy conditions but added some nice warm temperatures to keep us toasty and tan.

The fish have begun to spread out and move a bit deeper as the water is starting to warm up just a bit. Our best fishing was found in 10 to 12 feet of water behind Geano's Reef, and in 10 to 12 feet of water right in front of the Suamico River mouth. There has also been very good fishing north of Geano's in the same 10 feet to 12 feet of water. The East shore is still very good in the Vincent Point area, our best fishing there has been on top of the rock humps in front of Vincent Point.

The anglers still holding on to the 6 to 8 feet of water are also finding success but not as much success as the fisherman who are fishing 10 to 12 feet of water, in some locations the fish will move into that shallow water when wind blows them in. There are also some anglers targeting fish in deeper water, some as deep as 25 feet of water. As the summer sets in and the water gets warmer this will be where most of these fish will end up.

Keep mobile and use your electronics to find these fish as they are on the move. Our best baits have been crawler harnesses, trolled at 1.0-1.2 mph, still with no weight at 45-65 feet behind Offshore Planer Boards. Our best bait colors have been #4 Willow Blades, Fishlanders new "Hedge Hog" blades. Colors have been Sex on the Beach tied with gold and red beads, Seyka Perch tied with Green and Orange beads, Grim Reaper tied with red and purple beads, and Purple VooDoo tied with Gold and Purple beads. Fishlanders Willows have out fished my #6 and #5 Colorado's almost 3-1 ! I still run a few Colorado's mixed in but "Hedge Hogs" have been VERY GOOD.

Good Luck everyone who ventures out this week. If you have any questions don't be afraid to email or call!

Congratulations to the Paul Krause group from Sunday afternoon, that 10.4 pound giant was a great fish !!!!!!!

Green Bay Walleye Fishing Report, May 17-21st

2008-05-22T06:59:00.005-05:00

Fishing on Green Bay this past week has brought a whirlwind of success. Both shorelines are offering great fishing in multiple locations. Suamico has been very good in 6'-10' of water, fish are spread out in Suamico Bay but any type of wind blowing to a certain area in the bay will congregate the fish on the wind swept area of Suamico Bay itself. There are also good numbers of fish just around Little Tail Point and to the north inside of Geano's Reef.

The same can be said for the west shore. Fishing from Bay Shore Park all the way to Point Sable brings an opportunity to spread out and get away from the crowd while not sacrificing good fishing. With all of the Northwest wind we have had the water clarity is a little different than that of the east shore. Again 6'-10' of water has been our best producing depths, sliding in shallow then slipping out deeper multiple times on each pass until we find our target depth for that day. Our two best producing spots on the east shore have been Point Comfort and the Vokes Reef area.

Our baits of choice area again crawler harnesses trolled at 1.0-1.2 mph. All with no weight from a length of 35' back to 65' back depending on the depth of water we are fishing. Our best colors have been Purple Decent Perch (Fishlander) tied with Purple and Pink beads, Seyka Perch (Fishlander) tied with Gold and Metallic Green beads, Gold Mystic (Fishlander) tied with Gold and Purple beads, and Grim Reaper (Fishlander) tied with Gold and Red beads.

Good luck to everyone this weekend, with the holiday weekend traffic on the water will be pretty high so everyone stay safe an have good fishing!

Green Bay Walleye Fishing Report, Weekend of May 10th

2008-05-12T07:23:00.004-05:00

This weekend the fishing we have been waiting for finally showed up. It was an absolute blast to be on Green Bay this weekend. Congratulations to Scott and Brad for their great win, and all of the teams that fished the Fox River Spring Walleye Classic, everyone had great catches of fish and an even better time catching them. Saturday my partner and I caught over 60 fish with numerous doubles, a couple triples, and even a quadruple header! We had a decent bag of 21.68 pounds, which would land us in 21st place. The fishing was absolutely fantastic but we never did land the big bites we had which would have placed us in the top five, but THAT'S JUST FISHING. Thank you Karl and Randy for putting on such a great event, which is by far my favorite tournament to fish, I'm already looking forward to next year!

Our baits of choice were crawler harnesses, trolled at a target depth of 4-7 feet of water at lead lengths of 35-55 feet behind Offshore planer boards. Our speeds varied from .9-1.2 mph. The color blades which worked best for us were from Fishlander, #6 gold blades in Perch patterns tied with green and gold beads, at one point we had four of these spread thoughout six lines.

Look for fishing to be spectacular over the next few weeks. There is an awesome year class of 20-23 inch fish in the Green Bay system. Everyone be safe and good luck, if you need a better report feel free and call me at (920) 660-7275.

Green Bay/Lower Bay May 4th

2008-05-05T03:59:00.003-05:00

It's all in the name, Sunday. May 4th brought lots of sunshine to Green Bay as my tournament partner and I headed out for some fishing in the southern end of Green Bay. Unfortunately Mother Nature also brought high winds to the party making things a little tougher. We found water temps from 48 to 51 degrees which is pretty chilly compared to this time last season.

We managed to pull good numbers of walleyes trolling crawler harnesses in 4-6 feet of water. The name of the game was to find the warmest water, we found fish in several different locations throughout the day, the one common denominator was the water temperature and being able to find the warmest water in each general location. We caught fish in Suamico Bay, Deadhorse Bay, and University Bay. No one spot seemed to be better than the other but when we located the warmest water in each of these locations things started to happen for us.

Look for this weeks "warmer" temperatures to send the water temps in an upward direction this week. Each degree the water temperature rises brings an improvement in the fishing, I see prime time only being about a week away.

Good luck to everyone and be safe!

Green Bay/Fox River Fishing Report, May 1st

2008-05-01T19:03:00.002-05:00

Thursday May 1st marked another outing on Green Bay and the Fox River. Upon arrival I found that the water clarity had visibility at about 6 inches. I decided to troll and jig the Fox River, the water tempatures on the river are between 50 and 51 degrees. There are alot of fish in the river right now but we need a significant clarity improvement before consistant fishing can occur.

My first plan of attack was to troll a variety of crankbaits on "the flats" north of the 172 bridge. This produced numerous fish but I was not satisfied with the size of the fish so I decided to make a move to jigging nightcrawlers over some key locations. Jigging also produced fish and produced them at a more consistant rate. I was suprised to catch a few males which were still milking when they were lifted into the boat.

This still seems to be a transition peroid leaving the fish very scattered. There are fish both in the river and the bay. The next few weeks will be very interesting, we need a warm-up to really get things rolling.

Good luck to everyone who goes out this weekend for the opener! I hope everyone has a safe and succesfull opening weekend!

April 23rd Green Bay Walleye Fishing Report

2008-04-24T07:37:00.003-05:00

Wednesday afternoon marked beautifull tempuratures and sunny skies. I decided to take a trip to the Southern End of Green Bay near "University Bay".

Upon arrival I found surface temps pushing 60 degrees so I changed gears from my enitial thought of crankbaits and switched 3 of my rods over to crawler harnesses. After trolling for about 15 minutes I was battling the first fish, a 25 inch female. As the day wore on and more fish were responding to the crawler harness presentation the wind decided to pick up out of the south-southeast. This immediatly began to effect the water temp as the surface temp began to drop quite quickly. I decided to run up to "Eagles Nest" as I was sure that the warmer water was getting pushed North. Upon arrival to "Eagles Nest" I found that the warm water was there but the lack of bites after two passes pushed me back down to the southern end of the bay.

After just an hour and a half the water temp dropped 4 degrees in "University Bay". This made me realize that the water below the surface was quite cooler than the surface temps, so after picking up my good friend at the dock we decided to change back over to crank baits. After changing back over we saw an immediate response. We actually did quite well, boating a good number of fish with a good diversity of Jumbo Perch, Walleyes, Sheephead, Northern Pike, and even a couple Muskies.

Our best baits were Reef Runner Little Rippers, run about 35-55 feet behind our Offshore Planer Boards. We were focusing on trolling 1.3-1.5 mph. The name of the game was to stay versitile, this is a transition period for these fish. The bite can change this time of year in a matter of minutes so be sure to have multiple presentations available to change with the fish.