Green Bay/Lower Bay May 4th

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

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

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.