Wolf River Fishing Update

And Fox River Fishing Update

Fall is a wonderful time of the year. Temperatures are dropping. Often the wind isn’t howling. And the fish are biting. What an awesome combination.

Many people take to the woods for hunting come fall. I’m not many people. I enjoy fishing the Wolf River and the Fox River in fall. One can have awesome days of catching in the fall. My best outing with one client was 80 fish in the boat. Yes, eighty! No exaggeration! I keep a fish counter in the boat and click it every time a fish is brought into the boat. If it falls off at the side of the boat, it does not count! I probably even missed a few as we often doubled up. I’d guess that about 75 of those fish were walleyes. A few suckers were in the mix. On another outing we caught 51 walleyes, 7 suckers, a perch and a white bass.

So how did we go about catching all of these fish? First of all water temperatures were in the mid 30’s on the Wolf River. And secondly I heard from other fisherman a possible location to check out. With the low water temps my first instinct was to try deep water. Not much luck. Eventually found a pattern where we’d mark and catch fish in the 13 to 15 foot range. Once we figured that out we tried to stay in the range. I’d maneuver the boat so we’d stay in that range. I’d also control the boat so our jigs would stay vertical. On the outing where we caught 60 fish we didn’t use any live bait! Just 1/4 ounce jigs with Gulp! Minnows. I also like to use 6lb Fireline with a tied on leader of 6lb fluorocarbon.

I had heard the walleye were biting well on the Fox River too. So I had to check it out. I also heard that the fish were deep. Not so on my last trip. All fish were caught in 8 to 15 feet of water. On the Wolf River we were catching mostly small males under 14 inches. On the Fox we caught mostly larger males 14 to 18 inches along with larger females up to 20 inches. I love keeping a few fish for good eats out of the cold fall waters.

The weather is changing quickly and soon the ice will be forming. If you have the time lets hook up and get out on the water before we are only able to walk on it.