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Believe it or not, there are some
people STILL ice fishing and I don't mean just north of Highway
8.
But when I think of fishing right
now, I'm thinking rivers, and which ones are the first to have
current flows that are "user friendly."
That often depends on the amount
of rain and if the ice has melted. So I called experts in areas
with some of the best rivers that offer early action to see
what's up.
Becky Smith, of Dick Smith's Live
Bait and Tackle in Delafield, has a shop that is sort of a hub
for early walleye action. She's recommending skipping ice
fishing and going for river walleyes instead.
"There are still a few
people putting on waders and heading out on the ice," she
said. "The shorelines of all the area lakes are in bad
shape, but a few people just can't seem to pass up the good
bluegill fishing going on. But it doesn't seem worth it to me.
If a person must go, I tell them to at least leave the kids at
home. My recommendation is to stay off the ice."
Most of the remaining ice fishing
is happening on the Madison Chain with people still heading out
as of Monday afternoon. The shorelines are spotty at best, and
people crazy enough to go out are wearing waders and sometimes
flotation devices to get to the thicker main-lake ice.
Um, no thanks.
"The Rock River is where
most people around here go for a quick trip," Smith said.
"The river is pretty high now and is under a no-wake
restriction. You also can't launch everywhere. The landings are
open in Jefferson and below the Highway 26 bridge. But the river
is running fast and people will need heavy jigs and or other
weight to fish it."
Smith said the water temperature
is about 36 degrees, which is a few degrees below when walleyes
really run.
"I'd say we have a good week
or two before the run really kicks in," she said.
"That river is bound to produce some nice fish the year
because Koshkonong was really hot for ice fishing. The fish are
good to eat, too."
The Wisconsin River in Wisconsin
Dells and Prairie du Sac are also favorite early walleye spots,
and both are producing fish.
Dennis "Botch"
Leonhardt of River's Edge Resort said the river is at normal
levels and a lot of people are taking advantage of it.
"The fishing has been pretty
good, but we are still about two or three weeks away from the
peak," he said. "People are catching a lot of small
males right now and an occasional female. There are some limits
coming in for sure. The night fishing should pick up a lot in
the next couple of weeks."
Jigs and minnows seem to be the
key, but Leonhardt said crankbaits aimed toward sandy shorelines
in shallow water would be the ticket for trophy fish. The
fishing will get better, too, once Lake Wisconsin loses all of
its ice and the staging fish move up to spawn.
A few miles north, anglers are
doing real well on both numbers and size for walleyes at the
Prairie du Sac Dam, said Larry Wipperfurth, manager of
Wilderness Fish and Game in Sauk City.
"I was out last night and
there are a lot of fish getting moved right now," he said.
"The bigger walleyes are coming off of twister tails and
plastic ring worms, while more numbers are being caught on
minnows."
Wipperfurth said to concentrate
on sand breaks in 12 to 14 feet of water. For saugers, go
deeper, in the 20-foot range.
"There are a lot of fish at
the dam, but you'll have to deal with crowds. There are plenty
of fish downriver, but if you don't know the river up here, I
wouldn't go further south than the Highway 60 bridge. It just
gets too shallow and too rocky if you don't know the area.
People are already getting nice fish on shallow running
crankbaits at night fishing right from the bank. They're biting
real well right now and this warm spike could see this weekend
being one of the best ones on this stretch of the river."
For trophy anglers, the Fox River
at De Pere is pretty hit and miss. People are getting fish, but
not many above the 28-inch limit that is in effect for the area.
That should turn in the next few weeks as well.
(Dan Durbin writes a weekly
outdoors column for The Freeman. Call Durbin at 644-7940, or
e-mail him at ddurbin@bastdurbin.com
if you have a story idea.)
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