A lot of rain this past week has the rivers and flowages in our area in central Wisconsin running high and dirty right now. What that means is tough fishing but not impossible. When that water gets this high and dirty we usually give the river a day or two to start settling down or we spend a lot of our time on the main lake area. We generally run larger baits that are going to make some noise and adding some brighter colors doesn’t hurt at all either. In addition to the high water we had some really unseasonably cold temperatures plague us this past week as well. Cold temps we can handle but cold temps and high water are not a good mix. Water temperatures in the central Wisconsin are plummeted from 70+ degrees last week to 58 degrees virtually overnight. When you have conditions like that the fish become really dormant and hard to catch. It is not good!
 

To catch fish this past week we had to slow our presentations waaaaay down to almost a crawl. Our jigging technique for walleyes was to slowly drag our presentation on the bottom barely moving it, and when we did move our bait it was ever so slowly. We actually had our best luck catching walleyes with slip bobbers held in specific locations close to the bottom, that way our bait could stay in the feeding window of the fish for longer periods of time.
 

We targeted non-current areas and fished prime-time periods of the day for musky and again we really slowed down our presentation. We ran bright, larger sized bucktails and jerkbaits but we ran them slowly and we targeted heavy weeds. We pinpoint fished drop off areas with rubber and plastics and we worked them right on the bottom. The feeding windows were short and sporadic and seemed to be in correlation with periods of the day when the sun would come out from behind the clouds. I believe that the sun popping out warmed up the water and the fish a bit and gave them that little added boost to begin feeding. I know we liked it when the sun came out.
 

It looks like the temperatures are going to warm up for this weekend and things should get back to normal. We were out last night and the fishing was already showing drastic improvements from over earlier this week. Look for the bucktail bite to be good for musky and pike and the walleye bite should get back to normal. For the walleyes you should be able to run not only live bait but some crankbaits as well. The upcoming warm weather should help the bluegills move back onto their beds and the bite should be very good for them as well.
 

For anyone looking for something to do this weekend the Spring Classic of Champions Musky Tournament in Eagle River, Wisconsin is going on and it is always a great time and event to be involved in.
 

Have a great week,
 

Phil Schweik
Hooksetters Guide Service
Phone: 715-693-5843