Rog's Rod & Nimrod

We had a heck of a good time as we returned the spawning fish to the river.

Though controversial, I have been an advocate of South Dakota’s shutting down the taking of walleyes during the spring spawning season. This past weekend, I experienced just how and why this would work without taking the sport away from would be anglers.

We were in Wisconsin to be with family for the Easter break, not to mention my on-going scans and doctor appointments at the U of W hospital, and Tom, my son-in-law, suggested we go fishing on Holy Saturday. He had heard many good things about the Fox River at Green Bay, and we made the three hour trip with his boat in tow.

Oshkosh’s Lake Winnebago is the source of the Fox, and the relatively short river runs north and empties into Lake Michigan’s Green Bay. About four miles up from the Fox’s mouth in Green Bay is a dam/hydroelectric plant that blocks further travel up river. The east side of this stretch is graced with beautiful homes and up-scale riverfront condos and apartments while the west side is an industrial-shipping center complete with ocean-going ships.

We left Mt. Horeb, WI at 8:00 A.M. and arrived at the Fox River boat ramp around 11:00. After launching, we headed up to the dam where perhaps sixty fishing boats with two to five anglers per boat were grouped in a relatively small area. The atmosphere was festive. All of the anglers appeared to be tossing brightly-colored jigs with soft plastic bodies. The east shore was also lined with bank anglers.

This fishing was about spawning Lake Michigan walleyes that were blocked from further travel up river by the dam. The water was a perfect spawning temp of 45 degrees. The limit was one fish that had to be over twenty-eight inches in length. All around us anglers were netting fish, posing for pictures, and releasing the fish. We weren’t catching a thing, and I suggested to Tom that we were doing something wrong. Eventually I suspected that the current wasn’t allowing my jig to reach the bottom, and when I went to a heavier jig, I caught a fat, twenty-three inch walleye almost immediately.

Soon the action appeared to shut down for everyone, and we decided to do some exploring. We went all the way to the mouth where we could look out over the vast Lake Michigan. Anglers were fishing all along this four mile stretch of the Fox, and we decided to troll our way back up river. Tom put out six lines with two planer boards on each side. The action was slow, but we did pick up two fat walleyes. Around 4:30 we decided to head back up to the dam and try jigging again. I was more or less day dreaming while going through the motions when something smashed my lure.

Because it stayed down and wouldn’t relinquish an inch, I asked Tom to man the landing net. The fish was heavy, and I babied it with my six-pound test line. Tom eventually netted my ten pound, 29 inch walleye. It was the fattest walleye I’ve ever caught, and we put it in the live well so I could think about what I wanted to do with it. Other than my lone fish, no one was catching anything. I suggested to Tom that we head back down river to troll. During the next hour Tom caught three more fish including a 27 inch fish and a 30 inch fish that joined mine in the live well.

With seven fish, we didn’t have numbers, but we had quality. Most of our fish hadn’t spawned yet, and all went over 23 inches in length. We decided that our two big ones would go on the wall.

My point is this. Hundreds of anglers were enjoying the action, and no one to my knowledge was dissatisfied with how the Wisconsin DNR was handling the spawn. 99% of the spawning walleyes went back into the river. Beginning May 4th, those same Green Bay anglers will catch and keep those spawned out walleyes as they return to Lake Michigan. Wouldn’t it be great if these same rules were adopted for our Missouri River waters.

See you next week.