Winnebago Day Three

Sitting in 38th place after day two I knew I needed a big weight and I felt confident if I stuck to my prefishing plan I could get 6 bites again.  The weather had changed some and we again had wind and rain, which during prefishing made the bite a little better.  To make the top ten I was going to need a basket of fish around 15 pounds which was proving to be a huge task on Lake Winnebago.

Once again, my first spot proved to be a good one.  We quickly boated a 17 inch walleye and then trolled another mile without a fish.  We decided to run back up shallower and make a pull through all my waypoints and see if we could connect with more than just that one fish.  We set up and instantly caught a couple sheep head and white bass, not what we were looking for.  As we approached my first group of waypoints we hooked up a nice fish.  After a long battle we netted a nice 22 inch walleye.  These were the type of fish we needed but unfortunately that would be the last really nice fish of the day from that spot.

We quickly pulled up the boards and set up for another troll.  It was evident that the bite was on again in the morning but we all knew it was just a matter of time before they shut down.  So, we moved quickly and were able to catch two more fish just short of 20 inches.  Things were looking real good, as these were the type of fish we needed.  With 4 fish in the box by 9:30 we still had over an hour before the bite would shut off so we kept at.

We were working an area that was basically 1/2 mile by 1/2 mile, so the area was big and the each trolling pass took a lot of time.  If you could get one fish in an area you could usually get a couple more and this held true as we ran into an area of small fish.  We caught 3 more walleye in a matter of 5 minutes that were all under the 14 inch minimum and then finally hooked a 14 1/2 incher.  This is not the size fish I needed but it was number 5 for the day and that got us our limit before the bite shut off, and it did!

In the end, that was all I was able to catch on the day.  We still had room for 2 more fish to upgrade the two smaller fish in our livewell but once again the bite shut down and we were forced to weigh what we had.  Fortunately today that was a limit of 5 that once again were tough to come by on Lake Winnebago.  In the end that was good enough for 31st in the tournament and 7th overall for Angler of the Year.

Now it is time to start thinking about getting things caught up at home.  I have a busy promotional schedule this summer as well as lots of gardening and yard work to do.  In addition to that I have to start thinking about the FLW Tour Championship in Bismark at the end of September.  That fishery has changed a lot since we were there last year and I am anxious to make a better showing there this year now that I am a little more familiar with the system.