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Posts: 1936
Location: Eau Claire, WI | Been chasing these silly fish for twenty-some odd years now and one situation that still has me stumped is...
Low water levels on reservoir type lakes...i.e. Lake Wissota, Holcombe, Petenwell, etc.
All week they've been letting lots of water through the #*^@ due to all the rain last weekend...no problem as long as they keep the lake level at normal or above... but it seems once it's dropping or below normal the bigger fish go deep or get lock jaw... I"m not talking just Musky either.. eye's, smallies, etc. Seems the whole darn system just shuts down for few days...
Managed to catch a few short fish and a few pike but not even a good follow...
Anyone else experience similar things or is this just one of those quirky things on this body of water and this part of the Chippewa River..???? Cuz it's been like this for years and I can't seem to find active fish under these circumstances...
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Location: Athens, Ohio | Gregg Thomas wrote a good article about fishing into such conditions, published in MH a couple years ago. Mostly about the flooded water conditions at Cave Run, but a good section on dropping levels. From memory, me thinks he said that during falling water the fish stage deeper in the channels and off points. I forget what he said to do about that ( but here's a guess: do what won the Cave PMTT this year during falling water!) . I'll see if I still have a copy of the issue. m |
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Posts: 2091
Location: Stevens Point, WI | This is the same scenario that happens on most of the WI River system. When the water is high the walleye, smallies and muskie seem to be everywhere but once the water is at summer levels it can be extremely hard to locate some of these fish. This really seems to happen just below the dams here. |
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Location: Eau Claire,WI | I agree with you on the rising water and higher than normal water levels.I have had
good fishing in low water(lower than normal,say down 2') conditions,seems the fish move more at prime times,sun up,dusk
and even at night. In fact my best night time bites were durring low water periods. It does
seem if the water level drops below a certain level,2 feet or so, the fish do shut down.
Edited by FishingFool 6/6/2004 12:34 PM
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Posts: 1936
Location: Eau Claire, WI | Good Point Paul...
We moved fish in the morning, but the bigger fish we were seeing and catching a few days before seemed to move off of the traditional structure and/or ziplock their jaws...
Over the years I've tried deeper cranking, trolling, etc... just wondered if anyone had found a pattern that works for them when the water levels are dropping quickly...?
Mikie...I don't recall Greg's article but I'll did through my back issues and see what I can find.
Thanks guys... |
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Posts: 32958
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | Jump lures like jigs and spoons fished along the secondary breakline in current break areas have been my only salvation. Sometimes it seems until the rapid drop slows there isn't a darn thing that works. Jason and I were on Wabigoon a few years back when the system fell 7' in a week, and the fishing was VERY tough.
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Posts: 1335
Location: Chicago, Beverly | Chip River downtown Eau Claire by the police station always seemed to slow after the water was up for a day or two.... but then I was only going for Bass there... |
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