Gene Dellinger
03-27-2010, 08:12 PM
Lakes Monona, Waubesa, and Kegonsa have been reported to be free of ice! Lake Mendote has unsafe ice on the west side of the lake as of today, and should be gone withing the next few days. Lake levels are lower than normal for this time of year. Some of the areas where we would expect to see fishing activity starting to pick up are pretty shallow right now and may take awhile for the water levels to come up. At the moment, they have been having some success on Crappies and a few Bluegills in the river to the north of Lake Mendota up by Skipper Buds and Nau-Ti_Gal. Catfish action should start to pick up with the warmer weather this week in this same area. Also start to look for the action to pick up in Cherokee Marsh. Lake Monona Bluegill action has been picking up in the Winnequah Park area near Squaw Bay, and should start to get better in Monona Bay and the Triangles. The river between Squaw Bay and Mud Lake is pretty shallow in areas, but some action has been reported in the widespread and Rutabaga channel. Typically this time of year Bluegills and Crappies become active near Lake Farm Park or Hog Island on Lake Waubesa in 4-7' of water. Although, we talked to some fishermen today that were in these areas with little success. I would think the warmer weather headed our way would trigger these fish to get more active by next weekend. Walleye fishing on the WI River seems to be slow at the moment. Some areas to try are Tipperary Point, above Lake WI, and further up the river by the mouth of the Baraboo river, and also all the way up by WI Dells. We have heard some good Walleye reports on the Rock River down by Blackhawk Island just below Lake Koshkonong.