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Waupaca Chain and Door County Finale

1K views 9 replies 9 participants last post by  Skifish1 
#1 · (Edited)
My summer fishing season is slowing down as the school year will be starting soon and I will be regulated to mostly the occasional Lake Geneva walleye hunts the rest of the year.

Counting the early season Depere trip, I have been to the DC area four times this year. Probably a bit much as far as expense and wear and tear on my trailer and tow vehicle. I believe I'll be scaling it back next year and maybe look for some alternatives I have not yet experienced.

In mid July I headed to the Chain O Lakes in Waupaca Wisconsin for the annual family vacation. Like the previous year, there were no walleye to be had, but not from a lack of trying. My best areas seem to get a little worse each year, and in conjunction, I have scaled back my fishing time as a result. There were a few days that had 30 mph mid day winds and I found an okay chatterbait bite at a couple spots. I also took my cousin out early one morning and we had a really good bite window on drop shots that lasted an hour. On another day multiple storm fronts moved through and my daughter and I ended up catching over 20 bass right off the dock which has not happened in about 15 years. You have to take the good with the bad, so I'm thankful with what we got.

After the week was up, the wife and family went home, and I made the 2.5 hour drive up to Northern Door County. Things started off with a bang with a massive walleye and some really nice bass on a drop shot but we were blown off the lake (literally) by a storm after only 2 hours. That would be the theme the rest of the trip with persistent south and west winds pounding the Green Bay side. Rich was bewildered during the times when we had light winds we were still dealing with 3 foot rollers. When the bay gets going from that direction, it can take days to completely settle down. With that said, we fished a fair amount of new water mainly because it was the only fishable water. It was a true grind that usually netted 15-30 fish a day, but never any great big fish numbers at any particular spots. Over 4 days we only ended up with one true double of big 4 lb fish. It was mainly drift, hook up, spot lock the trolling motor, cast for 15 minutes maybe getting 1 or 2 more, then continue drifting. No giants this trip but several in the 3.50-4.25 lb class. Also a fair amount of smaller 1-2 lb fish which is fine with me when the big ones are being elusive. Again though, hard to complain no matter the weather conditions or the bite. It is easy to get spoiled with 50-75 fish days earlier in the year, but I'm accepting of the fact that on a big challenging body of water it is not always going to work out like that.

Thanks for reading, and if anyone has any questions regarding the Door County area, shoot me a message.

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#6 ·
Thanks guys. The pressure on the bass is usually minimal this time of year and it was even less then usual this trip. From what I have heard is there has been an unbelievable alewife population in the bay with lots of die off. We saw dead or dying alewives pretty much everywhere, which might explain why the fish were not as active and why they were not grouped up as heavy on typical deep structure. My last few late July trips I had been able to key in on a few spots and never really have to leave those areas all trip. This trip resorted to more junk fishing where we got 1 or 2 fish of those spots and then moved on and looked for other similar areas. We had a milk run of spots to try that went several miles, but unfortunately the winds only allowed us to get to a few of those areas. I don't think it would have made a huge difference though. The activity was similar no matter where we fished out of.

Would love to leave the boat home and do a Canadian drive in lodge next year with my little one, but she prefers shorter trips and land based fishing.
 
#10 ·
Havent logged in to wcf for a few weeks but its nice to see another DC report. Nothing more disappointing than to see close in alwewife schools or bunch of recent dead ones. For me it always means slower fishing. Im kicking around a late October trip there with wife. Never fished it in fall.
 
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