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Walleye fishing activity was picking up on Lake Winnebago, which is open all year to walleye fishing, and limits of fish were being caught by anglers. Lake flies have emerged along the shoreline and while these flies can be a nuisance they are non-biting and harmless, and are an important food source for sturgeon and other fish. The walleye bite has also been exceptional so far this year on the upper Fox and Wolf rivers.
Water levels have been coming up on the Mississippi River with the recent rains. Fishing has been slow in some areas but picking up in others. Anglers were still catching a fair number of northern pike and smallmouth bass action seems to be picking up near La Crosse and Genoa, but walleye action has been slower.
High winds again in the last week have continued to slow fishing activity along Green Bay and Lake Michigan. Some good walleye fishing was reported off Oconto on the west shore of Green Bay and a few nice walleye were caught at Little Sturgeon Bay in Door County. When trollers were able to get out on the lake, they were catching a mixed bag of chinook and coho salmon along with, rainbow, brown, and the occasional lake trout.
Musky season opens May 5 in the southern zone and new this year the statewide minimum length limit has increased to 40 inches from 34 in order to help boost natural reproduction. Just in time for the opening day of the 2012 inland fishing season, anglers have a new and easier way to figure out what fishing regulations are on their favorite inland lake. A new searchable database allows anglers to search by lake, by county and by multiple counties to pull up an interactive map and a listing of the fishing regulations for that water. Go to the DNR website and search for “fishing regulations" to reach the database.
As boaters head out for the opener this weekend, conservation wardens are reminding them to check safety equipment. This includes a life jacket for each person on board, make sure batteries are covered and tied down, and that navigation lights working. Fisheries managers are also reminding people to help keep Wisconsin fish and lakes healthy by following rules to avoid spreading the VHS fish disease and aquatic invasive species like Eurasian water-milfoil and zebra mussels.
Turkey hunters continue to report hens have been nesting for a while, thus a few toms are searching pretty hard for hens. More and more gosling and duckling broods are being seen. There were about 30 bluebird chicks growing in boxes at Perrot State Park.
Birders reported a major migration event for Neotropical birds in the last week, which stalled out over southern Wisconsin due to recent storms, resulting in 18 different species of warblers seen at the State Capitol in Madison on Tuesday
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