Port Washington Harbor, inside harbor only, Ozaukee County (all postings)

Heading out today with the kids to fish from shore, can anyone give me any tips?

Fished both Saturday and Sunday midday this weekend. Most of the time was spent fishing the Rotary Park white railing and its rocks while using only one bait and presentation, freshly dead small alewives that were cast out and then bounced back along bottom.

Saturday went 2 for 3 with the brown trout, catching a 13 and 20 incher and losing another about 20 inches. On Sunday ( yesterday ) I didn't have any brown trout encounters but I did have a carp take off with the alewife. This fish measured 32 inches and took forever to bring to the net.

About an hour yesterday was spent checking out the power plant discharge. The Fishermen's Park entrance has been closed off due to the construction but the area is still accessible via the west slip. Only two bites and one hook-up were experienced although the water sure looked promising to begin with. The hook-up turned out to be a chunky, 9 inch, orange finned Arlee rainbow that I thought was a brook trout when I first saw it in the water.

Belated report: Fished Saturday midday May 25th mostly using the small dead alewives for bait. There were no signs of trout but I did go 3 for 4 with the carp. All were about the same size and all were pregnant. Time was taken to measure 2 of the 3 carp caught. They had measurements of 31 and 31 1/2 inches. Guesstimate weights of over 20 pounds were made at the time of their nettings. ( It sure felt like they were over 20 lbs. ) Googling on the internet suggests that they were pushing 15 pounds tops.

Fished from 10:30 AM to 3:30 PM Saturday without getting any fish or meaningful bites again. Places tried included the Rotary Park area and the outside pier. Everyone I talked to, from the salmon fishermen on the pier to the DNR creel census person, confirmed that fishing was very slow. A few bait fish line bumps and stocker raps and taps at the Park's white railing was about it for me.

There were visible shoals of alewives coming and going out at the light house. It was interesting to see how easy it was to catch these alewives using what is called a sabiki rig.

Be forewarned that a pair of geese have chosen to nest in a high traffic area atop the pier. They were aggressively hissing at everyone walking past their clutch of eggs.

Thanks for sharing your nature journal with us, Aldo Leopold.

Fished for about 2 1/2 hours yesterday morning ( Saturday ) getting zero bites and zero fish from anything worth while. It was pretty much as expected considering Sauk Creek had a good flow of muddy run-off pouring into the harbor.

Both the Rotary Park white railing and the power plant discharge seemed void of fish. There were no bites from any trout nor line bumps from any fish including suckers, carp, and the bait fish. Nothing was stacking up at the base of the creek's mouth.

The north end of the north slip was fished for about 3/4 hours. Fish were present, little guys, a recent stocking of 4 to 4 1/2 inch cohos ( salmon for sure ) that found my squid too much to handle but were aggressively attacking my wax worms. The terns present were having some success catching the stockers by crash diving head first into the water. These birds can see deeper into the water than I can using polarizing clip-ons.

A permanent white railing has begun to be installed from the discharge area eastward along the old coal pile wall. Everything is still closed to the public. The railing installation has a long way to go.

negative to both your questions, that fence will most likley be up for the rermainder of the project which set to be complete in late june or july

Ia there any trout being cought lately in the harbor, and has the fence blocking the upper wall been removed. Cause i want to try and get on some fish and that is where i usually fish. Thanks

Thanks for info Tom im going to try this weekend. looks like temp is going to rise.or thats what the weather channel said. hope so.good luck to all

Fished the Rotary Park's white railing Friday and also on Saturday. Saturday was the worst of the two days.

Started the day Friday with the squid strips cast out and then bounced back along bottom. I was getting bites but most them were hits and drops with no fish just grabbing it and swimming away. There was one follow up while using the squid, an aggressive brown that was ignoring the squid and repeatedly attacking the sinker. Apparently the browns were sinker oriented on Friday. I started getting hookups after switching baits, going 2 for 4 using wax worms and 1 for 1 using a dead discarded golden shiner I found. Both baits were fished under a bobber.

Other fishermen were having some success with the browns and I helped net 5 different fish for them , all not browns. Improbable as it sounds, one fisherman casting spoons hooked into 4 carp in which 3 of them were in the lips. Another person needed help netting another improbable fish , a nice size lake trout.

When I first arrived in the morning the power plant was not only pumping water but also was producing steam clouds out its stacks. This means electricity was being generated and the discharge water was coming out warm. Everyone at the railing noticed that the fishing shut down roughly around 11 AM, the same period of time the steam clouds stopped. I don't think it was a coincidence.

Other fish were around too. One northern and a pod of smallmouths were hanging out straight down from the railing. Jumbo gizzard shads were seen surfacing and schooling around. There were also unseen bait stealers removing the waxies off of my hook without moving the bobber at all. Small stocked fingerlings were the only things I could think of to be causing this. Another fisherman mentioned that there had been a recent very large ( for Port ) stocking of rainbows into the marina. Tens of thousands of rainbow fingerlings were feeding on my wax worms.

After seeing my first ever white-winged scoter a couple of weeks ago, there were now about 5 tame, well behaved scoters staying in front of the railing both days. Also noticed on Friday was a lone tree swallow , a very premature arrival that is most likely doomed .

Saturday was dead. Went 1 for 1 with one bite total in 4 1/2 hours of fishing. It was a winter brown caught jigging squid along bottom. There were no bites using the wax worms. The north slip was also fished. I had two follow ups, a northern and a hen red breasted merganser. Both popped out of nowhere from beneath the wooden walkway. With the low water level, bottom structure could be seen. Only two fish were seen throughout the entire slip, a cruising sucker and a motionless brown suspended a few feet below the surface. It had a shredded tail fin and there was fungus on the top of its head.

The "carp" fisherman was at the white railing Saturday to retrieve his net that he dropped in the water on Friday. He told me he was trying to net a fish, the handle was too short, he slipped and plopped into the water with his net. If it hadn't been for a fisherman in a boat that saw what happened and rescued him, he would have drowned.

Anyone fishing the harbor latly? Hows the bite

Did they take donw the fence blocking the upper wall at the powerplant? just wondering. Thankyou for any info.

Fished yesterday (Sunday) from 10 AM until 3 PM in the usual places using the usual bait, squid strips. No bites and no fish again for me. Some of the fishermen at the Rotary Park's white railing were having success with the winter browns by casting their baits over 1/2 way across the harbor. This concentration of fish was beyond my range with the type of tackle and equipment I was using.

When I was entering Port from the west on Grand Avenue I could see that the recent weather had churned up the near shore waters with the mud line a good mile or so out into the lake. The harbor and slips waters were unaffected however. It didn't take long to figure out why. The power plant wasn't pumping.

Diving ducks out in front of the railing were a nuisance at times, especially the red breasted mergansers. One of the divers I never saw before, a white-winged scoter. It was easy to make an identification. At times it passed no more than 20 feet away from me.

Both the north slip and west slips were tested with no signs of any fish life. It should be noted that there still is a drake hooded merganser paddling around in the north slip and he has a hen now for company.

The scoter wasn't the only bird I never saw before. A pair of black-backed gulls were seen flying over the harbor. These are large gulls, distinctly larger than the local herrings and ring-bills. They were making a lot of noise as they followed and pestered a third bird, a peregrine falcon of all things. The chase ended when the falcon found refuge at the old county court house clock tower.

The 2 or 3 whitefish I caught over the years at Port that I am pretty certain were rounds were all eaten. They are tasty. Actually there is another species of fish I caught at Port that has no current entry in the record book. It's called the lake chub. I remember catching both on wax worms.

So if anyone has fantasized about having their name along side Tony Brothers or Louis Spray, these are fish to target.

Tom

Tom, just to mention something about your 1/27 post about the whitefish... In Manitowoc, we were catching round whitefish this fall. They are whitefish, but a lot slimmer/lankier than a lake whitefish. So I would imagine what you guys saw were round whitefish. Tasty buggers, too

Endured a persistent south wind for 3 1/2 hours midday today ( Saturday ) ending up with no bites and no fish. Places tried included the Rotary Park's white railing and its rocks as well as the south end of the north slip. A strip of raw squid, both with and without a bobber, was the only bait used. The fish just seemed not to be around.

The highlight of the day was seeing a drake hooded merganser fly in and land in the north slip. Also noticed were some stoneflies actively crawling here and there atop the snow by the Park's two blue binocular telescopes. I remember coming across these bugs once before in February at Port.