Lake Monona

For what's worth - the water is up enough that the piers at Buck & Honey's are now floating. If you look back at Sheephead Rules picture/post from early March you will see there was exposed mud/bottom. Looking at USGS data suggests Monona is up roughly one and a half feet since beginning of March. ​

I'm excited to see the water levels after all the precip we've had lately.  

Olbrich lake side has 1 pier in . Back side has 3 piers in . Olin has no piers in . 

Out Friday and Sunday.  North triangle on Friday.  Different spot Sunday.  Started at 10:45 Friday morning and did not catch my first fish until 1:45pm.  Things eventually picked up and by sundown the gills were biting consistently.  A few crappies mixed in.  Being out of town I may have missed the crowds.  The fish were in deeper water and not in the usual areas from years past.  By six pm it was virtually a ghost town.  The easy fishing must be over.  Yesterday I was planning on fishing where I was on Friday but that area was already taken by the only people fishing and two boats.  Looked to my right and there was a DNR warden checking the fisherman with binoculars.  Unmarked truck.  
 
Really just wanted to fish with two lines and not be crowded so I made the executive decision to try another spot.  Wise choice.  Basically caught gills from 12:30 to 5:30.  Plastics tipped with plastics, waxies, and red worms.  Red worms were the least effective.  The other two produced. Just like ice fishing if I was keeping I would have had to sort.  Plenty of decent keeper size for sure.

Went over to the terrace after to throw down a camera to see if there were fish there. Saw a couple of small gills but that was it.  Won't try fishing there until mid April.  Rat.

Ed Lotte park has the pier in..

I just checked Olbrich at 5:15 PM. Not in yet.

Lottes in Monona has docks in

Does anyone know if any piers are in at any of the launches? We’ve had open water for a month now, would be nice to get out! Thanks for any information available!

Hit Monona for the first time this open water season. Was able to get through the narrow, shallow area at Olbrich with the trolling motor. Water temp was 39.6°F, clarity poor. Bunch of larger (than panfish) fish seen after getting out past the breakwater. Historically they're Carp but I didn't take the time to try and find out. The snapshot shows the end of one of the large schools. Was nice out there this afternoon, only saw one other boat. Found a couple of new objects, shot some video but they weren't very good unless you were right on top of the hit. Was surprised to not see a single panfish on a piece of structure that almost always holds them.May hit  Mendota again tomorrow, we'll see what the wind is doing first.

Water levels are low all over.  Another likely contributing factor is the lack of ice cover which leads to increased evaporation.