After many years of unsuccessfully fishing Lake Winnebago, I'm looking for help. My home port is Calumet Harbor on the east side of the lake and every Regular I talk to seems to have the lake figured out. I read on lake-link about the walleyes others catch and I know I'm doing something wrong.
This is my first season attempting trolling, other than past attempts by cluelessly and without conviction, dragging a crank bait behind my boat. I have four planer boards and I'm beginning to be very comfortable with them. I understand working different depths of the lake--my outside board has a 2'-6' diver, my middle board has a 6'-12' diver and I'll drag rippin' raps straight out behind the boat. The only thing hitting is white bass on the rippin' raps and after hours of no walleyes, I just put rippin' raps on all boards.
I had some success with walleyes in June on the east side but never my daily bag limit and it wasn't because I knew what I was doing.
Everyone I talk to says that the walleyes are on the mud flats in summer.
Where do the mud flats begin? My understanding is that the mud flats can be anywhere from 14' to 19' or deeper in the middle of the lake.
How do you target fish on the mud flats? I've trolled what I've understood to be the mud flats and it's a ghost town on the fish finder and a bunch of ghosts on my lures.
A lot of people I've talked to who launch from Calumet Harbor say that they go north. Is there really no walleye action near Cal Harbor? How far north of Calumet Harbor do I need to go to find consistent action?
Is the east side of the lake even worth the time? My favorite perch spot is Abraham's reef on the west side and I understand the structure that's on the west side and what role that structure plays for all the fish in the lake. I trolled by that structure today in the mud flats with nothing but ghosts on my line.
Does the choppiness of the lake determine where the fish will be? I understand that when it's choppy, the fish will seek the wind-blown side of structure. Even that doesn't work for me. If the lake is glass, where do I look for walleyes?
I have a million more questions, but hopefully someone can answer some of these initial ones.
Many thanks,
-The Nenska
