Wolf River walleye run is a rite of spring.
River’s walleye run kicks off spring
FREMONT - A switch flipped Tuesday in Wolf River country.
Just up the road from Red Banks Resort, three tom turkeys fanned and strutted in the wake of a dozen hens.
A few hundred yards downstream, wood ducks flew into stands of trees along the shore and searched for nesting cavities.
And in the river, the water was rife with hopeful signs of the season.
“Well, look at that,” said Bob Caryl of Fremont, nodding at a leopard frog swimming on the river’s surface. “That’s a sign of the season.”
If anyone needed more convincing, Mother Nature provided it in spades Tuesday: Spring had sprung.
Caryl said they have a saying in these parts: “When the frogs have croaked for two days, the walleyes will be spawning in the marshes.”
When it comes to the outdoors, it’s wise to listen to local wisdom.
Scientists get advanced degrees in phenology and study the timing of migrations, hibernations, leaf-out, breeding cycles and other natural happenings.
On the matter of the area’s fish, I’ll take Caryl’s word for it.
He and I were intent on tapping into one of the grand Wisconsin events of spring, the Wolf River walleye run.
At mid-afternoon, the mercury read 56 degrees and bright sunshine sparkled off the Wolf.
“They’ve been moving through in good numbers,” said Caryl, 65. “No hurry to get on the water, though. The best action will probably be toward evening.”
Lakes Winnebago, Poygan, Butte des Morts and Winneconne have one of the state’s largest, naturally reproducing populations of the popular game fish.
And while walleye season is closed from early March to early May on most inland waters, it’s open year-round on the Wolf.
The walleyes swim upriver each spring to spawning habitat in the marshes that line the river.
The flood plain is connected to the Wolf along much of its length, allowing the natural wetlands to absorb the seasonal outflow.
Many of the marshes are accessible and have been restored thanks to projects of Walleyes For Tomorrow, Shadows on the Wolf and other conservation organizations in partnership with the Department of Natural Resources.
In high-water years, walleyes have access to about 100,000 acres of spawning habitat, according to a DNR estimate.
The run is divided into an “up” and “down” movement of fish.
The early parts of the first stage, dominated by male fish, had been in motion for the last couple weeks, Caryl said.
More and more female fish had been caught in recent days, indicating the spawn could be near.
In a commendable ethic that has evolved on the river, many — if not most — anglers release all female walleyes caught on the up run.
“They need a chance to reproduce, so let them go,” said Rita Caryl, Bob’s wife of 42 years. “Let’s get another generation going.”
Few people know this stretch of the Wolf, and the habits of its fish, as well as Bob Caryl.
He’s been fishing the Wolf for nearly 40 years, including the last 34 (with Rita) as owner and operator of Red Banks Resort, where he also operates a guiding business.
He’s on the river almost every day from mid-March through November.
We set out about 3 p.m. in Caryl’s 25-foot pontoon boat and headed upstream.
Caryl shuns electronics — no depth finder, sonar, graphs or global positioning systems — and relies on memory and experience to locate fish.
His computer sits on top of his shoulders.
As we moved upriver, a trio of great blue herons winged overhead. Dozens of fishing boats were anchored or drifting with the current. Several fishing rafts were positioned in the river, too.
Caryl prefers to anchor and employ time-honored river fishing tactics: jigging and Wolf River rigging.
We anchored at a bend between Fremont and Gill’s Rock and fished leadhead jigs tipped with live lake shiners.
The Winnebago walleye fishery is in good shape, according to DNR reports. The 2008, 2013 and 2016 year classes of walleyes were the second, third and seventh largest on record, respectively.
The 2016 young-of-the-year walleye catch rate was 9.9 per trawl, according to results of the annual DNR assessment on Lake Winnebago. Last year’s walleye production followed two poor years (0.4/trawl in 2014 and 1.4/trawl in 2015).
Caryl was right about the timing of the bite. Our first walleye was landed at 5:45 p.m. The 15-inch male was as plump as a steer in a feedlot.
It hit a blue-and-green jig tipped with a 3-inch-long lake shiner as I hopped the bait along the bottom in about 20 feet of water. A stinger hook was added to the jig to catch short-biting fish.
Over the next hour, we caught a dozen walleyes, including some “cigars” likely from the 2016 hatch, four meaty male fish from 14 to 16 inches in length, and a pair of larger females, which were released.
We kept three of the males and moved to the main channel about 1⁄2 mile north of Red Banks. Caryl anchored the boat and we sat on chairs at the stern and cast our jigs downstream. Once they settled on the bottom, we jigged them with a rhythmic up and down motion.
The rod action pulls the jig up and forward, then allows it to descend back to the bottom with the current. Many hits occur as the bait falls.
Caryl’s tempo is like a metronome set to 1 second. He used one rod in each hand, lifting and dropping.
If he wants to show off, he uses three rods, he said.
After five minutes, Caryl felt a hit on his right-hand rod and gave a hookset that would have made his U.S. Marines drill sergeant on Parris Island proud.
The fish leveraged the current and provided a good tussle. But a minute later Caryl had worked the fish to boatside and I slid the net under a 16-inch male walleye.
We added it to our bucket and decided to pull up and head in. As we lifted anchor at sunset, golden light streamed across the marshes and two pairs of sandhill cranes drifted in for a landing just to the west.
Their calls rattled through the calm evening air.
Another animal added its voice to the spring chorus, too: frogs. The walleye fishing on the Wolf is expected to remain good for another couple weeks. Fish on the “dropback” are often hungry and aggressive.
“Nothing like spring on the Wolf,” Caryl said. “Nothing.”