| |  The sun was shining this morning as the 44 boats in the AIM Winneconne tournament took to the 38 degree water flowing through the Winnebago system.
When it was time for take-off, almost every boat headed upriver from Winneconne.
Dave Van Oss was headed to the Wolf River to jig minnows and crawlers. “The trolling bite hasn’t been working for me prefishing. It may go for some guys today because the weather has changed, it’s become nice, but I feel the bigger fish are still coming down.”
Van Oss feels that most of the fish will be females. “The females have been coming down for a week now. The males are still up in the marshes waiting for more females to show up. The male bite really isn’t that good right now, but the female bite is. You can get some bigger fish, so I predict the leading weight for seven fish to be somewhere around 30lbs.”
Michael Galligan wasn’t as optimistic. “It’s going to be a tough bite, hopefully we can come in with seven. We did have a good bite going out on Butte des Morts, but after high winds for three days, all the water dirtied up and temperatures dropped almost 14 degrees. So it seems like everybody is going to stick to the river where water temperature doesn’t seem to bother the fish too much.” Galligan believes there is a real good chance someone could come in with 16lbs today.” If someone gets into them they could come in with 24lbs. It’s going to depend on how many females have already come down to Poygan.”
Much of the field will be limited on fishing time based on how far they run up river and the number of no wake zones they will encounter. Robert Blosser explained, “I’m guessing most of the field is heading up the river. It looks like we are going to get about four hours of fishing time with the emergency no wakes that are in effect. I’m not sure how many fish are still flushing out of the marshes. I think a lot of them have just held up in some of the holes, but I really don’t think that’s going to affect the bite or our game plan.” Blosser predicts a lot of weights in the low to mid 20’s. “There may be a surprise, an upper twenty or maybe a thirty, but I think that 20lb mark is going to be pretty common. It looks like I’ve got a great co-angler and I’m really looking forward to getting the year kicked off here at Winneconne."
Curt Lopau is one of the few boats that is staying close to home. “I’m looking to get some big fish locally instead of making a big run like some of these guys are going to make. I think that will allow me a little more time to fish here and get my full bag and then start working on my upgrades right away. I think guys are going to really struggle to get seven fish. I think that if you get 15-20lbs you are doing pretty well,” he explained.
The sun will stay out for much of the day and the air temperature will rise to a high of 48 degrees. Winds will remain calm at 3-6mph. Boats will return to Winneconne at 4pm, with the weigh-in beginning at 5pm at Critters Sports in Winneconne.
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