CATCHING Winnebago WALLEYES (Post-Spawn)

Added: 2026-05-13

[00:00:00]If you want to catch more walleyes on the Lake Winnebago system, this video is for you. I'll be sharing where they move after the spawn and how to catch them.

[00:00:06]To begin with, walleyes that spend the summer in Lake Winnebago spend a lot of time in the spring in the Wolf River where they spawn. After that, they head down through Lake Poygan, Lake Winneconne, Lake Butte des Morts, the Fox River, and finally end up back in Lake Winnebago. So, let's take a look first at where they start, which is where they spawn, up on the Wolf River in the marshes.

[00:00:27]As they finish up the spawn, they start heading back downriver through Fremont, then Orihula, and then down into Lake Poygan. On their way down, they'll pass through Lake Winneconne, which is labeled as the Wolf River on this map, and through Winneconne, then through Lake Butte des Morts, which this video will mainly be focused on, then through the river in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, and then all the way out to Lake Winnebago where they spend most of the summer. In this video, my buddy Les and I were fishing on some shallow rocky points on Lake Butte des Morts as the fish made their way back to Lake Winnebago. Right away, Les was hooked up. Winnebago special on the What do we got it on?

[00:01:03]The hair jig.

[00:01:04]Another walleye.

[00:01:06]Yeah.

[00:01:08]They're hammering the hair jigs.

[00:01:11]Oh, yeah.

[00:01:12]Oh, yeah. Good one. There we go. A little decent.

[00:01:16]That's like a nice What? [laughter] Hacking the walleyes? Yes, every cast.

[00:01:20]>> Yeah.

[00:01:21]Every cast. After Les showed me how it's done with my own favorite technique, I finally got on the board.

[00:01:28]Nice little Winnebago walleye on the hair jig.

[00:01:33]Nice.

[00:01:34]You always got to have that stinger hook on there. It's important. I mean, what? Half the fish have hit the stinger hook.

[00:01:41]>> Yeah, half on the stinger, half on the When they're short biting when they're short biting, grabbing the tail, you got to use that stinger hook.

[00:01:48]This [snorts] one feels Ah, it's not heavier.

[00:01:52]Oh my gosh, we are on the school. There were an impressive amount of walleyes moving through the lake, and we caught fish on almost every cast. There we go.

[00:02:01]Classic Winnebago walleye on a hair jig.

[00:02:05]Oh, yeah. Keep your hands out of the way.

[00:02:08]Dude, it doesn't doesn't feel bad.

[00:02:11]Feels kind of heavy, actually.

[00:02:13]Oh, yeah, it's nice. It's a good one.

[00:02:15]Oh, yeah, nice. I don't know what this is. Unfortunately, that nice walleye popped off, but on my very next cast I hooked something much larger.

[00:02:23]>> that? Is that a pike? Yeah, it's a pike.

[00:02:25]It's a pike. It's a pike.

[00:02:28]He does not know he's hooked.

[00:02:31]Oh, yeah, baby.

[00:02:33]That makes up for what I just lost.

[00:02:35][laughter] Oh, that's not a bad pike.

[00:02:38]>> No, that's not a bad pike. That's not a bad pike at all. All right, on the hair jig. Well, that's pretty sick.

[00:02:44]Well, I got to say that's cooler than any walleye I've caught today.

[00:02:49]Dude, that's not a bad pike at all.

[00:02:50]>> Not at all. And it thankfully did not cut off the hair jig. That was kind of lucky, I got to say.

[00:02:57]That's awesome.

[00:02:58]What a cool surprise catch on a hair jig.

[00:03:03]See you.

[00:03:05]Oh, yeah.

[00:03:06]>> [laughter] >> Heck, yeah, dude.

[00:03:08]Got it.

[00:03:12]Not a terrible walleye on the hair jig.

[00:03:13]Not as cool as the pike, but good enough.

[00:03:15]Video recording.

[00:03:17]Hooked up.

[00:03:20]Oh, yeah.

[00:03:22]He's angry. He's angry and he's not tiny.

[00:03:26]That's better.

[00:03:28]Oh, yeah.

[00:03:31]That's more of what we're looking for.

[00:03:35]I know it's still not a giant fish, but like that's like it's actually like a 14.

[00:03:42]I got the sun in the background, sun in the background.

[00:03:46]Another another decent size walleye casting that rocky point with what do you know, the hair jig.

[00:03:54]Can't beat it.

[00:03:55]Let's toss this one back.

[00:03:57]See you.

[00:03:58]So, as you guys saw, the hair jigs were definitely the ticket. That nice pike was my favorite part by far. The biggest thing I wanted to point out is that these are hair jigs of course, but the biggest thing is we're using stinger hooks on the back, which is something I only learned about a year or two ago, and I would say 80 or 90% of our fish, especially the walleyes, only had the stinger hook in their mouth. I've noticed on the system sheephead they'll inhale the bait almost every time, but walleyes at least a lot of those walleyes are just short biting and they're just biting the tail end of that hair jig. If you don't have a stinger hook on you, you're just going to miss that bite. So, that was definitely part of our technique that I think is really important. Casting up on this shallow rocky point on Lake Butte des Morts.

[00:04:38]These walleyes right now are coming back down into Winnebago. They're post spawn.

[00:04:43]So, you're really just hitting fish as they're coming back through. They're not sitting on this point very long. We saw a smaller fish at one point in the day.

[00:04:50]We saw some bigger fish later in the day, then smaller fish again. So, we're just seeing roaming schools as they move through back to Winnebago. And again, just throwing very simple. These are 3/8 oz Kalin's Bucktail Jigs in black. I've used 1/4 oz and 3/8 oz at the most. Um, especially if you're in heavy current areas, that's where the 3/8 jig works really well. But, can't say it's a day to complain too much about. We caught fish and it was fun.