03 September 2025
Lake Winnebago Fishing Report: Walleye, White Bass, and Perch Action Heating Up
Lake Winnebago, Wisconsin Fishing Report - Daily
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This is Artificial Lure with your Lake Winnebago fishing report for Wednesday, September 3, 2025. Folks, we’re headed into the first week of September with some of the nicest weather this late summer can give us—expect highs today near 78, lows dropping to 48 tonight, and mostly sunny skies with a light southwest breeze rolling in. Sunrise was at 6:22 AM, sunset coming up at 7:26 PM—plenty of daylight to wet a line. Water clarity is good and surface temps are hanging in the low 70s.
No tides in Winnebago, but fish activity today is primed around the key bite windows. Today, your best shots will be mid-morning, especially between 8 and 10 AM, then again right before sunset. That solunar table bump matches what local anglers have already been seeing: the bite has definitely improved with the cooler nights. According to Outdoor News, the late-August slowdown for walleye is turning around, with more reports of active fish for those hitting the reef edges and rock piles early and late.
Walleye action has been solid near the reefs off Oshkosh and along the western shoreline. The best catches are coming on slow-trolled crankbaits—Flicker Shads and Shad Raps in blue chrome and firetiger are working great. If you’re jigging, tip your jig with a lively nightcrawler or fathead minnow. Daytime anglers are also still doing fine casting plastics or dragging live bait rigs along the transition zones from 8 to 16 feet. Don’t overlook slip bobber rigs with leeches around steep breaks.
White bass are schooling up and making themselves known, with a lot of surface action reported in the channel mouths and near the Fond du Lac Flats. Small spoons, blade baits, and even a simple Mepps spinner will fill your bucket quickly—follow the gulls and you’ll find the fish.
Bluegill and perch are stacking tight to weed lines outside places like Garlic Island and Asylum Bay. Perch are hitting on small tippets and pieces of redworm or waxies worked just above the bottom; anglers are bringing in nice limits averaging 8-10 inches, with a few jumbos mixed in. The bluegill bite is best on tiny jigs tipped with a chunk of crawler, especially early in the day.
Catfish—Channel cats—are still biting well on cut bait and stink bait, especially in the river sections and where there’s a little current. Set up along the Fox River or the mouth of the Wolf if you want some rod-bending action after dark.
Muskie and northern pike activity is picking up with the cooler water temps. Head up to the north end of the lake and target weed edges with flashy bucktails or big rubber baits for a shot at a September trophy. Bob Sommers, recent winner of the National Championship Musky Open in Wisconsin, released four muskies last week, showing there’s no shortage of toothy predators in the system right now.
A couple of top hot spots for today: Try the reefs straight out from the mouth of the Fox near Oshkosh for mixed bags of walleye and white bass, and the rock humps between Garlic Island and the Streich’s Bar area for perch and the occasional walleye. For shore anglers, Asylum Bay access and Menominee Park are both turning out bluegill and scattered crappie.
Traffic is manageable, but if you’re trailering in from out of town, just note there’s ongoing resurfacing along WIS 91 and some local detours—check the latest DOT updates to avoid the mess.
That’s your local look for Lake Winnebago. Thanks for tuning in to Artificial Lure—don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss a bite report.
This has been a quiet please production, for more check out quiet please dot ai.
Great deals on fishing gear https://amzn.to/44gt1Pn
No tides in Winnebago, but fish activity today is primed around the key bite windows. Today, your best shots will be mid-morning, especially between 8 and 10 AM, then again right before sunset. That solunar table bump matches what local anglers have already been seeing: the bite has definitely improved with the cooler nights. According to Outdoor News, the late-August slowdown for walleye is turning around, with more reports of active fish for those hitting the reef edges and rock piles early and late.
Walleye action has been solid near the reefs off Oshkosh and along the western shoreline. The best catches are coming on slow-trolled crankbaits—Flicker Shads and Shad Raps in blue chrome and firetiger are working great. If you’re jigging, tip your jig with a lively nightcrawler or fathead minnow. Daytime anglers are also still doing fine casting plastics or dragging live bait rigs along the transition zones from 8 to 16 feet. Don’t overlook slip bobber rigs with leeches around steep breaks.
White bass are schooling up and making themselves known, with a lot of surface action reported in the channel mouths and near the Fond du Lac Flats. Small spoons, blade baits, and even a simple Mepps spinner will fill your bucket quickly—follow the gulls and you’ll find the fish.
Bluegill and perch are stacking tight to weed lines outside places like Garlic Island and Asylum Bay. Perch are hitting on small tippets and pieces of redworm or waxies worked just above the bottom; anglers are bringing in nice limits averaging 8-10 inches, with a few jumbos mixed in. The bluegill bite is best on tiny jigs tipped with a chunk of crawler, especially early in the day.
Catfish—Channel cats—are still biting well on cut bait and stink bait, especially in the river sections and where there’s a little current. Set up along the Fox River or the mouth of the Wolf if you want some rod-bending action after dark.
Muskie and northern pike activity is picking up with the cooler water temps. Head up to the north end of the lake and target weed edges with flashy bucktails or big rubber baits for a shot at a September trophy. Bob Sommers, recent winner of the National Championship Musky Open in Wisconsin, released four muskies last week, showing there’s no shortage of toothy predators in the system right now.
A couple of top hot spots for today: Try the reefs straight out from the mouth of the Fox near Oshkosh for mixed bags of walleye and white bass, and the rock humps between Garlic Island and the Streich’s Bar area for perch and the occasional walleye. For shore anglers, Asylum Bay access and Menominee Park are both turning out bluegill and scattered crappie.
Traffic is manageable, but if you’re trailering in from out of town, just note there’s ongoing resurfacing along WIS 91 and some local detours—check the latest DOT updates to avoid the mess.
That’s your local look for Lake Winnebago. Thanks for tuning in to Artificial Lure—don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss a bite report.
This has been a quiet please production, for more check out quiet please dot ai.
Great deals on fishing gear https://amzn.to/44gt1Pn