Buck posted on July 29, 2007 10:46 :: 1722 Views
With a lack of rain over the past few weeks over much of the state, the dry conditions have water levels on many lakes and rivers extremely low, and wild fire danger has risen across the state, which is unusual for mid summer. Fire danger levels have reached high in south central Wisconsin and are moderate across the rest of the state. Burning permits were suspended in Douglas and Bayfield counties this week. The Wisconsin River is running near historic lows in southern Wisconsin and was at less than half its historical flow for this time of year at Wisconsin Dells. The only main exception to the lack of rain has been in far southwestern Wisconsin. Areas of Grant County received as much as 10 inches of rain last Thursday. The Mississippi River “spiked” up to 7.4 feet at Prairie du Chien earlier this week, but the river quickly settled back to 6.5 feet. The rains caused substantial damage at Wyalusing State Park, which overlooks the confluence of the Wisconsin and Mississippi rivers. Many trails in the park and some roads were washed out and are closed. However, all campgrounds in the park remain open. Some much needed rain is forecast for later this week.
In the Northwoods, most lakes and rivers are experiencing dropping water levels. Paddling has become difficult on many whitewater rivers. Angling success continued to be erratic with the sunny and hot weather of the past week. Largemouth bass have been providing the most consistent action as the fish are showing much more of a typical summer pattern, with the best success coming from the thick cover. Musky action has improved in the last week, with anglers reporting quite a few follows and sightings. Walleye success continues to be erratic. Panfish action has been fair, with some decent catches of crappie and perch, but larger bluegill have been harder to find. Overall, fishing remained fairly good on southern waters, with bass being active throughout the day. Panfish action has been fair, with bluegills in their summer holding patterns, suspended over deep water.
Fishing on Green Bay picked up some this past week, with a few limits of perch reported. Fishing out on Lake Michigan was phenomenal this week out of some ports. Trollers had success throughout the week with large catches of chinook salmon and rainbow trout. Many boats also picked up a couple lake trout, coho salmon, or brown trout.
Bluegill, walleye and bass fishing was pretty good on the Mississippi River after the water settled back down. Inland trout streams are experiencing low water levels and trout are moving to deeper holes and to upstream reaches in search of cooler waters. Anglers are being asked to practice catch-and-release and be aware the trout are under stress in these conditions.
Shorebird migration is beginning to heat up with many adults and even a few first-year birds staging in Wisconsin on their way to points farther south. Tree swallows are beginning to stage in large groups and sandhill cranes are beginning to flock up in recently harvested farm fields.
After the third consecutive mild winter, state wildlife officials are expecting that excellent white-tailed deer survival and good reproductive rates will result in state deer population between 1.6 and 1.8 million animals this fall. Bucks with very impressive antlers in velvet are also being reported.
Choke cherries, service berries, pin cherries among others are ripening in the Northwoods and wildlife is taking advantage of these food sources. There is a bumper crop of cherries in the Door County orchards this year. Raspberries are plentiful and some moisture would certainly help.
Buck Anderson is the President/CEO of Jive Media Group LLC (The company that owns JustNorth Outdoors).
In addition to enjoying camping, fishing, hunting, and golf he is a well known Internet buisness training and web design coach specializing in DotNetNuke Open Source Portal technologies.
If you are interested in developing a website like JustNorth Outdoors, for your business niche, visit Buck at http://dnnprofessor.com.
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