WI water temps

[KYBassin']

Hey gang. Out of stater here coming up in a few weeks..wondering what the water temps are doing up there. I'll be in northwest WI.

 

Thanks

[FluffChucker]

The temps are fluctuating quite a bit right now. Water temps were ranging from mid 40's on the clearer lakes to upper 40's to low 50's on the darker lakes. Our weather has been quite the rollercoaster for the past two weeks and so our water temps have dropped off a bit. 70* last Monday, and snowing and 35* on Tuesday. We're supposed to see high temps in the upper 50's through mid 60's with lows only in the low 40's for the next 7-10 days, so I'm hopeful that the water temps will normalize a bit.

 

Our bass opener is on Saturday and I have plans to fish both dark and clear water lakes over the weekend. I should be able to give you a better idea of temps going forward as my time on the water is about to increase exponentially.

 

If you PM me a few days prior to your trip up I can give you more specific information.

[KYBassin']

2 hours ago, FluffChucker said:

The temps are fluctuating quite a bit right now. Water temps were ranging from mid 40's on the clearer lakes to upper 40's to low 50's on the darker lakes. Our weather has been quite the rollercoaster for the past two weeks and so our water temps have dropped off a bit. 70* last Monday, and snowing and 35* on Tuesday. We're supposed to see high temps in the upper 50's through mid 60's with lows only in the low 40's for the next 7-10 days, so I'm hopeful that the water temps will normalize a bit.

 

Our bass opener is on Saturday and I have plans to fish both dark and clear water lakes over the weekend. I should be able to give you a better idea of temps going forward as my time on the water is about to increase exponentially.

 

If you PM me a few days prior to your trip up I can give you more specific information.

Thanks. I will definitely reach out as my time gets closer. Appreciate the insight. Good luck this weekend.

[FluffChucker]

OP - Just to give you a heads up on our current water temp situation up here.

 

I was out Friday and found water temps on the clear water lake I fished to be between 53-55* depending on the area of the lake I was on. Most fish are right where you'd expect to find pre-spawn fish at this point. And they're hungry! I had a severe case of bass thumb by the end of the day.

 

Had a buddy out on a more stained body of water today who reported having water temps between 60-63*.

 

Hopefully this helps you out a bit for your trip. Feel free to message me if you want another update before you come up.

[KYBassin']

8 hours ago, FluffChucker said:

OP - Just to give you a heads up on our current water temp situation up here.

 

I was out Friday and found water temps on the clear water lake I fished to be between 53-55* depending on the area of the lake I was on. Most fish are right where you'd expect to find pre-spawn fish at this point. And they're hungry! I had a severe case of bass thumb by the end of the day.

 

Had a buddy out on a more stained body of water today who reported having water temps between 60-63*.

 

Hopefully this helps you out a bit for your trip. Feel free to message me if you want another update before you come up.

Great info! Much appreciated. Glad to hear that your thumb was tore up! Always a sign of a good day on the water.

 

I'm two weeks out from being up there but it looks like things are warming up pretty steady right now. I'll probably hit you up mid to late next week to get an update. Or if you have any more time on the water before then I'd love to hear the report. 

[dwtaylor]

I had between 60 degrees and 64 degree water temps in pool 8 of the Mississippi on Saturday, but spots on Winnebago yesterday were between 58-59.5 degrees.

[KYBassin']

Hope everyone in the Chetek/Barron County area is safe and well after the storms yesterday. Thoughts and prayers to those affected.

[Scott F]

In North central Wisconsin on the clear, deep lake I'm on, the surface water temp has been 52. Today will be the third day in a row with rain. And more is in the forecast for tomorrow. It's made it difficult to put in much time. The front moving in tonight is a cold front which will drop the air temp by 15 degrees. Possible frost warnings tonight will lower the water temps. Been a tough week so far. 

[KYBassin']

54 minutes ago, Scott F said:

In North central Wisconsin on the clear, deep lake I'm on, the surface water temp has been 52. Today will be the third day in a row with rain. And more is in the forecast for tomorrow. It's made it difficult to put in much time. The front moving in tonight is a cold front which will drop the air temp by 15 degrees. Possible frost warnings tonight will lower the water temps. Been a tough week so far. 

That's a bummer Scott. Ol' Mother Nature....she's a heartless lady. I hope things change and you get some stable conditions soon.

[Scott F]

Water temps were up to 55 on my lake yesterday but they will be falling. Today, the air temp will struggle to reach 40 degrees with strong north winds. This major cold front will set things back where I'm staying.

[KYBassin']

Been an interesting stretch of weather up there over the last few weeks. As it relates to fish, I'm guessing they're pretty out of whack when it comes to doing their thing this time of year. Should be interesting.

[Further North]

In my area (north of Eau Claire) I was on a deep, clear lake last Sunday afternoon, main lake water temps were around 62°, sheltered bays were as high as 68°.

 

Same lake the week before (Sunday of opening weekend) main lake was about 55°, sheltered bays were as high as 62°.

 

Weather was rainy and cooler most of the week, with a frost warning one night...don't know the impact yet.

[KYBassin']

12 hours ago, Further North said:

In my area (north of Eau Claire) I was on a deep, clear lake last Sunday afternoon, main lake water temps were around 62°, sheltered bays were as high as 68°.

 

Same lake the week before (Sunday of opening weekend) main lake was about 55°, sheltered bays were as high as 62°.

 

Weather was rainy and cooler most of the week, with a frost warning one night...don't know the impact yet.

Nice update. Gotta think that the fish that were moving up were probably set back with the weather/temp changes. Guessing that water levels will be up fairly significantly. What is the vegetation like? Behind, ahead or on pace with a normal year?  Thanks!

[Further North]

For the lake I was on (I can PM it to you if you'd like) there were already empty smallie beds and a few largemouth on beds already.

 

We had Ice out in mid=March, vegetation ia ahead of average, but not as much as ice out that early might indicate. Rivers are blown and dirty as are any lakes connected to them.

 

The Chippewa River at Chippewa Falls is at 44,000 cfs (about 5.5x mean and about 8x median) after peaking around 54,000 Friday...and I'd expect it to came back up after an all day rain yesterday: 

 

 

 

https://nwis.waterdata.usgs.gov/wi/nwis/uv?cb_00060=on&cb_00065=on&format=gif_default&site_no=05365500&period=120&begin_date=1998-03-22&end_date=2017-05-21

 

Other rivers are in similar shape.

 

Won't know about other lakes until later today.

 

[Further North]

Same lake, same areas, surface temps centered around 56°...couple degrees to either side depending on where you were.

[KYBassin']

13 hours ago, Further North said:

Same lake, same areas, surface temps centered around 56°...couple degrees to either side depending on where you were.

Thanks FN! So smallies are wrapping it uo and largies are moving in. Good to know. May take a bit for things to stabilize enough for the LM to really get going. 

[Further North]

Hard to say...weather this time of year is notoriously unstable.  The mid 70's we had for the week leading to those higher than normal temps seem to be getting set back pretty hard with all the cooler air, rain and wind.

 

Depending on when you're planning on being here, it could "interesting".  Smallies should be well past post-spawn by then, hopefull the same for largemouth.

[KYBassin']

I'll be up next week. Post spawn won't be happening.

[Further North]

Yeah...you're gonna run right into...something.  I'm just not sure what.

 

I think it will depend a ton on where you go - a half hour to an hour north or south should put you on fish if you have that kind of mobility.

 

Where are you staying?

[KYBassin']

Rice Lake area

 

[FluffChucker]

Hey KY, I haven't been out much lately due to the aforementioned nasty weather. It's been one brutal stretch of weatherr we've had lately. I'm actually just getting ready to head down to a deep, clear lake right now.

 

I'll be fishing a large lake fairly close to Rice Lake next week and probably this weekend as well. But like others have mentioned, this recent stretch of weather has these fish all sorts of confused right now. You might end up having perfect timing to hit the spawn though. We'll start seeing some fish sweeping some beds next week I believe, if not this weekend.

[Further North]

Sounds like we need a NW WI BassResource.com get together this weekend...

 

I'll bring the lies "exagerations"...no, that's not quite right either...I'll bring the truth stretcher.

[Further North]

A lake around 45.7 Latitude, headed up towards Superior was 56° in the main basin, 62° in back bays (shallow).

 

Fish all over, some spawning, some just cranky and hitting about everything you tossed at them.