Fishing the Wingra Creek

After reading a few things at Madison Shore Fishing I thought that I would like to spend some time fishing the shores around Madison, WI.

Wingra Creek looked good at Madison Shore Fishing so that's where I went.


I wasn't expecting to catch anything big or interesting but I thought that I might learn some things about a spot.  At around 4 pm, on a Tuesday, there were lots of people fishing from shore at the dam between the Wingra creek and Wingra Lake.  So I went down the river a ways to avoid traffic.

On the last day of July the weeds were in and fishing from shore wasn't really a good idea.  There were some holes and a main channel in the creek which you could cast into but each cast ended with being dragged through the weeds.

I ended up catching about a six inch bluegill and lost another of a similar size, when I had to drag it through the weeds.  Most of the fish I saw were very small, so I put a 1/100 oz jig and 1" grub on in order to catch them.  I had tiny bluegills trying to eat my jig an just about every cast but their mouths must have been too small to eat the hook.  I also saw a pair of about 12" bass but a 1/100 oz jig is too light to cast any distance and by the time I changed they were gone.

At 5:00 everyone had disappeared from the dam, and it was too hot for me to continue.

If you want to fish the Wingra Creek I suggest that you do it in the spring before the weeds get in.  I'd bet that you could catch a handful of bass and bluegills.  Once the weeds come in, though, you should go somewhere else.