Many hunting seasons open this weekend; color reaching 50 percent in some northern counties
A lot of hunters will be going out in the woods this weekend for the numerous season openers, including the archery and crossbow deer, fall turkey, Canada goose, ruffed grouse, cottontail rabbit and squirrel. Many areas of the state are reporting a great crop of acorns, hickory nuts and walnuts. These foods will help deer, turkey, black bears and more build up fat reserves to survive the winter and areas with a good mast crop should provide great places to hunt for squirrels, grouse, and deer. Just in time for this weekend's season openings, the 2017 Fall Forecast is now available at by searching the DNR website for keyword "forecast." [PDF]
Leaves are continuing to change, with several northern counties already reporting fall color at 50 percent on the Wisconsin Department of Tourism's Fall Color Report (exit DNR).
Fishing has been very good on the Wolf River from New London down the mouth at Lake Poygon, with anglers having good success with catfish, bass, northern pike and panfish. Mid-September is typically the peak of the Lake Superior coho run on the Bois Brule river, and there have been some reports of angling success. The fall salmon run on Lake Michigan is picking ups some, with a few kings moving up tributaries, but there haven't been huge numbers reported yet, and some rain and cooler temperatures would be helpful to get more fish moving up.
Fly fishermen have been targeting the first few pods of kings moving upstream on the Kewaunee River with limited success. Both chinooks and browns have been caught upstream of the harbors in the East and West Twin Rivers. The Root and Pike rivers are currently extremely clear and very low and very few anglers have been fishing and no fish were reported caught this week.
On the western shores of Green Bay, anglers have been targeting crappie and smallmouth bass, with some attempts at walleye and musky as well. While there was some success for yellow perch, the bite was inconsistent for walleye and musky, with more success reported from early morning anglers. On the eastern shore anglers found themselves, again, with tough odds for walleye and greater success for perch.
Along Door County smallmouth bass fishing has been consistent and good with a better offshore bite. Yellow perch fishing was great this past week and some anglers reported catching limits while fishing in the Sturgeon Bay canal.
In the southeastern harbors, a few salmon balanced out the brown trout catch at Port Washington, Racine and Kenosha.
The early teal and goose season is showing moderate success. Birds are still spending time around weedy fields and standing water, with the abundance of water on area wetlands keeping duck populations dispersed.
Bull elk are starting to bugle in the Clam Lake area and this week a woman captured a couple of bull elk sparring on video that is available on the DNR Facebook page. Whitetail deer are transitioning from a red to grey winter coat.
Archived under: Previous Outdoor Reports
DNR Outdoor Report in Portable Document Format (Requires Adobe® Acrobat® Reader®)
DNR Outdoor Report in Rich Text Format
Upcoming Events at DNR Parks, Forests and Trails
Outdoor Report editors:
Paul Holtan, DNR Office of Communications, Madison, 608-267-7517
Charlie Nettesheim, DNR Office of Communications, Madison, 608-267-0541