Rock River – November Fishing Reports and Pictures

October was above average month for catching walleyes so if you didn’t make it out you missed out. Anglers were getting nice walleyes on everything in there tackle box. October was the month to dusted off old lures, jigs, plastics, gulp and even trigger-X worked at times. As far as live bait I caught walleyes on waxes worms, crawlers, large and small fathead minnow it just didn’t matter. October was the month for the beginner, novice angler and family and friends to get out on this southern WI river and enjoys walleye fishing at it’s finest. November should be the same but just a tad colder. All these big beauties were released for seed so my grand children and yours will have something to catch in the future.

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work for who?

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Time to go fishing!

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Dandy eyes, Jeff. How long do you think the bite will hold into November?

@ James, I didn’t realize until today the winter draw down has started on this river and the water is dropping fast!! Usually this changes things. I also notice the big drop in water temp from 54* to 45* today which I like. From my years of experience on this river during the water draw down it only get tougher.

@JeffPatrick

Thanks for the info, Jeff. How much do the draw the Rock down during the winter? I’ve done a lot of winter fishing on the Mississippi River and the fishing always benefitted when we had higher water and some current, within reason of course.

James, the draw down on this river is to the point hazardous to run a boat on this river. Very little to no current at times. The last good fall bite on this river was 2011. 2012 & 2013 was a tough bite and at times days without a bite. When the water stays higher than normal and they don’t start the draw down until Nov like this year the bite is better, actually awesome. So all in saying where do these walleyes go during low water conditions and very little to no current? I’m assuming they just don’t leave the river and go out to the lake. I know they have to feed so if I was a walleye I would be where the bait is. But most times there just so much bait it confuses me where to fish. During the draw down I try fishing the wood where I see bait. My challenge is how to get tighter to the wood and what to use without snagging. Sometimes I start 2nd guessing myself and ask myself are they really in the wood? If these sneaky good eating walleyes are in the wood how tight in the wood and how do I get them out of the wood? So many questions these sneaky fall walleyes bring during low water condition. Until I do more research how to catch them before ice up these awesome fish will be safe from me, well, most of them!

This curious angler is going fishing!

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Caught this nice sauger Saturday and a few other nice eater walleyes and a ton of big white bass and short walleyes. Sunday was a new game and I lost. Only Big white bass and a ton of short walleyes and saugers. All fish caught on 1/8oz nuckle ball jigs with plastic and live bait.

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I and fishing partner Jim joined a few hearty and wise souls for some fishing today from 9:am to 1:pm. Everyone found they could catch short walleyes and white bass but the big girls were a bit fussy and only favored a few anglers. I was not one of them, but Jim hooked this 24″ full-figured Gal. I wanted to finesse them and the big gurls wanted plastics jigged aggressively. Jim was kind enough to let her go nearly without a picture to show for it. Great day to be out for a while. The Etec is winterized for now. Thanksgiving Day and then ice anytime afterwards.

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Bob,

One of the souls you ran into was my other fishing buddy Larry with the white and green crestliner. His report was tough fishing also. Maybe wednesday for me for the last outing of the year but everytime I try to escape some crisis at work pops up.

Later

D

Derek,
We visited with Larry a bit. He had the right lures and colors but not the right cadence. It was definitely a pop-n-drop cadence as apposed to a lift-n-drop or my usual lift-hold-drop. You also had to set the hook immediately. I have gotten used to feeling the weight, giving a second to suck it in and then setting the hook. I missed a bunch yesterday. That technique of waiting works best when the whities are present and tend to stun the bait first, and then suck it in. Last fall the walleyes would pick up the bait if you dropped it a few inches after the initial hit. The guy in the Lund Rebel was giving us a clinic on how to catch them and I finally paid attention when Larry watched him catch an eye right next to him. We ran back up for another drift adjusted toward shore more, changed our jigs and pulled out the plastics for our final 1/2 hour of fishing and caught Jim’s and a couple of shorts. I missed one on my dead stick as I set the hook by mistake (it was a circle hook) and pulled the chub right out of its mouth.

Quick report from yesterday, before I run out to chase toothy critters on a local lake. Fished from 9 till 4, and boated about a dozen undersize and 10 or so big white bass, some just under 15 inches. One legal at 16 inches, released. No minnows in boat, all on plastics. wind made boat control tough.

The nice thing about having an Evinrude Etec is that even though I winterized it on Monday, I could go out and fish with it today in the calm winds and upper 50’s temps and winterize it again in less than 5 minutes at the launch–YES!!!
Finally got to meet Derek (diesel) in person on the water. Good to see you and Larry today and I hope you found the legals before you called it a day. I finally quit doing what worked on Monday (didn’t work today) and started pitching into the wood. And whaa–laa, there they were. This one slammed my ringworm in 2′ of water. White bass were playing with our bait and a stinger hook ended that malarkey. Another great bonus day on the Rock.

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broadwaybob wrote:

The nice thing about having an Evinrude Etec is that even though I winterized it on Monday, I could go out and fish with it today in the calm winds and upper 50’s temps and winterize it again in less than 5 minutes at the launch–YES!!!
Was wondering if you in fact did winterize it earlier, like you previously said. Pretty sweet! You guys picked a good day to be out yesterday, as opposed to today. I’ll be looking for a break in the weather to try to make it out there again. Did OK on Nag yesterday with the smallies.

@ Z I winterized on Monday because one year I didn’t in November and the weather turned so cold on me that I had to skip winterizing that year. I’m not going to again. BTW, it is very easy to do with an Etec–lift the idle lever up, start engine, watch flashing lights until they stop, lower idle lever, watch the flashing lights until they stop, raise the idle lever, wait until the engine dies on its own–DONE. Check the lower unit oil for water intrusion, if none, tighten the screw. I’ve owned three of them, now.

Late report from yesterday. Lucky for us, the weatherman was wrong on the tmeps…was actaully pretty comfortable, except for the dang wind that made boat control tough. Water temps were 42 to 43 degrees everywhere we fished. We managed to eke out three eaters, 16 to 19 inches, and a dozen or so shorts, plus a few white bass. Missed a bunch of hits, and was going to put on stinger hooks, but didn’t have them in the boat. Minnows did the most damage, but did have some fish and hits on plastic.

Those are some beautiful fish. To think I live within 15miles of the rock and have not been out this fall.

I know some of you are itching to get out on hard water, but November is my favorite time for soft water fishing. What’s with this global warming, oops, I mean climate change? Is the Rock going to freeze up again before Thanksgiving? I hope not.

I’m with you Z in that I like late fall fishing on the river. Looking at the forecast the next 5 days I’m afraid we will be SOL again this year. Bummer

Bays on the lake are locking up and water temp was 34 last night! If the wind lays down now for a few days the whole lake will seal up! I hope to be on it by Monday! Seeing as the water is low again the ealy ice eye bite probably won’t last long! But I am ready to get out there!!

I have been out 4 times now 2 jigging 2 running flags! Surprised the dallmans landing fingers are dead! Got 7 small crappies. Tried Bp also for gills got zip but a dogfish! Tried near Vinney had 2 flags Wednesday night 1 dink eye. Last night got these!

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Nice job, Bronzback. Too early for me to get into the hard water stuff. Was hoping for some open water on the Rock during gun week, but ain’t looking good. Found some on Oconomowoc today, though. Boated two, lost 2. Check out the ringworm in the mouth. These fish were caught within 15 minutes of each other. The first one bit off the hook while in the net, so instead of re-tying, my buddy picked up his second rod with a ringworm and bangs another. IF it wasn’t close to being dark, we would have kept at it, but it was time to go.

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Sorry for the pics of toothy critters, guys, but had to post my personal best, a fat 51 incher. Went solo today, so had to lay her on the carpet…too heavy and long for a selfie. See Wisconsin General thread for the rest of the story.

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Holy crap that’s a slob man!! Clean shorts after release!! Nice work man!!

Nice! I also catch my best when alone and can never get a good photo of the fish. Getting good photos of me is another story