November Fishing Reports

October was a great month for walleye fishing now hoping for the same in November. Hoping for one more indian summer.

Fished from shore by the hatchery yesterday. WOW, what a great day to be fishing. (weather wise) Saw quite a few boats out drifting with a fish caught now and then. No walleyes for me, but did catch a 20 inch dogfish. First one in 25 years fishing the Rock. Funny thing is 10 minutes after I released it, one of the boaters caught one right in front of me. That made me laugh…

I got a 26 inchdogfish right out of the chute on Friday morning. Thought for sure it was an eye, headshake and all. that was my first out here.

I got out for a few hours mid-day Monday, managed a 12″ walleye, a 14″ sauger, and about 30 white bass. Most of the whiteys were 9″-11″ but got 3 between 13″ and 14″. Water temp was 46* to 48*, and not much current. Hopefully this rain will drop the temps and bring a little flow to help the fishing….

Those white bass have been plentiful for the past 3 weeks or so. Let’s hope the eyes get back in full swing again. Was fun while it lasted. Were you using meat or plastics?

Yeah they were thick in a few places, I caught them on minnows and 1/3 crawler on a jig. Didn’t even try plastics, I have some minnows and crawlers to use up and it was a nice day. Will be switching to plastics as the water cools… I’ve got a few bags of Moxies to try. It’ll be next week before I get back out, heading north duck hunting Thursday…

Moxies should be a good bet, but might also want to consider the go-to paddletails.

Got a favorite color? Usually run a chartruse body and orange head or white body and black or sour apple head… I picked up a few natural colors to try on the sunny days(usually only time when I get out). I’ll have to get some paddle tails, what size do ya use? 4″? Colors? Snowing right now, this weather should drop the water temps some.. would like mid to lower 40’s I think…

No secret here….have posted this before. The 4 inch paddle tails I pretty much stick to this time of year are the catalpa orange with chartreuse paddle, and the chartreuse pepper. Been getting some decent size and numbers since mid-october or so, when water temps were in low 50’s to upper 40’s. Bite slowed down last week, though, when I was out with my son on friday. Hopefully the temp drop and recent rains will trigger the bite.

My nephew from Chi-town joined me for a day of fishing for our annual fall outing, but instead of chasing skis like we’ve done for several years, he was looking for a change of pace, so off to the Rock we went. (Finally convinced him that eyes taste a lot better than skis ) We managed to eke out a one man limit of nice 17 to 20 inchers, but it was one here and one there, no consistency. Had a few small ones in there too, plus the obligatory catfish and carp and white bass. Lost a 24 or so incher just before quitting time to finish off our day. I took this kid out fishing when he was about 6 and created a monster…30 years later, he’s still addicted. All fish came on paddletails or ringworms. No fish on live bait today. we both dead-sticked fatheads and nada.
water up from last week and moving pretty good, with temps at 40.5. May be back at it tomorrow somewhere.

After a challenging but productive day on the water yesterday, today was quite a different story. Fished solo, taking my “new-to-me” winter boat out for a maiden voyage, and got skunked on eyes. Only a few white bass to show for. Managed to find a couple areas out of the wind to maintain boat control, but no dice. Tried plastics and even went to meat towards the end of the day, but didn’t happen. Oh well, maybe next time.

Ed,

Nice winter boat and motor some anglers would love to have that year around.

For me no deer or walleyes – oh well, good to see water up and some current.

After a decent day on Friday, I also thought that the higher current and stabilizing weather would really get them going on saturday. Oh well, there’s always next time.

Heading up nort next 2 weekends. Good luck hunters

I plan on fishing the Rock and/or other waters a few days over the next week or so, with a blaze orange hat. Just wishing all you hunter-dudes a good and safe hunt, and want to say thanks for keeping our waters fairly empty this time of the year. Hopefully the fish won’t miss you and want to cooperate with me.

Fished the Rock today, along with some fellas from work in a separate boat. Their first time out here, and the newbies put us to shame. we boated 1 legal plus a few dinks, and they got 5 legals. All fish came on plastics, although each boat had at least one rod out with meat and no takers. Windy but manageable in a few areas. Water temps down to 37. Nice job, guys.

Have you been launching at the bypass or on the lake and running up to the river? I’m gonna try to get out Monday morning early, looks to be a little chilly but hopefully light winds.

I usually launch at the Riverfront tavern….don’t mind paying the reasonable launch fee. pier is still in, and lighted if i stay out till dark. good luck.

Some nice days coming up. Anyone gonna be fishing the Rock?

not me, still hunting, plan on winterizing the boat soon, half done. Fishing reports haven’t been good, hunting sucks also.

Hope to get out one more time. Got some vacation time to burn but time is getting short.

D

Sorry to hear about the hunting. Fishing has been slow my last time or two, but since i don’t have both vices(fishing plus hunting), gotta keep at it. Fishing either lake WI or Dells tomorrow…will decide in am, but then hope to get a couple more days in on lake MI and/or the Rock before putting the big tub away. Good luck on the rest of the hunt.

so i started yesterday at lake WI, hoping to get into the big sauger bite. After 4 hours and a few dinks, and no other boats catching much, decided to trailer over to the Rock on the way home. Launched at 1:30, and by 4:30, we had 5 legals boated, 17 to 20 inches, and lost 3 more legals just before the net. Plus 6 or so undersizes. water temp rose from 37 degrees a few days ago, to 41 yesterday. the fish were really agreesive, but only one on plastic. Rest came on meat. Might be back at it tomorrow, with high winds and all….enough places to hide out on the Rock.

Only three hours of fishing that is awesome, I’ve worked the river 7 hours to get that, congrats Ed

Thanks Jeff. it was so much fun that i went back again on friday for about 5 hrs. Water temps rose to 43 degrees….but no legal fish boated. We did have a few good hits, and a very temporary hook-up or two with nicer fish, but went home empty handed. That’s fishing, I guess. Nevertheless, a nice day spent on the water wiht my future son-in-law. didn’t want him to get spoiled on his first Rock outing.

Got out Wed the 30th, launched at Kmart and fished around the 106 bridge. Water is back down to low and slow, temp around 35*. Only managed one sheephead in 3 hours fishing, got him on a hairjig and minnow. Nothing on plastic, prolly tried 10 different jig/tail combos…. only a couple missed hits on the minnow… slow for me. About mid-day couple boats came up to fish the bridge, they were pulling three ways upstream and just hammering the short saugers . When I got closer to them, told ’em I didn’t think trolling upstream (or down) was leagle in the river … they said ok and just kept on fishing… Hoping to get out another time or two yet this year, will have to watch the weather..

Was a great day to get out yesterday…too bad the fish didn’t cooperate. Maybe the yo-yo water temps have something to do with it. On last Friday, it was up to 42.5. Was sitting at work wishing I could be out there, too. Oh well. Hoping that the river stays open for a another week or two, and the weather cooperates.

Just called in a tagged eye to the DNR I caught last week. It was a 15.75 inch eye cuaght near the head of Kosh. The DNR tagged the fish in Kosh at the Tideaway or Hideaway (?) in Sept 2011, at 14.9 inches. told the DNR gal that we’ve been getting a lot of fish in the 19 to 21 inch class. She indicated those were probably the fish hatched in 2004, which was a bumper hatch.
I asked her if they stock,and she indicated that sometimes they do, if they can net enough eyes and gather enough spawn to hatch in the Bark river hatchery. In the spring of 2011 (or did she say 2010 ?), they were unable to net enough fish in Jefferson (although shore fishermen were doing well, she said), so did not plant any that year.
Anyway, that’s the skinny on that.

OK finally catching a breather and have a chance to post some pics. The two eyes shown are from the first drift on Wednesday Nov.11-23, when we started out early at Lake WI and ended up at the Rock in the PM looking for some good action. After some easy pickins’ and a limit of legals, decided to go back on Friday for more fun, and here’s what the first drift yielded, good fight, but not what we were looking for.No legal eyes came to the boat on Black Friday.
Spent the day on the Big Pond yesterday, and will post a report with pics. the main tub’s going into storage tonight.