March Fishing Reports

Just couldn’t stand it anymore, so took the afternoon off yesterday to hit the rock at Newville. Not the nicest afternoon by any means, with a bit of wind and temps in the upper 30’s,not at all like the partly sunny forecast and low 40’s. Water temps were at 34 to 35.5 degrees.
We launched at the Anchor inn, and started by working the concrete pier areas of I90 and Hwy 59 bridges. got a smack on jig/minnow in the first 5 minutes…a 22 inch pike, and that was it for the day. No bumps on plastic or crawler. Boated over to the flats near the lake opening, and nothing there, either. It was wide open to that area and a long ways past. No ice flows yesterday, but there will certainly be some coming as things warm next week. Was told that the area up from the 59 bridge was ice-locked last week from flows.
so will wait till we get a bit of warming and rising water temps before heading back out there again. Soon though…..

Just can’t wait can you?

Gonna take a ride on Tuesday and give it a try.

March madness is at full bloom on the rock river with water temp in the mid 40’s. Lots of short fish are being caught with that one or two keeper per outing vertical jigging live and artificial bait. Saturday & Sunday were at least 75 to 100 boats from Fort Atkinson to the lake. It seemed that most were all behaving and getting along, besides a few shore anglers trying to push some buttons. I did still notice some large logs floating down river so pay attention and be careful. Lake Koshkonong the ice is off the lake.

There’s nightcrawlers on my sidewalk!

how we learn so fast

Nobody teached me nuttin. I was out Sunday and used Gulp and Trigger-X and didn’t catch a thing.

I used crawlers yesterday and got five keepers

Went out half-heartedly at 1:pm Friday and spent some time draggin jigs, splitshot and minnow, and vertical jigging 1/2 crawler while getting used to my new IPilot–that was the problem. No fish boated, one missed bump and alot of whities and sheepies pestering me. One boat had a fish get away at the side. Otherwise, it was pretty quiet from the VFW to the mouth. There were very few secret spots that didn’t have a boat hovering over them.
The pier is NOT in and there was quite a lineup at the ramp at about 7:pm. Everyone seemed to behave nicely on the water. Slow-no-wake in the congested areas seemed to be the accepted practice by choice.

Hit the river yesterday afternoon, from 2 till 7. water temps up to 66 degrees….can that be right? Got 6 white bass, one rock bass, one pike, and 3 eyes, with two legals (17.5 and 18.5) that were so excited to see the landing net, they creamed all over it. Also one dink.
Other than the wind,which eventually died down, a great afternoon to be out. All hits and fish came on jig/crawler…no bites on plastic or fatheads.

fished from 4 to dark at the Newville outlet upstream from the 59 bridge. Dragged jigs and half crawlers and caught two keepers with one returned to the lake. Lots of shorts caught by jigging and trolling slowly or drifting. One guy was casting to shorelines and caught many shorts. Whities caught also.

I was out there yesterday afternoon, jigging and pitching plastics. ended up with 7 eyes, but only one legal at 20 inches…..very skinny fish, so maybe spawned out female? Came on a ringworm pitching into the shallows. Also had a nice cat smack a ringworm in 3 fow. white bass seemed to be everywhere, but small ones….8 to 10 inchers. and two pike rounded out our catch…one pushing 25 inches.
Saw netman out there, but no other familiar faces.
Water temps at 66 degrees.

Hi Ed,

WeFish and I fished from 10am to 3:45pm from bark river to the bypass with not much to show. Where were you fishing and times that we missed each other?

Jeff, we did pretty well after dark. Very hit/miss and a few fish per spot then dead – move on…50% plastics 50% Live Target Rainbow Smelt.

My son and I were out Sunday morning 0700 to noon, made a couple drifts from the 106 bridge all the way to the downtown launch. We talked with WeFish and Jeff as they were just starting out.. It was slow for us too only fish in the boat was an 8″ channel cat I got by the Bark, only other fish on, my son had a mid 30’s northern to the side of the boat but hadn’t loosened his drag up to start fishing and it came off when seen me coming with the net… We had about 65 degree water when we got off the river at noon, think the warm temps and still too short of photo period has them messed up this year.. Prolly be next week before I get out again, gotta make sure to pick up a new fishing license first though…

Thanks for the reports guys. Too busy to get out and fish. Keep em coming.

D

We fished at Newville, starting out in the flats near the lake, and spending the rest of the time between bridges and below. Here are a few pics from Sunday.

Nice Winter Rig BTW Z-man.

Oh, nice eye too.

Did Sunday. Stayed close to port in Newville checking out the equipment. Jig and minnow or crawler. Neither did much. Trolled cranks 4 shorts 4 norts. Nice to get out. Managed a sunburn.

Was out on Thursday from 11:am to 5:pm and managed to catch a variety of fish. Everything from northern, white bass, short eyes and sauger to this nice 21″ walleye all spawned out and soft. Everything caught on cranks at 1.7 mph. This one came on a silver/black ripplin’ redfin. She went back in after the photo session.