EFN Field Staff Addition – Jeff Patrick

EFN is happy to announce the addition of Jeff Patrick to its growing Field Staff Team as well as a new Rock River forum!

Jeff is an experienced multi-species angler and has a wealth of information relating to this body of water to share with us here on FTR in our new Rock River Forum. Jeff is a member of the Fin-Tech Pro-Staff Team and also spends a great deal of time chasing HOG smallies on WI Lakes!

A little more about Jeff, in his own words… “My goals are to post regularly about the Rock river and to share information with EFN visitors.” Jeff would also like to mention that he will be working the up-coming Madison Walleye Expo Sports Show and would welcome anyone to stop by the Fin-Tech booth and say hi.

I urge everyone interested in seeing this forum turn into a resource for Rock River fishing information to take the time to welcome Jeff. Feel free to ask questions…

From EFN…

Welcome Jeff Patrick!

Hello Jeff,
Welcome to the team, happy to have you on board.
See ya on the water, Don

Welcome aboard Jeff. Look forward to reading your reports. Love them rivers.

Hey Jeff welcome. Glad to have another staff member for Wisconsin. I sure would like to get out with you sometime for a little fishing. What kind of rig do you run on the river?? Steve

welcome aboard Jeff.
heres your first question as a new leader of this forum.
where in the world is the rock river?? i can’t say i’ve ever heard of it.

Welcome Jeff,

I use to fish down that way when I lived in DeForest for a couple of years. Especially on Lake Koshokong. The walleye action was always good to me. I always fished where the river dumps into the lake. I also fished the big ice fishery but never caught anything during the contest. Any way welcome aboard.

Hi Jake, I’m real sorry you havn’t heard about the Rock River. The Rock River can produce great catches of walleye, sauger, white bass, catfish, northern pike, crappie, perch and even muskie, oh yeh, can’t forget about carp and drum. As far as where the river is located in Wisconsin, the section of river that I’ll be posting about starts at the dam in Jefferson Wisconsin all the way to Fort Atkinson Wisconsin to the mighty Lake Koshkonong. I hope this answers your question Jake, and thanks for welcoming me aboard. (A.K.A Bola) Best Outfitter Last Angler

Hi everyone, thank you so much for all your kind words and welcoming me aboard. Also please have patience with me as I’m learning how to post and reply. I think I got the reply down, now I’ll go for the post. I have lots to tell everyone about the up coming spring walleye and white bass run. And of course all my techniques to catch them, so make sure you check out my up coming post. (A.K.A Bola) Best Outfitter Last Angler

Howdy Jeff and welcome aboard! Do you ever fish the lower reaches of the rock, in Illinois? I’ve fished the Sterling-Rock Falls area a few times with varied success, and picked up some nice ‘eyes from time to time while catfishing in the Erie, IL area. Navigating that section of the river is the trickiest part for me!
I look forward to hearing your reports on the Rock!
Rooster

Hi leinieman, as far as what kind of rig I got, well if you go to the classifieds on this web-site you can check it out . I have it for sale, it the alumacraft magnum 165cs with a merc 75. The way its going it will soon be sold. What I have on order is a Alumacraft Tournament PRO 170 CS with a 115 Johnson. And I’m sure we could fine a way to get out fishing together, I bet we would have lots to talk about. Jeff (A.K.A Bola) Best Outfitter Last Angler

Hi Rooster, and thank you, I have only made down as far as the Janesville WI area, never been to Ill to fish. I have heard it has some great walleye action.

Welcome aboard jeff its great to get another prime wisconsin river on the forum.

What area are ya most knowlegable on.

Have had great times in jefferson by the purina factory for some big white bass.But every outing for cats i get the shaft. Maybe ya got some pointers on loc.,bait,rig.Let me in on years of tough fishing that got you where you are today.

Look foward to some great reports best of luck to ya!

Kevin Budny

Hay Howdy their Jeff!

Welcome, we can always use another cat guy, Rock River I suspect you tangle with a few puddy Tat’s from time to time.

You know Denny?

Seams to me I run into a few Rock River boys on the Red from time to time…Eh.

Good ta see ya!

Ed

You know a guy that’s gonna’ really like this addition? Mike “Mavzer” Maves. Calls Red Wing on the river home now but grew up cattin’ on the Rock and he jabbers on and on about all the cats he caught there as a kid.

All I have to say is that if Mavzer can catch them on the Rock, the Rock has a LOT of catfish…!

Hi Kevin, do I have some pointers for you on cats. I fish and guide from Jefferson dam to Indianford dam up from Janesville. Also up the crawfish river from Jefferson I know some spot. White bass are back this spring should be another great year. The water has to come up some or it may cause some problems for some of you anglers. You must know the river when the water is low at these levels. If you don’t you will run into problems. This spring IF the water come back up Kevin, a great technique to catch cats are to drift the walls in the Fort Atkinson area with leeches and a slip bobber, it’s awesome. Here let me explain a little better. Of course you can’t have to big of a rig, and once you learn this technique its simple. Even walking the walls works great with this technique if you can fine public access. A great place to start is where the Bark River flows into the Rock River on the north wall. I have done this technique with my Alumacraft Magnum 165 CS w/75 Merc. The 75Merc has nothing to do with this technique. Make sure you trim your motor up so the cats don’t get tangle up and break your line. Trust me they look for anything they can to wrap the line around when there hooked. God I’m all ready getting excited just writing this. The reason the cats hang on these wall is to spawn in the spring and to feed. Lots of crawfish hold in the cracks and holes in the walls. Key here is timimg in the spring, soon as you see crows or blackbirds walking the wall, that’s only telling me one thing, CRAWFISH. What happens the bird walk the wall and look down, when they see a crawfish they shoot(fly) and grab it. Ok back to the technique to catch these cats. Your going to want to drift the current with your front of you boat with the bow mounted trolling motor which is key to this technique pointed up river. Make sure you have some of those rubber bouys so you don’t scratch your boat. Have your boat right next to the wall so you can use your hand to hang on to the wall for control, make sure you use a glove on your hand. Now put a slip bobber on and tie on a #3 or 4 hook and grabbing a big old leech put some crawfish scent on it and flip it out about 5 or 6 yards and start drifting the current letting your bobbler set the speed. As far as depth you want it alittle off the bottom. Do not let it drag, thats the key for the slip bobber, you can move it up or down at anytime because the depths does vary at times. Make sure you have a good drag system and hang on and watch that bobber. When you get a cat on use your trolling motor if you have one with a long cable to get you away from the wall so you can fight the fish. Good luck and remember the water needs to come up at least three feet this year for this technique to work. I guess a great way to know if this will work is if you have at least two feet of water by the wall it will work. BOLA

Hi Eddy, yeah I know denny4j if your thinking about the same denny that I am. Yes I have tangled with some big cats. Getting cats over ten pounds in the rock river your doing good. There are bigger let me tell you, I was fishing for white bass last spring with UL rod and four pound test line when I manage to tangle up with three that year and got all in the boat. Of course I had to chase them down with my trolling motor or they would of ripe all of my line off my reel. Talk to you soon BOLA

Were rolling now James, have a great weekend BOLA

PS.Go EAGLES

Now THAT is a good reply! Holy smokes. Sounds like bigtime fun BOLA. You’re dealing mostly with channels in this application aren’t you? I’ve caught some flatheads on leeches in the spring in these same type of areas but normally I run into the 4 – 10 lb channels… which are murder on the wrists when fishing medium weight walleye gear.

That is correct James, channels and BLUES, once in a while flathead. Yes they will put a hurting on walleye gear, thats for sure.

Blues? No kidding. No blues up here in the Mississippi River in my neck of the woods. Although, there was a new state record blue caught out of the MN river this past summer and they’re not supposed to be there either!

I’ve targetted similar areas with small jigs with good sized hooks and leeches. Similar to the way we cast for walleyes. Get the weighting right and you just pitch and float with the current. Watching a cork disappear below the surface is priceless though, isn’t it?!

James your right, it awesome when you see that bobber disappear. Sometime it gets frustrating because if you don’t set the hook right away they spit it out and when you do set the hook the line comes back flying at you and you have to duck your head. With my technique they really hammer it and you have to set the hook like right now or they must feel that hook and they spit it out. But when you do hook them its like a ton of bricks, then they take off, thats why you need a good drag. I have had them break ten pound fire line.

Jeff Thanks for the tip.Last year the white bass run was awsome one after another nice bigins.
This new forum has already kicked off to a great start when you have great field staff replys like Jeff Patricks!!!!!!
Maybe i’ll see you out there jeff just look for the SUPER SNAPPER where all the fish are jumping aboard. lol

Thanks again Jeff
Kevin Budny

Thanks for the kind words Kevin. I’m glad that I could help, that’s way I join the EFN Team. Kevin you be safe and I’ll see you on the water, keep in touch. Bola

Catfishing on the ROCK!!! James is right.. That is my home water… My grnadfather had a house on the river and was a barber in Indianford for 30 some years and my father grew up in a house on the rock and then I fished after them so I guess you can say we my family has been fishing the rock since…. well 1920 or so…..
I like lake koshkonong best… and it’s tributaries…. I used to drift the lake with cut biate….no wieght but maybe a split shot and the clicker on …. and those cats would slam it…
drifting a float buy the dam (indianford) with cutbaite on is an awsome combo as well….
but the best catting EVER is the spring run…… holy shitt you can catch catfish after catfish usually 5-12 pds this time of year… and it is like clock work…. we used to LIVE on cats for two months out of the year when I was highschool and for the next 5 years after…. Those were the days!!!!
The key is to find the feeders creeks, and the shallow bays.. the shoreline is the first to warm up in the spring and the cats just swarm the shorline feeding on winter kill…..soon as the shoreline goes and you can throw a baite out it’s time
then they start moving up into the smaller creeks where they are gorging on those frogs and crwdads that are still half frozen and slow….. this is my favorite place to catch them…… there are a ton of spots over by Fort Atkinson and Newville if you look around…… I can;t tell of the exact streams because my old fishing buddies would kill me….. it can get crowded in a hurry…… once word gets out….
But some great spots to try out that are not secrets are the Yahara river that flows into the rock is AWSOME in the spring , carcajou , carp pens….. the fish house, and the launch over by snuffy’s (put in and drift out in front of the public launch) especially with a light wind into the launch….makes things perfect..
yup cattin on the Rock is great……but if you are in the area youmust try the yahara…. you can wade down the yahara and catch eater size cats….just like you were trout fishing and they fight harder..
I remember when the Wi D.N.R traded a bunch of flatheads for (I think it was) whitebass. or bluegill back in the 90’s so there were some flatheads bieng cought….as well as channel cats…. but I don;t think the population of Flatheads ever really took off as well….. at least I wouldn’t target them….
But I have never heard of a blue cat bieng cought in Wisconsin especially on that part of the river… If you are catching them with the regularity that you say you should contact the d.n.r and establish a state record…… because there isn’t one in wisconsin yet…..
I am not saying that you are making a mistake but …… remember the color and shape of a male and female channel catfish “forktail” can be very different.. The younger fish have spots…. a blue cat will never have spots… the older male channel will lose the spots and become a very dark color similiar to blue…and have a broad head… the older female channel loses it’s color has a green lighter green tint to it and has a sleeker head….. so they look like two different species….
Have you ever cought a cat on the Rock (in Wisconsin) over 20 pds?? If there were a lot of Blue in this area there would be some cought… blues get much bigger than channels …… but if you want to be sure absolutely sure it is not a blue ….. count the anal rays on the fish…. a channel will have no more than 29 depending of the age the fin will be shorter and more rounded. the blue cat has AT LEAST 30 anal rays and the anal fin appears very long and straight…. also it appears the channel cat has a deeper FORK tail than the blue cat……. blue cat does have a fork tail but to me it doesn;t seem as pronounced……..
anyway maybe there is a new breed of cats since I moved ….. maybe not ….. but good fishing either way……

Welcome aboard Jeff. I look foreward to reading your reports..

Mavzer

I was wondering how long it would take for you to find your way to this forum! Jeff says the Rock has a good-great walleye bite but you never mentioned anything about walleye fishing on the Rock. How ‘cum?!

WOW, Mavzer you are the cat man. At least that’s the way it sounds. My family has lived on the Rock River since the late 1800. But we did not fish for cats like you did. I still don’t fish for cats that much, just in the spring when they come up river in the Fort Atkinson area to spawn on the rocks or on the walls in down town Fort. They usally bite the same time the white bass run is. So after a few white bass I would float the wall with leeches and wait for the bobber to disappear. Sometime you need a change, and this is a fun one. As far as if they are blues, I don’t really care, yeah they could be big male channel I guess. Everyone down here justed called them big blues. So for now we can call them big male channel. Thats’s fine with me, and this spring when I catch one I will take a picture of it and show you and James and you guys can tell me what kind they are so I can let my angler friends know. Because if they are BLUES I guess we better get them in the record books. Mavzer I mainly fish for the walleyes and white bass on this river. So everything you are saying about the cats could be true. All I know is lots of anglers fish for the cats because there are so many and there are easy to catch and they are starting to catch some good flathead. I caught to jigging for walleyes this fall and both were about ten pounds. BOLA

Jeff Patrick

Best Outfitter Last Angler

Fin-tech Pro Staff

EFN Field Staff

Can’t waite to hear the stories of the Rock back home…keep the updates coming Jeff… It will be fun to hear about the walleye, cat bite…
James gotta show you some new structure…..I found…. you will have to tell me if it will hold walleye……
I heard you had a good time in Iowa…. good shooting…… talk to you later……

Mavzer you are correct, I did some research and the DNR did stock some BLUES years back. But have not heard of anybody catching any since. So I guess there is some possibility to catch one if some lived. But as far as me catching blues, NO,,, they are big old male channel cats that look like blues. The research told me that the male channel cat looks like a blue when it gets old. Just like Mavzer said also. Mavzer thanks for correcting me, and James, now I know why you were waiting for Mavzer response. BOLA

James I will send you a picture of one of the cats, it was to big to attach.

Jeff Patrick

Best Outfitter Last Angler

Fin-tech Pro Staff

EFN Field Staff

Thanks Dave