Shore Anglers

To all you shore anglers there is a bite going on the rock river right now. Ice is mostly off all from 106 bridge to the mouth of the mighty Kosh. Saw a few brave boats out today. Boater must be careful of the big ice bergs floating down river.

Watch for my report on my weekend outing with We Fish. I hammered them Saturday and We Fish gave me a fishing lesson Sunday

Jeez, I was tempted to go down there too though I did pull a nice meal or two of crappies out of Hope Lake. I may have to walk the wall one of these next warm evenings. There was still a lot of ice north of Kmart so make sure you have an alternate plan if you take a boat out.

That figures. I was fishing the lakefront for trout to smoke, but got skunked with the other 50 or so guys out there.

May have to make a trip out there.

D

Boy did I have a blast this morning catching all short eyes. Best time was between 7:00am and 9:00am. I not even going to tell how many, I am surprised Bola did’nt stop by cause he knew where I was fishing.

Short ones sure beat staying home and catching nothing. Actually, Diesel and I had designs to get the Minnow out for her second run, but the ugly weather moved in quick….was raining at home by 10 am. oh well, maybe next time the weather man will cooperate better, Diesel. In the meantime, got a few more things done on the main tub, so a few steps closer to getting it out for first spring (or late winter) outing.

Z-man,
Sounds like you have got a way cool project going on with the Minnow can’t wait to see on the mighty Rock River.
I’ll be heading to the honey hole (shore fishing) Sunday morning again looks like light rain on and off.

We Fish

Just got back from shore fishing caught a dozen or so all short ones again a few shy of 15″ drying everything out.Picking up Mr.Jeff Patrick ( Bola ) at 3:00PM for another try for the big ums.
We Fish

You guys are pretty tough dudes fishing in this rain. I wimped out yeterday, and backed out on Diesel…we were gonna fish out of my 1974 12 ft. Lund, affectionately referred to as the Minnow. will look for your PM report, guys.

I wish we had a PM report , but someone let the secret out where we fish all are spot were packed with anglers. We tried new spot with no luck.

I don’t get it Jeff, that has never stopped you from outfishing everyone 10 to 0 even in crowd.

What’s going on? You slipping

I may have to fire up the boat in my yard since there is a small lake surround my boat. Maybe I should let the shiners I have been holding onto for a month free in my front yard and start jigging for them. I could practice my jigging technique since we are getting closer to open water season (I hope).

Z-man, ya think paddle tails work on shiners?

D

Diesel…only the Catalpa Orange for the shiners in low-light conditions, and the chartreuse pepper in sun… . You outght to save those things for the Browns on the Big Pond. Looks like the Big G and Eric had a blast with those browns…..makes a guys want to skip work.

Yeah, I have been thinking about firing up my rig and give it a whirl behind MMSD. I’ll let you know.

25 browns in about 3 hours. That had to be a blast.

D

Hi Jeff, thanks for the report on the shore fishing,I came down today to fish with my son Jason from shore today .We landed 26 eyes and managed 5 eaters from 15 1/8 up to 19 1/4 inches. we fished for 6 hours and had a great day , at times it was hard to fish with two poles, we were getting hits as soon as we got there till we left. Lots of 14 and 13 inchers and few 8 inchers too. Most of the fish were caught on jigs colors red , green and purple worked best with minnows on them. Fish were caught in the current breaks and at the end of sand bars. Well thanks for fishing reports again Jeff. Keep up the great work. From Jeff B.

Here’s a picture of bushman1 eyes he caught . Great job.

Nice fish bushman1 and son who would think fishing the mighty rock in Feb and its only going to get better.

We Fish

Excellent catch.

Be seeing you out there soon.

D

Launched the Minnow at Newville yesterday, and fished from noon till 4, hoping for a pre-front ravenous bite.. Was pretty slow, and only boated one 14.99999inch eye, and several missed hits, all during our first two drifts from bridge to bridge. Tried anchoring and pitching plastics in couple locations, and nada. But I figure this was a bonus day, and got to get the cobwebs out, and the Minnow didnt leak. . Looks like we should have fished from shore with the fellas above. Nice catch!

Bushman, I see you’re from Lake Puckaway. Howz the Fox over that way this time of year?. Been thinking about giving it a crack this spring and launching out of Montello, by the former dam.

oh boy now you opened an bucket of worms EZ . That’s hot fishing over there Jeff a.k.a bushman1 can put you on the fish in return trip to the big pond.

Fished from the wall today 6:00am till 10:00am I was the only one on the wall, managed to catch eight lost one keeper on the wall because I was cold and slow to grab the net but managed to bring one home for the pan a 17 1/2″ it seemed to shut down around 10:00am when the wind started to blow out of the east. Will try early again Sunday morning.

A better picture.

Awesome. Good and tastey. Your just an die hard angler Andy.

Jeff,
I have no more stress now that I retired from the Fire Dept. I am at peace when I seemed to be fishing My circulation has improved alittle and I dont get cold as I used to.
We Fish

Hi Z-Man Puckaway is such a good lake to fish that after 10 years of driving here to fish that WE finally moved here so I did not have so far to drive to fish. Now the only driving I do is to work. Excellent lake for eyes and everything that swims. Take care and be safe out there.From Jeff B.

Ola, Jeff…Yup, I’ve tended to favor newville early in the year, but it sure didn’t pay-off that trip. kept thinking…”should’ve launched at the by-pass, should’ve launched at the by-pass, etc. etc.”. But like I said, that was a bonus boat trip…don’t think I’ve been on open water in january before…closest i got was with you, on New years eve couple years back…remember? . anyway, nice to see some fish being caught from shore. Gotta get some soon, though, cuz just ate my next- to- last batch of eyes….if you want to see what they looked like, go back to some November posts. Man, those days kept me going all winter, but getting the itch to feel that very familiar “thump!” . Comm’on spring.!

Fished the honey hole again today 2/5/06 6:00am till 10:00am damn it was cold, had lots of line problems for some reason. caught several eyes under 15″ and several 16″ and snagged one sheeps-head. All fish released Otherwise it was pretty quite this morning off the wall.

We Fish

Went fishing after work this afternoon fished from shore lost count after 15 eyes many just legal and lots of small ones but it was sure fun till the hand got cold from practicing My catch and release technique. All fish were caught on plastics a green gold sparkly twister tail and a pink lead head jig.

We Fish

That’s a great way to start the month of march. Was trying to get out today too, in my Minnow boat, but work kept getting in the way and couldnt get out early. Oh well…. more nice days to come soon, I hope. I called the Rock River Marina yesterday, and they told me that the river was open at Newville, if anyone looking to get their hulls wet. Next few days ought to be OK in that stretch, until the ice-bergs start coming down.

Had boat out today at Newville, no fishing, have to break in motor. Water temps ranged from 34.5 degrees at ice edge on Kosh to 37 degrees below I90 bridge. Ice is going fast, at this rate probably a week! Marked quite a few fish in hole by Anchor Inn, saw 2 others out fishing but unknown if they were catching.

Wow..that sounds like torture…having the boat in the water without wetting lines! sounds like it wont be long for it all to open up, but good to know we have some open water at Newville. What’s your new boat/motor?