Rock River, April Walleye Run,(Jefferson County)

Hi Anglers, Saturday was slow if you wanted big fish. If you wanted small fish it was a great day. All you had to do is fish the 16 foot hole like everyone else and make sure you had lots of bait. After five dozen minnows you might go home with one or two keepers . To get out Saturday I had to salt and sand the launch, WOW what a angler will do to go fishing. My partner and I never caught a keeper Saturday, go figure . Water temp drop 10 degrees by Saturday. Last Wednesday it was 50 degrees and Saturday it was 40. Fishing is only going to get better. Ted Peck said the walleye run is on full force. Go get’em Ted.

hey jeff, sorry to hear you didn’t do to good this weekend. i never made it out. ended up doing stuff around the house. you know how that goes.
so which tournament was that, that you fished? i heard that your buddy won it. T-2-T well hopefully the big ones are popping soon!!!!

No need to say sorry Mike. If I would have went to the deep hole like everyone else I would have did better. I should have know when water temp drops ten degrees to fish deep. I had shallow on my mine all day and would not change. Then when I was coming back to the launch downtown in four foot of water lots of rock and little current, low and behold guess what I see rolling on top of the water. Yeah your right a four or five pound walleye. HMMMMMMMMMMMMMM what does that tell you. By that time the tourney was over. The tourney was ran by a couple of guys from Janesville and sponsered by Gander Mountain, $20 entry.

wow, thats pretty wierd to see a nice walleye doing that. do you know if the river has come up with this snow. i’m not sure how much snow you got in fort but we got atleast 4 or 5 inches here. nice april weather!! maybe some more water in the river will help get some fish moving.

Mike we only got one or two inches. This weekend should start popping if the weather can make up it’s mine. A friend told me that the reason this month was named after a woman is because they can never make up there mine.

thats a good one! i think i’m heading up to the wolf this weekend. need some new scenery. although it will probably be a zoo since gillespie had his show there last week. also might try the fox one day. i’m looking to put a walleye on the wall and i hear thats the place to be.

All, I’ve trying my luck further up river by Jefferson. Fishing from the RR bridge down to the first bend. Same as by Fort, lots of small fish. Did manage to pick up 2 keepers both 17″.Lundman you should be alright up at the Wolf. I have a ex-brother in law that lives up there and am going up for a 4 day’er this weekend. Stay away from Orihula and Fremont and you should be OK. I fish out of Weyawega, it’s much quieter the farther you go up.Their starting to get the males pretty regular, started heating up about 4days ago. 3/8 oz chartruse and orange the hot color. Good luck and tight lines to all.

hey fshrmn, those are the two spots i planned on going to. never fished anywhere else up there. i hope theres enough fish to go around.

i have been meaning to try the rock towards where you have been trying in hopes of finding some better fish but i guess there not there either. where did they all go?

Mike, if it’s the last thing I do I’ll fine them.

jeff, when you find them, let me know!

Ah, a long weekend for me! I’ll be out Friday morning and Saturday and will let those of you less fortunate know how it goes. I guess I’m back off the Kmart launch working south toward 106. If anyone else is in the area in the morning just look for my little tub and stop by. Good luck to all and may the best angler not get all the fish,

Gregg

my how plans change. ended up fishing the rock today and it sure stunk. two little ones caught all day. water seemed very dirty to me. maybe this affected the fishing.

i did meet databoy today and he sounded like he was having the same luck. maybe it changed after that but things weren’t looking good for anybody today. i saw very few fish caught and the ones i did see were small. i hate to say it but i think my spring walleye fishing on the rock is close to being over. it just isn’t worth fishing for no or little fish. i know catching keepers isn’t everything and fishing is the sport of being out and enjoying your self, but i need to bring some home every once in a while.

Lundmann23, you’re right, I had the same luck Friday. I got out late though, 10-2 and had to call it quits to pick up my boys from school. I worked the area from Kmart to 106 and ended up with 2 14″ male sauger. I’m back at it as soon as I get off this ‘puter, see you out there around 9 – maybe south of 106 today though there was already lots of boats stacked in the deep hole there yesterday, too many guys playing hooky for a Friday.

decided to take a day off fishing and stay home. anybody doing any good today? hopefully it was better than yesterday!

I tried the area from downtown Fort north to 106 bridge Saturday and got the big skunk-a-roo! I did have one nice hit w/ fish on while trolling a spinner w/ a bottom bouncer right at the Bark/Rock intersection. I saw Bola around 2 PM heading toward the deep hole just south of 106 but Jeff, you didn’t look too happy – maybe they weren’t biting for you either? I took Sunday off but wished I would have been out Sunday and skipped Saturday. The bite had to have been better Sunday. I’ll be back Friday-Saturday again, then it’s probably time for pan fish on Lake Monona.

sounds like another bad weekend. i thought the best was yet to come but i guess not. what a bad year!

Databoy, was that you with that little boat with a trolling motor? If it was I sorry I didn’t stop. I was just starting to fish with We Fish. The NO WAKE all the way to K-Mart sucks. I also have not been catching fish. I know how all you anglers feel. But don’t give up on the rock. I’m going to keep fishing this Rock River untl I figure it out. When the fish turn on, if they turn on I will let all you guys know. The eyes should be done spawning by the weekend and after a few day of rest for the females they should turn on again. I never got the first turn on. Just that weekend that I meet Lundmans23 I did OK. Since that I have thought about selling my boat. LOL

Yep Jeff, that was me waving at you near the Bark in my tub with the trolling motor. I thought that was WeFish you were with but didn’t want to invade your space if you were out with a paying customer. I’ll be back again Friday and Saturday though I wish I was there today. It seems I can only get out when the weather sucks. Hey, I’ve caught a fish or two most times so I haven’t been too disappointed with the river. Some of those days, like Saturday with the cold front moving through, a guy really can’t be too turned off not to be hammering ’em. Real anglers fish when they can, despite the weather, low water… I seem to do better starting off by Kmart and my trolling motor won’t take me too far so I’ll be in that area again this weekend plus the current was kind of swift under the Main St. bridge and I barely crawled through in high gear. See you on the river,

Gregg

seems like this forum really slowed down. has anybody been out lately? jeff, i know you have been fishing, whats the good word!

Jeff is getting a new computer set up he’ll be back when he’s up and running again

Gonna try it Monday or Tuesday. HOPEFULLY, my string of bad luck will finally be over. I’ve been coming to the Rock for 15 years of so and until last fall, never been skunked. Now I can’t get unskunked. So if ya smell something bad, I’m probally close by…Good luck out there. Dave

I just got skunked for the second time in a row now too. I fished from 10:30-3 drifting from Kmart to Bark, one short bite between the two of us all afternoon. I guess with that luck I’m changing my plans for tomorrow and am going (gulp) panfishing on Monona. I did see some big blue gills right up by shore in University Bay on Mendota and I’m actually out of fish in the freezer. Good luck to anyone sticking it out Saturday & Sunday, I may be done for the season in favor of a change of scenery. I’m looking forward to here how you all do though, tight lines!

Gregg

Fished four hours Saturday. Got the big 0, hmmmmmmmmm pan fishing is starting to look real good. I will give the river a few more shots. I want to give the white bass run a chance, if there’s any left?

sounds like the run is over huh? now that the run is over and the walleye talk is pretty much over, how do i keep in contact with you guys. keep the talk going about different lakes and stuff. i did go crappie fishing on saturday and managed 30 between 10 and 13 inches. nice change from jigging for walleyes but i will definately miss it until fall. good luck and talk to you guys later.

hey jeff, don’t forget about the fish fry, we will just have to fish some different waters for the fish!!
Lundmann23

Mike my goal is to eat white bass at the fish fry. Some anglers think the white bass run is over to. I have that hard to believe. I feel I still can get into some good eye’s and white bass yet . I will give it about three more weeks and then Lake Mentoda here I come .

PS. We will have a fish fry .

C’mon fella’s….The white bass run has’nt even started yet.
First week in may at the earliest. Let’s not get discouraged
because the walleye run sucked this year. I will never disbelieve that the whitebass run when the lilacs bloom. If you guys want to think it’s over, than you can head for the lakes and leave the river for us true believers. Either way, good luck and full stringers…….Dave

Hey BOLA…..Does the DNR have plans to shut down part of the Indianford dam to allow for the water levels in Koshkonong and the Rock river to come up? I thought they only had a drawdown for the winter months. If they don’t bring the levels back up before the heat sets in, they might have some big problems…What do you think…?

And speaking of the fish fry, I would love to be there too, but only if I can contribute to the cause. Let’s keep on top of this so everyone knows what is going on……Fish to ya.

Based on the thousands of dead white bass along the shore of the lake after ice out, there may not be a white bass run this year. They were stacked 2-5 deep along Lautz Bay from the mouth of the Oxbow channel all the way back into Thiebeau. Not many caught yet at Jefferson. Either too early or not many left. Only time will tell if the drawdown this winter was worth it. My vote is that it was not.

I was down in edgerton for easter… and all the talk was of the big fish die off this winter/spring…. was it that bad???? They talked about tons of catfish and whitebass/walleye flaoting to the shore of kosh. … dam when the catfish die off you know it has got to be bad!!