March fishing Reports

I would assume we will be fishing open water before the end of this month

We are already! Get your rear up here!

i second that!! the fishing has been great too!!

Hey partner, if we don’t get open water soon we may have to take that road trip, my boat is ready when you are.

well actually im taking the boat out this weekend. probably to indianford or maybe newville. hopefully we can coax a few sluggish walleyes into biting.

Heading out in the morning, checked launches Saturday, and looks like I can get the ProDrive in at the downtown launch.
Hope to be on the water by about 9a or so, only have a few hours to fish and or break ice. The other launches were locked up tight still gonna be a few more days till they open up….

Was able to get out from 9 to 11am, launched downtown, only a little ice on the launch still. Headed upstream, was able to break ice or follow open water up to the Bark and actually ran up the Bark a ways, that’s wide open. There wasn’t any going further upstream on the Rock than that and even there only the channel from the Bark was open. We fished back downstream jigging without a bite. We only prolly fished for a half hour and spent the rest of the time busting ice. Only had to get out and push myself off the ice once, 6 inches of ice is too much to break up but can go through 3-4 inches relatively easily. Not a whole lot of open water but it’s pretty much open in downtown down to about the fort west of town… so maybe a mile of open water but with some warmer weather it should open up in the next week or so. Gonna head back out in the morning and actually cocentrate on fishing instead of playing with the boat….

well let us know how you do. im assuming there is still a ton of ice around the bypass area? i hope we get some rain to though because the water is super clear and super low. which is not a good thing this time of the year.

Thanks for the update ProDrive Al, got the boat out of storgae Saturday plan on doing some fishing this weekend some where.

Well I got out Monday from about 10a to 2p. Launched downtown, almost no ice left on the ramp, didn’t have to use 4×4 at all… Started just out from the ramp drifting pulling a minnow on a plain hook with a #5 split shot on one rod and a 1/4 oz walking sinker with a floating jighead and minnow on the other. Water is super clear, could see a white jighead at least 4 foot down, maybe even a little more .

Drifted through the couple deeper holes downtown with a couple misses under the 26/12 bridge. Tried to use stingers but dragging so slow made it next to impossible….. Went up by the Bark and tried to drift along the edge of the ice because all the deeper water is pretty well covered. Caught the only fish of day up there, a 13″ white bass on the floater. Was surprised that it hit as hard as it did, wasn’t really ready for it and almost lost my pole , actually dropped pole and had to step on it, thought it was a snag for a spit second but when I grabbed it obviously fish on . Very surprised that it hit that hard , had the whole jig and a 2.5″ fathead swallowed…

River opened up a liitle more downstream, was able to get half way between VFW and the marina upstream. Got myself a bonus hen mallard duck decoy that was frozen in the ice down there too…

Gonna put the boat away for a week or so and try to get a few more days in on the ice, we need some melt water first. I had water temps between 33.4* and 33.9*f never got above 34 with the boat in the water, so that needs to warm up some still and get a little more color. Still nice day out on the boat.

Thanks for the report. Gotta get my boat out of the swamp, I mean yard. Going to be interesting

D

Think i just may head down to the ole river after dark,try some of my shore spots,had the day off,so ive been getting the boat ready still have a couple things to do,but got the most of the changes i wanted to make done.sure hope i dont have to mow the yard by end of weekend

Lots of activity in Traxler Park here in Janesville. Talked to a guy, said they were catching big gills. Never know what that means. Others said Crappies. Heard someone picked up a 13# Nort. I didn’t see anything being caught, so don’t know.

Heading to the marina tomorrow. Want to get some rigging done before I pick up the boat. Want to add some rod holders in the back for drifting and planer boards. Any advise on rail mounts or flush mounts?

what do you have for a rig kv? im going to be setting mine up for lake mich next yr, and im going to use traxstech system.if you have the room for them ,everyone ive talked to say its the way to go.

I do kosh and the rock. Drift the river, troll the lake. If I do the lake, will probably be Erie. Just want something that will take the load. Rig is an 18 foot Crestliner. Fish and Ski so want it to be flexible.

well finally got the first eye of the year last night at indianford a 14 3/4 incher. but i got beat pretty bad by my buddy as he got another 10 shorts. used paddletails and only caught 2 on minnows. the bluegills in traxler were biting but havent caught any since friday night. anybody make it out to blackhawk yet. we will be there for sure next weekend.

To many boats, went to newville and got zero. great to be out to check boat and get techniques back. Hope to try blackhawk this week when not so crazy.

anyone been out at blackhawk this week? heading over to newville tommorow after school for a couple hours. dad and i are probably going to hit blackhawk on sunday. will post a report after tommorows trip.

Saw this post on Lake Link tonight. After I stopped laughing, thought I would copy it here. OMG

Hit er’ Tueday afternoon from 4:30 till 7:00. No takers except for a couple big ole Buffalos. Excitement for the night included a couple younger guys tackling the turbid waters in a canoe. Many of us there knew it wouldn’t be long before they got wet. Tooling around in a canoe in front of a open dam is probably not in your best interest. Wasn’t long and one of them decide he could stand up in the canoe!!! As I was fishing I soon heard quite a bit of laughter behind me. As I turned around ….sure enough…. I could see one of them trying to swim back to the canoe! The laughter quickly stopped as I think everyone realized the severity and danger this kid was in. Frigid 35-37 degree water with high flow IS NOT SOMETHING YOU WANT TO BE SWIMMING IN! Luckily he successfully made it back into his canoe. Myself and another nice angler both offered to rush him back to shore to help prevent Hypothermia. He declined and they paddled on their way. He appeared to be ok (other than his ego) and I am sure by the time they got to shore 20 minutes later he was a hurting unit as the air temp had just dropped as well. Oh yeah… no life jacket on either from what I seen! Everyone… please use your heads and be careful! On another note as I was driving home tonight I seen a couple Fire Trucks coming off of Dam Rd. Not sure what was going on with that.???

yeah i saw that same post kv 56. nothing doing in newvillw. water temp was 39. plenty of other guys out too. hopefully indianford can provide some action tommorow night and blackhawk on sunday.

fished indianford tonight for a few hours. my buddy got a legal walleye and i got a small northern and a short sauger. lots of other guys out. you guys sure have been quiet in here.

Been out the last three days, Wed, Thur, and Friday. Fished from about 9:30a till 2:30p each day, in and around Fort.
Wednesday was the nicest day with little wind, started around the 106 bridge and right away under bridge, fish on!! It was about a 28″……….. carp Only got 5 short saugers and 3 catfish, 17″ to 21″.
Thursday the wind was pretty bad, very hard to control boat, only got 3 short saugers, biggest 13″ and the first two sheepshead of the year too…
Friday was the best as far as action, I lost track of how many short fish I got, I’m sure it was at least 15…. Not one over 14″ although I got not my first but also my second tagged fish ever . Both were saugers, one 12″ other was 13.5″, caught an hour apart, within 100 yards of each other!!! My buddy also picked up a 12″ sauger and a dandy 25.5″ catfish. Also caught first walleye of the year, and only one out of all the short fish caught, prolly 1 out of 20. Didn’t realize there was that good of a sauger population. The wind wasn’t as bad Friday either. Not one legal size in three days fishing and talked with quite a few others out there that were having the same luck.

Speaking of wind, what do you guys do when it gets too windy to verticle jig? Just anchor up or try casting shore? I guess specifically on a high flow river, cold water conditions?

Made it down to the river for a little shore fishing,fished betweer RR bridge and Robt. St bridge on the bend.Managed to land 3 all were 14 3/4 in ,2 eyes and 1 sauger,the just clobbered it when they hit,used 3/8 oz pink/white jig,w/chartruse glow twister.only out 2 hrs,was fun getting my jiggin arm in shape

Shore fishing today. Two jig limit, self imposed. Took 45 minutes to lose the first one. 30 minutes or so for the next. Darn snags . Saw on small northern caught, nothing else. Had a good time though. Ready to put the boat out this week .

Made it out Sunday, nice sunny day, just great to be out, glad I got a private boat ramp, wow there must have been 100 boats out there and all catching fish in the 14 inch range, some anglers catching some keepers, you guys best keep those secerts to yourself

Netmann you get anymore before dark?

fished the afternoon hours till dark. caught about 30 fish total between my dad, buddy and i. 1 whitebass and a mix of short walleyes/saugers. tons of fish all over. used a jig/twister and minnow combo for most fish. 1 fish on gulp and a couple on paddletails. 10-14 feet seemed to be the ticket. tons of people out.
Jeff- we caught a bunch more short ones and no legals. couldnt find any legals. but a very nice day to be on the water.

Hi Jeff, Glad to see you guys again. I’m gonna get my boat out of storage this week so I’ll probably see all of you on the water soon. Stop and say “hi” if you see me. Good fishing to all…………Denny

fished again this afternoon. got a bunch more short walleyes/saugers and some whitebass. green/chart orange/chart jigs with twisters and minnows worked for us. lots of guys out again. a lot of the little guys were squirting all over the boat water temp was around 45-47 which is a couple degrees warmer than on sunday. saw 1 keeper sauger.

Same for databoy and I, looks like next year should be a good one with all those 14.5 being caught, can’t wait for the 15 to move in. I feel the bigger fish are there just don’t get a chance to eat with all those little guy feeding like snakeheads

Launched a few jigs from shore this am,tried a couple different things,nadda,switched to my old stand by, and caught 5 , all were illegals , 14 3/4 is a popular size saw about 5 or six other caught.