Lake Koshkonong & Rock River Walleye Report

Gregg Pfeifer A.K.A Databoy meets me at my house Saturday at 5:30 am. Gregg jumps in my truck and we head to Anchor Inn in Newville WI for the 2007 annual classic walleye tournament on the mighty Lake Koshkonong and Rock River that starts at 7:00 am sharp. We get there at 6:00 am to launch the boat and get it tied up so we can head to the bar to sign up and eat the great breakfast buffet Anchor Inn provided for only $5.00 all you can eat. It was awesome, bacon, toast, scramble eggs, fried potatoes, milk and orange juice. After the good eats and a few words from the chief off we went. Databoy and I plan on fishing the river system on this day. Pre fishing has told us that if we wanted to win or even place in this tournament it was going to be in the river, where, I can’t tell you that at this time. I still need these spots to catch some walleyes for the Thursday night tournaments Anchor Inn holds every Thursday during the summer. The trolling bait and jigging bait were both bagging nice fish. Our goal was to jig first then troll if needed. The jigging bait paid off with this nice walleye jigging in ten foot of water with hard bottom. Water temp was in the 60’s and Berkley gulp black 3” leech caught this nice walleye which got the blood flowing. Also Berkley gulp 3” minnow black shad were catching fish as well. We use all Berkley gulp on 3/8oz Zone-R’s Nuckle ball jigs by Fin-tech tackle Co in the glow/green, yellow or black colors.

Fishing wasn’t fast or furious but with some patience you caught fish. The bite came about every 20 minutes for two hours then it shut down. You had to be ready for the bite and don’t waist anytime when the walleyes were biting. The key was to stay on the fish and catch as many as you can until they shut down. After they shut down your head started to play games. Jeff move to a different area, Databoy what do you think? Go trolling; go back to your other favorite spots change baits. Baits we did change and some worked and some didn’t, then it was a color trip, some colors worked and some didn’t. The key was to just wait until the fish started biting again. Good practice probably not. But in this case Databoy caught this nice walleye which was a plus. Now we were starting to feel just a little more confident.

We weren’t catching as many fish as some of the other boats around us but I just stayed confident that my bite would happen. I was fishing for big fish not numbers. I had seven hours to catch five walleyes between two anglers so I felt I had the advantage. I lost a seven to nine pound walleye at the boat because I didn’t have my drag and back reel set correctly. That fish would have been the big fish winner and won me the tournament, oh well. I hung in there after losing that fish and caught this nice seven ponder and missed the big fish by four ounces

As far as what I used for techniques and baits, trolling caught one nice walleye with the new Berkley Flicker Shad FSH5M-FT in the Fire tiger color. But the lake was to choppy for me to keep trolling so I stuck to the vertical jigging bite in the river which you really had to know how to run the trolling motor to keep the bait vertical. My rod choice was St. Croix Legend Tournament TWS66MLF and fishing line was Berkley flame/green fireline in the four pound test and jigs was a 3/8oz Zone-R nuckle ball jig in colors of black, glow/green and chart/yellow by Fin-tech tackle company. We tipped are jigs with berkley gulp leeches or minnows and sometime half of night crawlers. First place at this tournament wasn’t won by my team but we were close I can give you a few excuses. We did take 3rd place and the 1st and 2nd place winner were all in the same place on the water. 1st place was high 17lbs and 2nd place was low 17lbs and I and Databoy the Fin-tech team took 3rd place with around 16 lbs. Berkley, St. Croix and Fin-tech Tackle Co. thank you for the great product.

I want to thank my sponsors at Don’s Marine LLC, Evinrude Outboards, Alumcraft Boats, Pure Fishing, St. Croix Rods and Fin-tech Tackle Co. without you I would not had the success I did. Thank You. And Databoy Thank You also.

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