Learning Castle Rock Lake, WI.

Blue Fleck and myself left Sparta 1/16/10 around 7ish heading for Castle Rock Lake which is quickly becoming one of my favorite class rooms, and what a class room it is A guy doesn’t realize how much water is there until driving around on the frozen mass looking for one of the orange dots found on the Hot Spots map Just a note to you guys…..the dot may be on the map but you will not find it on the ice

After fishing this lake last week it was obvious that we needed to stay mobile and cover some ground if we were to learn anything. With this in mind, the truck was packed with the sleds pushed up front while the fishing gear was loaded near the back for an easy reach saving us a lot of unloading/loading to get to the rods, bait and jigs.

The first area fished out from the Little Yellow river in 11-13fow was the starting point only because we did ice a few nice specks first trip out. With one short crappie (nice for a lot of other lakes) released it was time for the first move. Second spot to the south landed us in the same depths of water. It produced a big 9inch gill which put the smack down on Blues bait. Not being happy with the results and after not marking fish for sometime, we both agreed deeper water needed to be found. After a look on the map we headed for the next destination towards Devils Island which hopefully would land us in 20 plus feet.

After a long trip across the ice and parked where deep water was shown on the map, we walked around with the LX-5 and a cup of water so depth readings could be made before drilling holes. Bingo, we were in 24-28fow and the excitement level stepped up a notch. After drilling a number of holes, baits were dropped in hopes of making the right move.

My first drop with a modified Rainbow Foil Lightning Spoon tipped with a minnow head had a mark race up 4 feet from the bottom and take the offering. Within minutes of set up there was a thick 11 inch crappie on the ice, things were looking up, and that’s when the paper mouths slowed down

Blue put a spanking on some White Bass with a Slender spoon tipped with red spikes and I had a fat 12 inch White Crappie fall prey to a Silver/Red Slender Spoon tipped with a minnow head, and of course there were a few swings and misses But on the bright side, we have another waypoint marked

Things learned in this class room today, the deeper water was holding more fish. They may not have been all biters but the MarCums were telling the tale of fish below and it was up to us to make them bite. The water clarity was also a lot clearer in the last area we fished, next trip back this will be were the bell rings to start class again Castle Rock is an awesome place for this kid at heart to be learnin’

It was nice to meet IDO’er Glenn D on the big lake this day who makes better than a 4 hour trip to fish Castle Rock, thanks for walking over and shaking hands Glenn
Another bonus was seeing a 24 inch walleye landed, pictured, and released, slot limits are a great thing for the waters.
Tough day fishing, which was obvious by the work out the Lazer Mag received but, the company was great and there were some good lessons learned and waypoints marked on the GPS. We will hit it right on this Lake Yet……right Blue

Good luck fishing people