Rock River October Fishing Reports & Pictures

Fishing in southern WI rivers have been slow for walleyes and at times crappies. Water temps bouncing from 73* to 63* then back up to 73* has for sure shocked the fish. Then just to throw another curve ball water clarity is horrible. Then to throw a fast fast ball that most anglers can’t hit there’s more bait fish in the river than normal. So after saying all that it only can get better, at least you would think, lol. Good luck this fall and please post your reports and pictures here. CYA on the water!

PS. Kept six crappie like this one in the picture to feed the family Sunday – did throw back the bigger ones for seed – peace.

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Launching early tomorrow, so will see how it goes. Definitely can’t catch them from the couch.

Should be the perfect day today, just before the cold front moving in tonight and rain later today. If you going to catch them today is the day – good luck.

Launched at 7 am, quit before noon. Hit a few of the favorite holes, and nothing to show for, except two solid hits and one buffalo. picked up, and trailered over to Nagawicka for some bass to finish off the afternoon. Low water conditions and almost no current on the Rock, with water temps at 64 degrees. Better days to come.

Got out to fish for the first time this month. A fair number of boats on the river near Blackhawk I. No one admitted catching anything keeper sized, not even the shore fishermen. A half dozen boats trolling the rock pile. I was too busy catching to notice if anyone else was. Good news-bad news:good news is that there seems to be a couple of year classes that did well besides 2008; bad news is I had to sort through a couple of dozen fish to keep one >15″. Lost two bigger eyes just out of reach of the net. Hint: run your shads 10-15′ behind your boards and experiment with speed. 2.2 mph was the ticket today for the shorts and 2.3+ mph for the larger ones. Got to the launch and decided to release the keeper for another day. Water was higher and warm @ 58 f.

Heard the dock at the bypass has been pulled. Also people were out yesterday and some fish were being caught by boaters and shore fishermen. No water temp to report but the bite seemed to be better in the morning. Sounds like guys were getting fish on a variety of baits and lures.

That is all i got from a second hand report.

D

Should have mentioned that this was in the usual places around blackhawk.

D

The Rainbows and Brookies were on fire on the Red Lake Reservation.

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flstick wrote:

The Rainbows and Brookies were on fire on the Red Lake Reservation.

Ah, yeah ok might want to put this report where it belongs!! Like the correct thread, my man!! LMFAO

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The bite was on yesterday. Launched solo at the River Front bar at 8:30, seeing water temp at 48 degrees, and thinking that just maybe the fall bite will start…it did. Headed up river, away from the 6 or so boats fishing towards the head of the lake, and only saw one other boat up river rest of the day. Fish were active on plastics and jig/minnow, but catching eaters was a problem, the kind of problem I like to have. Ended up boating about 25 eyes and sauger, and 20 white bass, with numerous missed bites. Only got these three pics, because the bite continued in the later afternoon rains, and didn’t want to get the camera wet. Besides the 25 and 22 inchers shown (know that spot?), released a 24, and a pair of fat 21’s caught during the rains. Even the little guys were smacking my not-so-secret , secret bait. So hopefully, this is a sign of more good things to come.
The pic of pelicans is from 3 weeks ago or so. they sure are thriving here.

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Ed, maybe it’s because you didn’t use Knuckleballs, the fish haven’t liked those lately. Maybe they’re getting too used to them and swim past 100’s of mine daily stuck on the bottom

Good job, hope you stay on the bite.

Well, after a slow start this morning, Wefish and I had the kind of day where you just don’t want to quit fishing. Launched at the Riverfront tavern in the dark,with our first drift down river towards the lake. With no hits and 6 boats moving in, we decided to head up river, and pretty much had it all to ourselves for the better part of the day. It took a while for the fish to really cooperate, but our patience paid off. It was again tough to get eater size fish, but after boating 8 beauties like the ones shown (22.5 to 24.5 inches), loosing a couple others, and taking home three in the 16 to 18 inch range, who can complain. Also released over 20 undersize, which is good to see. Odd thing today was that, unlike Thursday, we did not get a single white bass, which was fine with us.
Plastics, fatheads, and even crawlers did the damage today, with mine coming on the home-made stand-up jigs. water temps rose to the 52 to 55 degrees range, as opposed to 48 on Thursday, but it sure didn’t put a damper on the eye’s appetite, as many of them were slamming the baits. I would guess that we missed about as many fish as we boated today. so how can you stay away from a bite like this?? We can’t, and back at it in the morning for the next round.
Good to see you, Broadway Bob.

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Very nice guys. May be able to get out thursday. Gotta fish when you can sometimes. Can’t always go when you want to. Hopefully the colder weather and wind doesn’t impact the bite too much

D

Nice looking fish.

z-man wrote:

Well, after a slow start this morning, Wefish and I had the kind of day where you just don’t want to quit fishing. Launched at the Riverfront tavern in the dark,with our first drift down river towards the lake. With no hits and 6 boats moving in, we decided to head up river, and pretty much had it all to ourselves for the better part of the day. It took a while for the fish to really cooperate, but our patience paid off. It was again tough to get eater size fish, but after boating 8 beauties like the ones shown (22.5 to 24.5 inches), loosing a couple others, and taking home three in the 16 to 18 inch range, who can complain. Also released over 20 undersize, which is good to see. Odd thing today was that, unlike Thursday, we did not get a single white bass, which was fine with us.
Plastics, fatheads, and even crawlers did the damage today, with mine coming on the home-made stand-up jigs. water temps rose to the 52 to 55 degrees range, as opposed to 48 on Thursday, but it sure didn’t put a damper on the eye’s appetite, as many of them were slamming the baits. I would guess that we missed about as many fish as we boated today. so how can you stay away from a bite like this?? We can’t, and back at it in the morning for the next round.
Good to see you, Broadway Bob.

Good to see you guys, also. So now I’ll have to report.

“What those guys said”.

Out for a few hours today on the Rock and CPR’d this sauger/walleye hybrid measuring 22″ after boating a 13.5″ sauger on the same pass. Fish were being caught but you had to pick them up here and there. Minnows ruled today and they wanted them moving. Last Wednesday I caught several and kept two 18″ twins, CPR’d one 25″, and several shorts from 6-14.875″. That day they wanted minnows dragged on the bottom. Of course, I didn’t have a partner to take the picture so a selfie will have to do.

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Oh, and by the way, I DID catch white bass in the same area as the saugers!

diesel wrote:

Hopefully the colder weather and wind doesn’t impact the bite too much

D

Well, we’ve all heard it….”should have been here yesterday”. Wefish and I were there yesterday, and today, and what a difference! With winds gusting to 30 mph during the start of a cold front, the fish had big-time lock jaw. We started our first drift at 7:55 am in decent conditions and popped a nice 20 incher at 7:59 on a paddletail, thinking that this was the start of another good catch. But other than a few undersize and a white bass and one goat, that was it. We were pretty limited on where we could fish to maintain any kind of boat control, which was Wefishes’s challenge today, but even the three places we nailed them in yesterday, produced zilcho. Still a good day on the water, chewing the fat, trying to analyze how/why things could change so fast, looking forward to the next outing with less wind and more cooperative fish.

Gregg Pfeifer wrote:

Ed, maybe it’s because you didn’t use Knuckleballs, the fish haven’t liked those lately. Maybe they’re getting too used to them and swim past 100’s of mine daily stuck on the bottom

Good job, hope you stay on the bite.

Gregg,
You are so right Eds stand up jigs did out perform the knuckleball jig on the last two outings when he was at the front or back of the boat the man was on a hot streak. Also the cool thing is Ed makes these jigs in his spare time and its pays off. Its a neat looking jig and the paint job are awesome.

Peace
WeFish

Ed, can I place an order?

Gregg Pfeifer wrote:

Ed, can I place an order?

If an occasional hot streak is what you want, send your money, lots of it. Actually, I spend some time in the garage each winter replenishing my stock, with a wood burner toasting things up while the snow stacks up outside. Nice way to think about warmer days to come. Watch your Christmas stocking this year, or your Easter bunny basket; maybe a few of them will appear. Wefish said he’s got some lead coming my way, since my 15 year old supply of used tire weights is about gone.

Out today for the last hurrah for a while, as I will be out of commission on fishin till late next week.I have to say that this past week has been some of the best big-fish action I’ve had on the Rock ever. Started out today with a big bang 5 minutes into my first drift, boating the 26.5 incher shown on the floor, right by the launch, while waiting for my buddy to show up. Afterwards, we ran up river and bagged 4 more nice ones, ranging 22.5 to 25 inches, and lost two big fish as well. Didn’t have any fatheads today, so all my fish came on plastic, and my buddy’s coming on some 5 inch suckers he had left over from a recent outing. Only one eater caught (16 inches) and about 15 undersize. Best depth was at 9 feet, and most came in community spots. Very slow vertical presentation was the ticket, even on the jig/sucker combos.
Chatted with Netman throughout the day…good to see you Eric.

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I guess I better be nice to Ed so I can get some of those fish magnet jigs.

Nice job. I am jealous. Did not make is out as too many fires came up at work.

Save some eaters for me.

D

Nice Job Ed,
I see you had another good net man along, what a nice day to fish. I better hurry up and get the lead out I can see it now Edz stand up jigs coming to a bait shop near you I’am sure stock plans will be available.
Peace
WeFish

Friday Night Fish,
Parmesan crusted walleye, Half of potatoes, Pickled cucumber, and a glass of ice cold milk.

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