April Fishing Reports

Jerry Mills from walleye league was nice enough to take me out on the water this morning. We started up by the 106 bridge around 8:00, in our first 2 drifts we boxed 3 legals, about an hour later we boxed 1 more and then it dried up. At around 9:30 we headed down to the VFW, we boxed 1 in our 1st drift, and proceeded to make 2 more drifts with nothing. At around 10:30 we jetted over to the stink pipe. On our first drift I slammed a dandy female in the 23-24″ range and on the very next drift I got one just a hair smaller in the 21-22″ range “both released”. We did get one about 17″ a few drifts later as well. At around 11:45 we headed down to Blackhawk. We had 6 in the box when we got down there and in 3 drifts at around 1:00pm we had 4 more and left with our 2 man limit. All the fish I caught were caught on 3/8oz Blue/White/Glow Oddball jigs with blue/white paddle tails. Jerry caught most of his fish on 3/8oz Northland blue/white/glow gum balls tipped with a magnum fathead. We ended with 8 saugers and 2 walleyes in the box. Mixed in with the saugers and walleyes were lot’s of sheepshead and catfish, and 1 whitebass. In all in was a great day on the ROCK.

Nice!
Way to go guys!
Hope to get there on Monday and then next Sunday, Monday, Tuesday.

Nice job NM. Olivia and I dropped in at Blackhawk around 3:30 and fished VFW back down until almost dark. Nothing legal, but still had spurts of action. Very similar to what you had. We would hit 1 to 3 fish in a drift, then nothing. Move and find a few more. I seemed to be plagued with sheepshead and 13″ suagers. Olivia had the best with a 14-7/8″ eye.
1/4 oz Pearl-Purple and Glow-Chart blades, Chart – orange core 3″ moxie, Oyster 2.45 Pulse-Rs, and Gold cracker Paddle tails all produced for us.

Nothing big for us yesterday but we did boat some 16″ers I have ready for chowder this week. When all was said and done we should have stayed downtown Fort. Nothing at Blackhawk. Bark area produced a flock of sheep. A couple legals were lost boat side. At least we got those out of the way before tourney time. All fish bit on a minnow. My 16″er came on a Lindy rig. The first fish to put a bend in my new rod and it felt great. Great weather for a first time out this year.

Lots of spewing males caught after work Monday. If you’re into shore fishing in Fort it won’t get better than it is now if you haven’t missed it already. Just remember to bring a towel for the jiz. Saw a few big females yesterday rolling on the surface and one chasing a hooked male. The females just weren’t biting but in a few weeks get ready to hold on tight! Water temps in Fort have reached the upper 40’s.

Meandered the shorelines form 8:30 to 1am. Crankbait bite was ok until about midnght, then really turned on.
Live Target Rainbow smelt in deeper water & the OLD chart/Pearl #11 floating Rapala

Excellent, wish I could fish in the dark but I need my beauty sleep. League is going to be hard enough on me trying to get up at 4 to go to work Fridays. I’ll be ugly back on the water weekends the next month or so. Somebody please put on another pot of coffee!

Sleep is way over rated. I haven’t done much of that for years.

Needless to say I did call it beauty sleep.

Went out today for this season’s maiden voyage to get the kinks out. Picked up a couple hitchhikers along the way. and got schooled. Eaters were nowhere to be found, but with beauties like these, who needs eaters. Got a few good laughs at some of the very rusty netting displays, which gave us something to work on before it counts at tourney-time.

Z I thought I saw your boat. I was walking the shore for a couple hours before heading to Rockford for a seminar. You did better than me. 3 dinks and 1 pig.

Hummm…I know that spot.

Happy Birthday Jeff. Have a great day. Fish for dinner tonight?

Water levels are dropping too fast, http://water.weather.gov/ahps2/hydrograph.php?wfo=mkx&gage=fatw3. Don’t want rain to damper my Saturday on the water but we could use some to retain current levels and get that crawler bite going. Keeping minnows alive and on the hook has never been something I’ve been fond of and my car could use a rinse too. It’s nice to see those guys on LL struggling I hope I would never fish for 12 hours in one area if I’m not catching fish nor seeing others hooking up. We limited out Monday and saw lots of guys on shore catching fish too. Those piling up at the mouth don’t seem to be having much fun.

Forgot to say ice went out on Monona today. The bay was clear a couple days ago. Ice on Ripley is mostly gone too. Haven’t seen K for a couple days but expecting the same especially if we get that rain this weekend.

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It’s nice to see those guys on LL struggling I hope I would never fish for 12 hours in one area if I’m not catching fish nor seeing others hooking up. We limited out Monday and saw lots of guys on shore catching fish too. Those piling up at the mouth don’t seem to be having much fun.

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That there is funny because it used to be me….I would have left…or just followed Jeff around

And Happy Birthday Jeff

I would have went home though 4 of those 12 hours were likely spent at the boat landing trying to get in and out. I could never keep up with Jeff even now that i spend lots of time in his boat.

Happy Birthday Jeff
Hope you don’t have to pee more often at night

Thank you all for all the birthday wishes! cya u on the water

Happy B-day, Jeff. If I knew it was your birthday, would have saved some GPS Coordinates for you, but then again, to keep things fair, maybe you can send a few my way. Here’s to you!

Banged this beauty from shore tonight!!

Happy Birthday Jeff, see you next Thursday!!

After trying the baked haddock at Cracker Barrel a couple weeks ago I had to find a copycat recipe and tried this one with a couple walleye fillets, http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-detail.asp?recipe=415995. Most excellent! By the way, here’s my favorite walleye chowder recipe too though I use venison bacon, http://www.dwfonline.com/recipes/recipe4.htm. Enjoy. Grilled, beer battered & pan fried, baked, chowder – I need more walleye!

So after hitting the Rock pretty hard for a couple days, without any eater-size fish, decided to change it up a bit, and hit Lake MI yesterday. Now you figure that being on a 22,400 square mile lake, it’s unlikely to run into somebody you know, much less someone from Minocqua and Ixonia, wherever those places are at. Not only that, but they were on my spot. Look familiar? And then the salesman of the two, after talking to a couple fellas who shared that they have been having a tough time finding any fish on the Rock, gives them my name, points out my boat, and tells them to follow that Yarcraft when they see me on the Rock, and they’ll catch fish. He also shared with them that I guide the Rock and other waters, and that I’d take them out for free because I’m such a nice guy; all this was out of earshot, of course. And after doing all that sales pitching to have me followed and book me a guide trip,all he asked me for was a $50 commission. What a guy!
Oh, and for the fishing report on the Big Pond, only three small browns.

Z, the look on that guys face was priceless until his friend told him I was Yank ‘ n his chain. as for the pond, Mark landed 3. I missed a couple. But having that guy calling his buddies with the “secret info” was hilarious. As soon as we knew he was a meat hunter, figured you were the best guy for him to follow glad you were able to handle the joke

Funny stuff, for sure. Now I’m gonna have to watch my back on the river, to see if I’m being tailed, and tell him JP is the guy he really wants to follow.

Oh yeah, almost forgot. It was good to meet you Mark. If you ever get back down here, shoot me a pm so we can get out.

Be careful here it comes. Water level is up a foot already since Saturday morning and projected to go up another foot by Wednesday to flood stage. Expecting no wake conditions by the end of the week. http://water.weather.gov/ahps2/hydrograph.php?wfo=mkx&gage=fatw3

I took the back roads home today and cut around by hustisford. More water thanb land in most places around the Rock. This will take some time…

Drove by the same areas again…..water is still on the rise. Hopefully it crests soon The first two pics are the Rock. Its about 75-100 feet wide in the spot at normal levels. The rest are feeder creeks that are normally dry or 2-10′ wide after a “normal” rain.

I’ve finally patterned the bite! …cold, rain, rain, rain, no bites, cold, rain, rain, rain, no bites…

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I’ve finally pattern the bite! …cold, rain, rain, rain, no bites, cold, rain, rain, rain, no bites…

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Positive attitude