Rock River & Lake Koshkonong Walleye action in May

Hi anglers, hope you all had a wonderful weekend and got home safe from a nice opening weekend of fishing. I myself hung out on the Rock River with no fishing pressure Saturday & Sunday. Saw few boats, most catching a few keepers. I caught lots of little fish vertical jigging w/minnows Saturday. Then Sunday I anchored up and change baits. Down sized my jig to 1/4 oz and slow rolled a night crawler into the current. Bingo, ended up with a two nice walleyes 18″ & 16″ before the rain started Sunday, fish were CPR. just go figure, right when you find the method it’s start to rain, darn . oh well there’s always next time.

PS. The lake was pretty choppy, my boat took a beating , small repairs, nothing major.

hey jeff, atleast you had some luck on the river. was thinking of heading out there this weekend. would it be worth it? was also thinking of trolling on kosh. i need to break in my kicker so i might as well throw some rods out while i’m doing it. so what happened to your boat? i also heard the river was way up from earlier this spring, is that true?

Mike if you come over make sure you try the trolling bite if the weather permits you. Troll on the west side of the lake where the water right now is clearer. The water on the rock by Fort is pretty dirty from all the rain. You can also troll from highway 59 bridge to the lake by Newville(HOT). Newville side is the key right now. Fort area water is pretty dirty and lots of stuff floating down river. have not tried the Rock around Fort yet. Keep your eyes open and watch other anglers. That’s how I learned to catch fish on that side of the lake and river.

Databoy as far as the white bass bite, have not heard much. when I do I will post.

thanks for the info jeff but i have some more questions for ya. wheres the best place to launch to get to that area. never fished by newville. you know i have the big motor so i don’t mind if i have to take a cruise. just don’t want to get stuck if the wind picks up and i don’t want to take out my lower unit in the middle of the lake. i think with the warm weather forecast the trolling bite on all lakes should be picking up. so whats the best bait? i usually pull cranks and crawler harnesses.

Here is another picture of a nice 27 inch walleye caught by Jed Kottwitz of Lake Mills, WI. Jed caught this walleye first ice out. I also saw Jed catch this fish near Fort Atkinson. It is one of the biggest I saw this year. Jed did CPR this fish. Great job Jed, Congratulation on a nice fish.

Here is another photo of a nice walleye I CPR in March.

its about time we get some guys that cpr!! nice fish though!!

Sorry, not a post on walleyes but they aren’t the only fish in the water. A friend at work is crazy about catfish and wants me to take him out fishin. The only thing I know about em is people use stink bait. Jeff or anyone else got any tips or a few spots to try. I don’t know Kosh but I’d try it. I have a new Stratos w/ a 150 on it and don’t want to hit no rock bars. Also a good place to launch. The river should come up some with this weeks rain.

Hi Anglers, went out Saturday after before the storm. Caught lots of little eyes & saugers one nice walleye 19″ whiched I CPR. will have pictures later.

FSHRMN as far as cats i don’t fish the lake for them. but I do at the end of may fish for them in the river. I fish for them along the wall in Fort Atkinson with slip bobber and a big leech. You actually could start now fishing for them, but it will get lots better.

WE FISH, hows the new boat?

Water level in Fort Athinson is about one foot from the top of the wall.

this site really turned off, wheres everybody been catching fish?

I noticed that also, I think they all are doing yard work.

Mike I think lot of anglers are fishing lakes this time of year. Did you ever check out FTL homepage?

ya i’ve checked it out but its mostly larger lakes that i don’t fish much.

Hey all, I haven’t been fishing much lately Between the weather and kids it’s been tough to get out. I also got kicked off the neighbor’s farm pond. I have to find a place to go Saturday and/or Sunday though. I’m not sure it’ll be on the Rock/Koshkonong though, is there anything worth making the 45 minute trip for down there?

Hey Jeff, I remember seeing a post of yours on lake-link I think where you said to watch the crows to see if they’re on the walls catching craws. Have you been getting any action on cats at all? I was doing real good on crappie on Pine Lake but Tuesday got skunked. Bass should start moving in with some stable weather. Excellent lake for both LM & SM decent pike too. Limited to 18 trailers though so get there early on weekends or after 4pm and wait. I live in Pewaukee and fish the area lakes at least 2x weekly, email and I can get more specific. Good luck guys, I might take the kids to Tichigan, their supposed to be killing cats and the crumb-snatchers want to try it.

Mark I’ll be checking this weekend if the cats moved in on the wall.

Mark how much does Pine lake charge for launching if they charge? Also what’s the name of the road off 83 to get to launch?

i think its 5 bucks to launch there. i got there at 5 in the morning a couple weeks ago and the lot was full. also remember being out on a saturday afternoon last year and it was a freakin zoo!!

I would only fish that lake or any lake during the weekdays. I mainly always fish the lakes during the weekdays and the river on weekends, THIS TIME OF YEAR . works great.

Pine lake launch is $6.00 during the week. Take 83 north (real curvy) to hwy K right on K about 1/2mi.Yeah it’s a zoo on weekends unless it’s kinda crumby out. Jeff if your not familiar with the lake stay at least 200yds off the north end of the island. Theres a rocky point that comes up from over 40′ to less than a foot. On the west side of lake about even with the island theres a bay called sauerkraut bay. Good for pike and walleye. East side of lake theres a little bay that has a point shaped like a hook (if you have a map) good for everything in the a.m. smallies definitely prefer leeches to crawlers, natural colors, the lake water is very clear with sparse vegetation good luck If your gonna go during the week post a day in advance and I’ll see if I can get out there. Maybe we could get databoy, or lundmann out there.
Lundmann, did you ever get up to the Wolf River this spring?
I’ll probably hit Oconomowoc Lake this weekend. Walleyes are hittin there but only got 2 legals out of 13 fish 18″ minimum.

fshrmn, i never made it to the wolf this year. stuck to the rock hoping it would pay off and it never did. my buddies were on the wolf last weekend and did good on the white bass. also fished partridge and caught quite a few northerns with one being 36. fished the fox in depere once and caught a few but not a wall hanger that i was hoping for. i think this was a weird year for spring walleye.

anytime you guys wanna meet at pine, i will be there.

hey everybody, anybody from southeast wisconsin heading up to the ftr get together in red wing. sounds like it was a pretty good time last year. i would be willing to drive and take my boat if anyone is interested. i need to see this place after seeing all those walleyes brought in practically everyday. i wish the rock was like that!!

Not a Rock/Kosh report but I thought I’d let you guys know what I’ve been up to. I managed a few hours out on Lake Monona this afternoon finally. There’s still no blue gills around yet – at least not in my favorite spots, from what I hear there are a few being caught in Squaw and Monona Bays though. I saw a guy near me in the 17′ hole near the my favorite launch catch a nice crappie but that was it for pan fish and I gave up on those after an hour. The last 2 hours I spent over the developing weed bed in 4′ of water dragging a pre-hooked plastic worm on the bottom and caught 5 smallmouth bass. The first one was a runt caught on a fire tiger Rapala but the next 4 were real nice, 13″, 16.5″, 14″ and 13″. I’m going back there again with my son for a few hours tomorrow morning, then that’s probably it for fishing down here until June unless I’m lucky enough to get off early some evening after work and make it out – not likely though. I’ll be back up at Spirit Lake for Memorial Day Weekend.

Lundmann, I haven’t heard about the ftr Red Wing thingy but if I gather more info and am available I’m always game for catching fish. Let me know if you’re still going.

Went fishing with Bola today caught many nice eyes and did alot of catch and release but managed to keep five nice eaters for a family get together fish fry. I was sure impressed using night crawlers for bait, but as always the Zone Rs by Fin Tech was My bait of choice.
Again Jeff,thanks For a great day on the water and teaching Me some new techniques.

jeff and we fish,
nice to meet up with you guys again. well these guys out fished us again. the trolling bite was good for action but only produced 1 keeper and one fish that was pretty big, but of course, never made it into the boat. we boated a few more eyes after you guys left but nothing worth keeping. most of our fish came on crawler harnesses in the morning but the bite went to cranks in the afternoon. we wanted to stay out longer but the pleasure boats were practically cruising over our planer boards and causing for some rough fishing. until next time. good luck!! Lundmann23

Sounds like you guys had a nice day on the lake. Jeff, I thought you said it wasn’t worth a 45 minute drive Oh well, I had another nice day with my boy on Monona. We caught another 6 smallies in just over 2 hours on the water. 2 were 13″, 2 were 14″ and the other 2 were 15″. Of course, by son outfished me badly 5 to 1, but then I spent most of my time taking his fish off the hooks and messing with my 2 broken reels. On my first cast with my new reel I had the opportunity to watch the handle fly off into the lake I’m thinking about starting a new fishing show, of course it’ll be a comedy with nothing but bloopers.

Databoy I didn’t think it was , man was I wrong . Sorry

Not a problem, I had fun catching smallies on ultralights. I ended up with 14 of them over the weekend in less than 9 hours on the water, 1/2 the fish were 14-16.5″. I do want to try trolling crawler harnesses on the Kosh sometime soon though. Did you have to cover alot of water or concentrate on the SW end?

Databoy sounds like you and your son had a great day. Can’t ask for a better fishing partner. I will be heading north next week to fish big smallies. For one week that’s all I will fish for. As far as trolling I didn’t have to cover to much area. I think lundmann23 can answer that better than I can. Here are some of the fish We Fish and I caught on Saturday.

Here are two that we CPR Saturday.

Fish from Sunday’s outing. All my fish Sunday were caught jigging live bait. Green/glow 3/8oz Zone R jigs by Fin-Tech was the ticket.