Home Waters

Not too long ago, the Alabama rig was a big hit  in the fishing world. The set-up that mimicked schools of baitfish was celebrated and persecuted for it’s success. A lot of people were using “schoolie rigs” with great success, but the fad died out after the Alabama rig was banned in most large fishing tournaments. Recently, I’ve seen a lot of anglers using tandem rigs for walleye and white bass.

This is the aforementioned tandem rig. For the most part, it’s a rig with two hooks and two identical swimbaits. Generally they are spread out by a couple inches, and they imitate two fish swimming together. As for my opinion of the lure, I’m critical. One of the knocks on the Alabama rig by BASS and other governing bodies was potential snagging concerns. With all of those hooks, snagging was a problem. While tandem rigs don’t have nearly as many hooks as Alabama rigs, Instill have concerns about this rig ending up in fishes bellies more than their mouthes. In the river systems, there are times when it is easy to snag fish with a single hook. Right now, with spawning migrations happening, I feel like this rig is not completely ethical.

As an aside, while I’ve said that I’lol be condensing fish reports during the spawn to protect my spots, I will still make safety reports if necessary. My follow up to this will address that.

Hello Folks,

Sorry the dry up in posts. It’s been a very busy time lately. I have also decided to do my fishing reports in blocks, and not on the day of. I do this because giving a lot of information in real time in the fishing world is dangerous. Give too much, and you tend to find a bunch of people in your spot. Doing reports in blocks allows me to still tell you how I do things, while also protecting my fishing.

3-15-17

Rock River-Jefferson Dam

Fish caught-2 short sauger

Rig- 3 way river rig w/fly and minnow

Daytime

It was tough fishing in Jefferson. The water was really churning up under the dam, creating really dirty water. Classic spring conditions

3-20-17

Rock River

Downtown Fort Atkinson

Fish caught: none

Rig: 3 way rig, Moxie jig, Jig and Gulp

Early evening

Fishing was tough yet again. The stretch of river in Fort has a lot of timber on the bottom. Lot of tackle donated tonight. Need to try other methods to avoid snags.

3-24-17

Grand River-Allendale, MI

Fish caught: none

Rig: Rapala crankbaits

Daytime

This was a shot in the dark. I was visiting a friend in Michigan and had a rod in the car. Was told that there was a lot of trout/salmon and smallmouth in the river but did not catch anything. Always fish in unsure situations, you never know.

April 2

Rock River

Rig: River rig with minnow

Fish: 1 keeper walleye, 3 shorts

Early evening

Pretty good day, hopefully a sign of things to come.

With the blizzard we are currently experiencing, I thought I’d discuss the approach necessary to fish in cold, snowy conditions such as these. When it is as cold as it is outside right now, fish get sluggish. Fishing lures really fast is not a good way to get bit during conditions like this. Methods such as live bait or slow-moving lures is your best bet. Another concept to think about is the size of your bait. Fish want a big, slow-moving meal during cold conditions, so present a larger offering than you normally would. Fish can be caught in the cold.

This sauger was caught in snowy conditions on a fairly large crankbait. Fishing isn’t the best in snow, but it is doable.

Got out yesterday for the first time of the season on the Rock River in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin. February 23rd probably stands as the earliest I have ever goten out in a season to open water fish, which is pretty cool. I fished for a couple of hours yesterday with nothing to show. My roommate was fishing minnows on a river rig that I outlined before. I used the same rig, but also spent some time throwing a BFishN Tackle Moxi plastic on a 1/2 oz. orange jighead. The Moxi jig is posted just below:

I have had good luck with the moxi jig, as well as other BFishN Tackle products over the years. If you re interested at looking at their products more, here is the url to their website: (http://customjigs.com/bfishn-tackle/). The color I used yesterday was the same one as the picture, chartreuse with orange core. That is a great color combination when the water has a tea-like color to it. What was really interesting was that the water level and current was not typical of the early season. Usually, snow melt causes high water and high current, but as you may have noticed, we just did not get the snow this year. As rainier weather moves into our area as spring goes on, that will change.