Rock River Fishing Spot
- Elevation: 681'
- Last Modified By: vinny60 on 09/10/09 06:23 PM
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Blood baits, cheese baits, and various homemade concoctions of an odor most foul. Worms, liver, shrimp and an almost endless variety of goodies are successful at one time or another for catfish. The more solid prepared baits can be balled around a treble hook and fished on the bottom with a tight line weighted by a sliding sinker. Pieces of sponge rubber are dipped in baits having a thinner consistency and placed on or before a hook. Around trees and log jams a bobber may be necessary to prevent loss of gear. Many catfish are taken on trotlines baited with crayfish or fish. If you're seeking flatheads, use large hooks and big bait such as 6" carp on your trotline. Fishing is best for catfish when it's slacking off for many species during the hot months of summer. Since light for vision is not necessary for feeding catfish, often the best fishing occurs at night.Northern are not particular what they strike at so long as it's presented close to them and many of the artificial lures are successful, Large minnows are also well received. The most popular is the nightcrawler on a small hook, but crickets and grasshoppers work well. Fish near cover such as brush piles, stumps or weed beds and drop your bait as close as possible to the cover, Use a small bobber to keep the bait off the bottom. Bluegill fishing is best during the evening, June through September. White bass like current and turbulence which is why they favor tailwaters. They are often taken on jigs by bank or boat fishermen casting into the rough water directly below a dam. Another place to try is the downstream side of a bridge abutment, concrete wall, or some other such obstruction where the water rolls after passing around or over the obstruction. Spinners with minnows or artificial lures resembling minnows are effective. Best fishing seems to be in the morning or evening and May and August are usually the best months. The smallmouth bass does not attain the size of largemouth bass, but it is more of a scrapper and pound-for-pound provides more heart-pounding action than any other stream species in Illinois. Artificial lures such as plastic worms, jigs, spinners, and spoons are most effective, but live frogs and crayfish are also successful, Fish in early morning or late evening near brush, stumps, willows, and fallen trees where they can play hide and seek with their prey. Largemouths are sight feeders attracted by action and not by smell of the bait or lure. They succumb to the temptations of a variety of lures, plugs, and jigs which must each be retrieved in the manner best suited to the lure. Worms are popular. Minnows hooked below spinners may be more effective on rivers than on impoundments. Still fishing with minnows will seldom take a largemouth, The best fishing is in early morning or evening in May, June and September
Rock River Description
The Rock River is a tributary of the Mississippi River, approximately 285 miles (459 km) long, in the U.S. states of Wisconsin and Illinois. It rises in southeast Wisconsin, in southwest Fond du Lac County, approximately 10 miles (16 km) south of Ripon and 25 miles (40 km) southwest of Lake Winnebago. It flows south, through the Horicon National Wildlife Refuge, then meanders southward draining the area of southeast Wisconsin between the Wisconsin River and Lake Michigan. It passes Watertown, Jefferson, and receives the Bark River at Fort Atkinson. In northern Rock County it receives the Yahara River, and flows southward through Janesville and Beloit into northern Illinois, where it receives the Pecatonica River 5 miles (8 km) south of the state line. It flows south through Rockford, then southwest across northwestern Illinois. passing Oregon, Dixon and Rock Falls, where it becomes navigable. It joins the Mississippi at Rock Island. The Rock River is well situated to provide fishing opportunities for a sizable portion of northern Illinois' population. Fortunately the river is up to the task, with populations of channel catfish, walleye, northern pike, largemouth and smallmouth bass, sauger, white bass, bluegill, flathead catfish, drum and bullheads. The river provides an aquatic resource of some 12,400 acres. Dams at Rock Island, Milan, Sterling(Rock Falls), Dixon, Oregon, Rockford, and Rockton cause tailwater and lake habitats in addition to the slough, side channel, main channels.Tailwater habitat, found below each dam is fast turbulent water caused by the passage of water over the dams. Tailwaters receive heavy fishing pressure because fish congregate in these rough waters. Walleye, sauger and white bass are most frequently taken from tailwater areas. The Rock is a catfish stream -- more so than any other large stream in the state. Channels can be taken almost anywhere along its course and are the primary sport fish. Huge flatheads lurk in the deeper holes. "Cats" often hole up underneath old stumps, downstream of fallen trees, around log jams and in washout holes along banks. They can frequently be found on the edge of the main channel border habitat where the bottom drops sharply to deeper water in the main channel. Northern pike are not abundant in any stream of this state, but apparently the largest population is in the Rock River. The best time to fish for them is early spring (March) when they move to spawn. Bullheads may be caught during the warmer months in quiet shallow areas. Walleye and the less common sauger are taken in the tailwater areas in March and April.Bluegill can be taken during the summer months on a variety of baits.
The Rock River is a tributary of the Mississippi River, approximately 285 miles (459 km) long, in the U.S. states of Wisconsin and Illinois.