Rock River Smallmouth......NOT Northern WI. biggies BUT CENTRAL WI. NUMBERS!!!

[analfisherman]

OK, Wisconsin ANGLERS.......you all have heard about the BIG SMALLIES up in Northern Wisconsin! 
Well in reality, there are many, many good smallmouth waters in WI.! 

So this season I decided to target Smallies in Southern Wi. and try out some anal tactics to do it with. 

So to start, I chose to do some Urban Shorebusting in Central Southern Wi. on the Rock River.
Now the Wi. River has some some NICE SMALLMOUTH but the ROCK.........not really known for the Smallmouth bite.

Now the stretch from about Kellogg Ave under the Highway 14 over pass up to the Beloit Dam has some really good numbers  and some even fair size ones too.
Now this may not be Erie or other big water Smallies but I caught a 20', a 22 in. and many in the 18' to 20' arena this season...in the Avalon Dam area just north of Beloit.

BUT THATS NOT WHAT THIS REPORT IS ABOUT! 

THIS IS TRUE URBAN FISHING IN THE CITY OF JANESVILLE.........and MANY OF YOU have waters just like this in your town/city too.

The technique.

Tossing a Shroomz jig up current about 7-10 feet, letting current bring back to me and then 7-10' feet behind me....so like a 20 ft. total distance per toss.
Then 'popped' throughout retrieve to avoid rock snags and I'm a believer in 'action' retrieves.

So the setting.
It's been HOT here in Southern WI. and if the heat indexs aren't showing mid ninties....it's RAINING.......just like ALL OVER WISCONSIN this year.
So I'm thinking lets find smallies right in the center of town.......I'm talking DOWNTOWN right off of Main Street.

We have 2 dams in the center of town and these are small dams and in reality actually don't have river access going 'through them'allowing boat, kayak, or even canoe traffic to get from one side of dam to the other.

BUT they have WALLS on each side to keep the river in the river and not going down Main St....just like many of you have in your small River Towns/Cities here in WI.

So I'm fishing the walls and as you guessed...the Rock River is LOADED with big rock...some natural but even more placed by city crews doing street demolition and lining the bank sides with the demolition cement from new streets.

Now the river is HIGH and actually moving pretty fast....we've had NO WAKE all but about 2-3 weeks this year.
Guys/girls are walking the walls dragging cranks of all sorts behind them going up river against current.
Having 'some success'...but not really enough to keep their interest.....more of a 'just killing time' type thing.
NOT MY BAG OF TEA......trolling by foot up river when everyone knows....river smallies like to face UP CURRENT and feed on bait flowing down river to THEM....not coming from behind them and swimming by.

Sooooooo....we are in the Midwest and I often 'Midwest Finesse Fish' from my Kayak.......so why not FROM THE WALLS??

So I've been using a 1/6th oz, shroom head and started with a simple 2.5' TRD and workied THROUGH the gammit of bait options including.....









AND the

Scented 3' leech


along with the Finesse Tube



I used the Finesse Shroomz, the Power Shroomz and the Micro Shroomz.
I but small skirts on at times and but NO REAL increase in bites.
spent 2 weeks messing with presentations, different baits including a CrawZ on a Chompers 1/8th oz. standup jig.

Results:
First outting 13 smallies biggest 16.5" (two over 16" and 4 over 15"), one 18" sheepshead and a 24" cat.
All using a TRD in Green Pumpkin

Day two...same bait....17 smallies, (17.25", a 17.25", a 16.5" and a 16.25 and 7 over 15" but under 16") two big sheepshead and a 28" cat.

Day three....same bait...24 smallies,(17.75", a 17.25", a 17",  6 over 16 but under 17", 7 over 15" but under 16" and one 20" sheepshead and two approx. 20" cats

Day four.....same bait (now when I'm talking 'same bait', I'm talking the EXACT SAME BAIT....same jig and plastic, NOT simimilar but the EXACT BAIT)
So now my goal is to see how many I can catch on a SINGLE plastic...remember...I'M ANAL! 

One 17.75" smallie, a 16.75" two over 15" and THEN THE DREADED NORTHERN PIKE TOOK MY JIG AND BAIT!!!!

So 63 one a single plastic and jig.......and remember these 16s were in the 2-3 lb. range and the 17s in the 4+ range....these are fatties.
Very fast current SO THESE WERE A BLAST TO CATCH and within 10mins of my front porch.
IN THE MIDDLE OF DOWNTOWN JANESVILLE! 

No outting was I out longer than a couple of hours and the two week grand total was ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY SEVEN SMALLIES.

If you want more details just ask....you ALL KNOW I like to keep my posts short....so I didn't get into great detail....ask any and all questions.

[Capt. BassinLou]

Wow!! That's some excellent info with great numbers of smallies caught to back it up. Well done Anal.  Thank you for sharing!!