HOME
LAKES
REPORTS
FORUMS
TRAVEL
DEALS
SEARCH
MORE
Currently 62° MOSTLY CLOUDY
Winds15mph
Humidity85%
Visibility10mi
Dew Point57°
Wisconsin Drives Chevy
Chevy: WI Fish Reports Mobile Header
cfwaterHeader2ecfm443092612$funcCOUNTYNAME@6472eacd County
FISHING REPORTS

Fox River

Burlington, Rochester, Waterford - Racine County, Wisconsin
Wisconsin drives
Chevrolet Logo
Chevy Fishing Report Featured Vehicle: THE 2024 TAHOE
THE 2024 TAHOE
moon phase
Sun times displayed in .

Displaying 76 to 90 of 2,212 posts
9/6/23 @ 6:35 PM
FISHING REPORT
Brent Hess
Brent Hess
PRO MEMBER User since 12/18/07
You're doing great JJ - enjoy your posts Brutha!
9/6/23 @ 6:17 PM
Cat Man J.J.
PRO MEMBER User since 5/9/03
Congrats Brent on the first official flathead catch on this thread. Next outing I'm going to bring some bigger minnows and see what I might catch. Riverside park is really scratching up ​my ​kayak ​I need to start launching at Wehmhoff Junker and paddle the extra 150 yards.
9/6/23 @ 3:02 PM
svitreum
svitreum
User since 8/29/06
Great job Brent. I'm trying to sequester enough time to make a kayak trip up your way. Looks like a blast!!
9/6/23 @ 2:45 PM
FISHING REPORT
wiscoarborist
User since 11/6/18
With the exception of the small creek at Frame Park in Waukesha,the smell at what is officially called "Bethesda Lake" (the impoundment at Frame park) is how stagnant stretches of river smell during late August in Wisconsin. That creek in the park is the Fox River's worst nonpoint source of water pollution from Menomonee Falls to the state line. It flows thru what once was a landfill but it really doesn't contribute much water to the river except after a rain. It drains the small marsh along the bike path that crosses 59/164 by Autohouse.

Waukesha's water treatment plant is about 1 mile downstream from there. It's absolutely irrelevant to anything at Frame Park with the exception of the bathrooms.

Smallmouth bass are becoming prolific in the stretch thru Waukesha. Unfortunately - thanks to the vastly increased fishing pressure - catfish and pike are no longer the easy pickin's they once were back when I was occasionally ridiculed for fishing that stretch of river. The increased harvest is painfully obvious to those like me who've known the river for 50 years.

I've spent as much time as anyone I've ever met - likely far more - fishing it,seining it,exploring it...and recent changes want me to encourage posters like Dumb Bass to spread the word on how polluted it is. Stay away....Or at least don't eat anything taken from there. Stop that hazardous harvest. Water quality is too poor to eat fish from the Fox River until you're downstream from the WDNR boat launch off Bridge Dr at Tichigan.

BTW,that is not the same Fox River as the one that flows thru Neenah and Menasha and Appleton and Green Bay. This one starts essentially in The Falls and flows thru the heavily industrialized areas of Lisbon and Brookfield.

That's enough from me. Simply my opinion peppered with a tiny bit of sarcasm.
9/4/23 @ 4:06 PM
FISHING REPORT
Brent Hess
Brent Hess
PRO MEMBER User since 12/18/07
DB,
I know exactly 0 about Frame park, never been there, and to be honest I've never even heard of it - so no comments.  I'll take your word on that!

I do know that the DNR has incredibly onerous restrictions on residential, commercial, industrial, and municipal waste water systems. The DNR will take your birthday away for draining your gray (shower) water from your camper onto the ground. Also, if there was raw sewage at Frame park it would also be present in Big Bend, Lake Tichigan, Waterford Lake, Buena Lake, Wind Lake Canal, Wilmont, all the way down to the Mississippi! I'm not looking to get into a debate, just my loose thoughts.  At any rate, we can agree to disagree, that is perfectly OK - just don't think hundreds of miles of the Fox are nasty as you say Frame Park is.

Fishing today was absolutely incredible. Was easily the best outing of the year.  We caught Gills, Rockies, Yellow Bass, Large Mouth, Drum, Channel Cats, Walleye, Crappie, even caught a Flat Head - that was pretty awesome.

Kept a dozen pannies for a meal, everyone else is still swimming.  Went through 4 dozen crawlers and 30 leaf worms. We left because it was hot and we were about out of bait. Fish were super aggressive today! I would guess my bud and I each caught about 50 or so....

Can't wait until fall, it's only gonna get better! Carolina Riggs, and half a crawler under a float still working well.

Going sit in the shade on our deck for a minute, have a glass of red, and cook a fish fry in a bit. 






Fox River photo by Plmlk
Fox River photo by Plmlk
Fox River photo by Plmlk
9/4/23 @ 4:06 PM
FISHING REPORT
Brent Hess
Brent Hess
PRO MEMBER User since 12/18/07
A few more...
Fox River photo by Plmlk
Fox River photo by Plmlk
Fox River photo by Plmlk
9/4/23 @ 12:42 PM
Dumb Bass
User since 9/3/23
Brent,

   I was just making a statement from previous experiences out there on the water.Your statement about how clean the wastewater is , yeah I'm sure it is. We can make pure crap into drinking water they do it all over the country. Doesn't mean I have to like it. Maybe I should have worded my original post differently.  

    That said you can't tell me there isn't a nasty smell at frame park. Smell the water and the fish you catch from there. Something ain't right about it. And it throws me off on wanting to eat those fish. If you want to, go right ahead! 

As for the smallmouth argument on water quality, lol. They thrive in the Milwaukee River too. Huge smallmouth in there. The Milwaukee River is better than it was but still highly polluted. It was actually dangerous to enter the water in the Milwaukee in the early 1900's watched a whole PBS documentary about it. But like I said, people can do what they want. I'm sure some folks eat 30 pound carp out of the Milwaukee River and love it. And will argue as to why it's ok and that it tastes so good. 

All I can say is you do you friend,

Happy Labor Day
9/4/23 @ 10:21 AM
Carpio
Carpio
PRO MEMBER User since 11/5/17
BRENT.  Their website said mid September.
9/4/23 @ 9:59 AM
FISHING REPORT
Cat Man J.J.
PRO MEMBER User since 5/9/03
I'm not sure what's happening up north but when I paddled around Burlington on Saturday I remember thinking I never seen the river so clear, there were spots that I could see bottom that I could never see bottom in twenty five years.
The fish I cleaned and cooked from Saturday looked and tasted fine, I find it had to believe that the EPA is letting the sewage treatment plants dump any water into the fox river that's not considered clean. I also find it hard to believe that with 15+ different species and Muskie, Walleye, SMB, Perch, Crappie, Pike all not only present but common that the water is polluted.  My guess the worst things that are getting into the fox river are mostly farming chemicals and flooded septic tanks.
My worst experience was hooking a condom in the Kenosha harbor and thinking what heck am I doing here.
9/4/23 @ 9:16 AM
FISHING REPORT
Brent Hess
Brent Hess
PRO MEMBER User since 12/18/07
Hasn't it already started Carpio?

Thought it was to begin 9.1.23?

Water level right now is quite low, barely any current.
9/4/23 @ 8:19 AM
Carpio
Carpio
PRO MEMBER User since 11/5/17
I have yet to see anyone questioning the water level from WAUKESHA south when WAUKESHA stops returning their treated water back into the system.  I have been questioning this for 8 years but no one seems interested.    I hope I’m wrong but I see lower water levels from Waukesha south.    I guess I’ll find out starting in 10 days or so.
9/3/23 @ 9:48 PM
FISHING REPORT
Brent Hess
Brent Hess
PRO MEMBER User since 12/18/07
DB-

Unless your MMSD (who dumps untreated sewage into Lake Michigan due to heavy load) treated sewage water is cleaner than storm water - They even make beer out of it

There are lakes that are made from treated sewage water that have some absolutely amazing water quality and clarity. 

On the fox river in Rochester, sometimes you smell sewage, but it is not because sewage is being dumped into the water, it is because the Village of Rochester has a pumping station near the river, and you're smelling the vent stack (nothing more than close proximity) Stick your nose in any vent stack in a commercial building, it's not a pleasant odor. In Burlington, you can smell chocolate because of Nestlé's, it doesn't mean Nestle's is  dumping chocolate into the water lol!

The water that Waukesha dumped into the Fox (now Lake Michigan) is cleaner than any storm water run off that is full of fertilizer, oil, and who knows what else... 

The Fox simply is not a polluted river - I'd research it a bit, you'll change your perspective.  

Storm run off is the issue, sewage is not...

Do some research, smallmouth bass do not thrive in a polluted environment, in fact smallmouth are very, very, intolerant of polluted waters, and the Fox is an absolute thriving smallmouth waterway...  That couldn't exist if the waterway was polluted.

I know you were likely were speaking tongue in cheek, but respectfully - it is not accurate. The Fox is an absolute thriving fishery and waterway.

All the best.










9/3/23 @ 8:26 PM
Dumb Bass
User since 9/3/23
I didn't realize waukesha waste water was dumped into the fox. Maybe that explains the awful stink from the water at frame park? Glad I never ate fish from that river. Got some decent gills out of the fox below waukesha but my stomach turned thinking about the water in frame park. The fish even stunk. Looks like I made the right decision on releasing those bull gills I got. 🤢
9/3/23 @ 7:15 PM
FISHING REPORT
Brent Hess
Brent Hess
PRO MEMBER User since 12/18/07
Here is a thread talking about it

Here is a link if you want to research it

This will absolutely be impactful for the water level above the waterford dam in the Tichigan impoundment.  It will be less impactful I believe after the Waterford damn.


9/3/23 @ 5:40 PM
BKuj35
User since 5/7/20
Fished Rochester a few days back.  On my
Way back to the car, I met a fisherman that mentioned that as of September 1st, water was being diverted from Waukesha so that the water level below Rochester and above the Waterford Dam would be lowered as a result.  Just checking if anyone knows what he was referring to.  
Thanks!

Displaying 76 to 90 of 2,212 posts

MINN KOTA - Quest Series Trolling Motors
Quest Series Trolling Motors
Meet the all-new motors made with grit and guts – not glitz and glamour. The QUEST™ Series takes the best trolling motors ever made to the next level with a rugged build for rough waters. PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT: MINN KOTA - Quest Series Trolling Motors Advertisement

HUMMINBIRD - APEX Series Sonar
APEX Series Sonar
Welcome to the top. The APEX™ Series provides the clearest sonar imaging on the sharpest display the water has ever seen on any GPS chartplotter. PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT: HUMMINBIRD - APEX Series Sonar Advertisement

Copyright © 2001-2024 Lake-Link Inc. All rights reserved.
No portion of this website can be used or distributed without prior written consent of Lake-Link, Inc.
This website may contain affiliate links, meaning when you click the links and make a purchase, we may receive a small commission.
Lake-Link Home
fishing geared up by
MENU
MORE TO EXPLORE