Root River Report

From WDNR April 11th, 2011

Root River, Racine, Wisconsin

Fishing Report

Fishing on the Root River was pretty good this past week. Over the mid-week anglers had some nice trips and were able to land some nice spawning steelhead. Over the weekend, fishing remained pretty fair. Saturday morning and Sunday late afternoon were especially productive. Unfortunately the incidental catches of suckers rose greatly.

Lincoln Park had the most fishing effort. Anglers were stacked close to the weir's downstream refuge and all the way down to the upper river segments of Island Park. The most successful anglers were drifting wet flies or casting small spinners. Many anglers reported success on white and chartreuse colors. Catches rates varied but the majority of harvested steelhead ranged from 4.5-6.5 pounds.

In Quarry Lake Park anglers had mixed success. While fishing for many anglers was slow at times a few anglers were able to land some nice steelhead. Fly fishing was the preferred method but some anglers were also casting spinners or drifting spawn sacs. Location not bait seemed to the biggest factor for success. The middle river segments were slower then the upper segments near the Horlick dam. Further downstream in the middle of the golf course were some very productive holes were the steelhead were holding.

At the Horlick dam, while fishing was a little slower on Saturday, it picked up on Sunday afternoon as the air pressure began to drop. Steelhead were very active at the foot of the dam and a lot were visibly seen jumping into the dam. Only a couple fisherman were out at the time and they had some nice catch rates. The harvested steelhead ranged greatly from 2-8 pounds. While the weir's upper caudal fin clip was found a some the majority were unmarked. This indicates a good amount of steelhead are past the weir and more should make their way upstream this week.