12/5 and 12/7 report

It’s december and the weather thinks it’s October so decided to catch the hot walleye/sauger bite on P4 everyone is talking about.

The bite on saturday 12/5 was not so good for me and my partner. We fished the Y 80% of the time and only managed 1 fish albiet it was a nice 18.5″ sauger. That came on a 3 inch purple fluke. After awhile and missing a few bites we decided to move. In talking with some of the other boaters in the area it sounded like the bite was pretty slow. I probably saw 20-25 fish caught but there was probably around 30 boats out there.

Move towards the Dam on the WI Side. Stop by the sand bar and right away get a 16.5″ walleye on a jig and minnow. This proved to be the last fish of the day. Never went near the wing dams as it was pretty packed in those areas and we didn’t want to play bumper boats.

Today 12/7 I got out alone. Cold, foggy, and windy start to the day I head to the Y and see a few other boats. I catch a 16.5″ sager on a chartreuse 3″ moxi dragging it down stream. Had 2 short strikes on the Moxi otherwise nothing else. Decided to head up and try the sandbar near the dam.

Got to the sandbar and did not find anything. Ran across above the 1st wing dam near the fish refuge sign and did not get anything. Decided to push closer to wing dam 1 and managed to get 2 small sauger (tossed back) and a undersized walleye. More boats started to pile into this area and I decide to move in between wing dam 1-2.

Between dam 1-2 I had success almost right way. The bite wasn’t fast and furious but it was steady, especially for me who is not accustomed to the 20 fish in an hour bite that some people find. I spend about 3 hours between the 2 dams and pretty much spot locked onto certain areas. I was using a jig and a minnow and caught the rest of my limit plus a few unders tossed in. Had some nice conversation with a guide (fishing alone) and another boat. We were the only 3 boats in this area as everyone was above wing dam 1. All 3 boats were catching fish. The guide boat was catching more. He was using a dubuque rig with a minnow on a hook and jig and plastic. From what I saw most of this fish were caught on the minnow hook. The other boat was jigging plastics and catching fish but their catch rate went up when they put a minnow on.

All in all it was a great day. I almost never get/take a limit of fish (see report 11/25) and the weather was great. December and I’m sitting in my boat and not cold. Wife is starting to look at me funny so I might have to cool down the fishing for a bit. Christmas season starts for us this saturday and we are pretty busy the rest of the month. Hope everyone has a chance to get down and get on some fish.

Great report! I’m glad you had some good fortune this time!

Nice report and thanks for the update. I’m heading out there tomorrow to give it a try before the weather turns nasty and cold. Don’t know if I’ll make it out again in Dec. or Jan. unless we get a little warmup (GO GLOBAL WARMING!). Just starting to know a few spots to fish after working the Miss for the last couple of years. I you get out again, let us know. Merry Christmas to all and to all straight lines.

UPDATE –12/9 – Did some fishing on P4 (Red Wing area) and got lucky early despite all the boats on the water. Fished the Y with 50 other boats and did OK but the best luck was down by Bayside, the big bend down by Red Wing by the marina. Vertical jigging with plastics (purple ring and natural jerk minnows) in 10 – 14 fow was the ticket. We had our 18 Saugeye fish limit (15 – 19″) by 11:00am and then went into explore and fun mode. Caught some on the wing dams (another 30 boats there) and at the Canon R. confluence, also got a couple trolling with Dubuque rigs. The big surprise for me was a very small paddle fish, it was my first. Count was 28 keepers and 14 either to small or ruff, not a bad day on the water for the 3 of us. GL and ice is coming next week. Merry Christmas to all.

vger wrote:

We had our 18 Saugeye fish limit (15 – 19″) by 11:00am and then went into explore and fun mode. Caught some on the wing dams (another 30 boats there) and at the Canon R. confluence, also got a couple trolling with Dubuque rigs. The big surprise for me was a very small paddle fish, it was my first. Count was 28 keepers and 14 either to small or ruff, not a bad day on the water for the 3 of us. GL and ice is coming next week. Merry Christmas to all.

Good thing you guys didn’t get stopped by the game warden in the afternoon. You might very well have also took home a very nice ticket.

I guess the way I read it that is just a size range of fish and 10 of the keeper size were released, but I don’t know that for certain.

Dusty Gesinger wrote:

I guess the way I read it that is just a size range of fish and 10 of the keeper size were released, but I don’t know that for certain.

I think you’re technically supposed to stop fishing once at your limit, even if going catch and release.

Could still be fishing sheeps, crappie, northern….

You can catch as many fish as you want, you just can’t keep over your limit so it’s catch and release after that or catch and cull. FYI- you can also catch fish that aren’t in season as long as you release them right away and aren’t targeting them. Dustin’s right and if you think about it it makes sense, what if you caught your limit the first hour? Pack your boat and go home? That would be silly. Straight lines to all and pray for ice.

vger wrote:

You can catch as many fish as you want, you just can’t keep over your limit so it’s catch and release after that or catch and cull.

Culling is illegal. While on the water, if you want to keep fishing, I believe you have to stay short of the party you are fishing with total possession limit. Once final legal in the boat, you are done for the day. If possession limit is reached day 1 of trip, you can catch and release the next day. Correct me of I am wrong, but this is what I have been told.

Nope your right P4. Well mostly. You can cull until you’ve reached your limit. Once you’ve reached your limit you can no longer sort fish. I’ve always been under the impression that to legally keep fishing you need to be two fish under the legal limit. That way when you catch the next fish you still are short of the limit and can do with it what you wish.

If I’m keeping fish I either leave when I reach 6 or stay at 5 the entire day. No sorting in my boat, is detrimental to the fish.

Culling is legal in MN until you put your limit fish in the livewell. Once your limit is in the livewell you can’t legally target the species you have your limit of. Slippery slope there, but that is hard to prove what you are fishing for. That is unless you have your one muskie and you are throwing a cowgirl. I would bet if a guy were stopped and checked they would say they were fishing for a big pike. Hense the slippery slope.

Hmmm. I thought it was considered “unlawful” to release any fish that has been placed in livewell. Any CO’s wanna chime in here?

OK, I stand corrected or dully warned or whatever. In any event we didn’t do any of that accept a catch and release after we had our limit. And if that’s illegal I’ll have to go fish somewhere in Russia because that would be to dumb even for the DNR to put a rule on. FYI – there is culling allowed in WI but it is mainly permitted to fishing tournaments such as B.A.S.S or PWT; which I don’t agree with since I think that is special treatment but I am in favor of keeping fish as healthy as possible after catching/releasing.

Page 53 mn rules and regulations for wi/mn border waters.

“Once a fish caught by angling is in possession, it cannot be replaced by another fish.”

Wi rule book states the same.

Border water is different then. Why can’t they make the laws the same with border and inland waters. It is ridiculous trying to keep up with all the law differences. It is almost like they leave it this way to cause confusion and a possible cash cow to ticket normal law abiding fisherman that hadn’t spent an hour reviewing the regulations. This is from a guy that fishes the river all winter long and I had no idea that it was illegal to cull there. Thanks for the heads up Will.

Ubet Charles👍😉 let’s get out again this winter!

vger wrote:

And if that’s illegal I’ll have to go fish somewhere in Russia because that would be to dumb even for the DNR to put a rule on.

I’m sure Russia will gladly take someone in who doesn’t like to follow the rules.

vger wrote:

FYI – there is culling allowed in WI but it is mainly permitted to fishing tournaments such as B.A.S.S or PWT; which I don’t agree with since I think that is special treatment but I am in favor of keeping fish as healthy as possible after catching/releasing.

How is this special treatment? It would be if tournament anglers were keeping their catch at the end of the day, but they don’t. BASS and PWT release all fish at the end of the day to the tune of ~99% live release. An angler placing fish the in well to eat is completely different. That angler should not be allowed to upgrade his keep to kill catch. Makes sense to me.

I feel like those who feel this is special treatment don’t understand how tournaments work. There are costly penalties for killing fish and you aren’t allowed to keep ’em.

It would seem to me
that to allow culling in tournaments
would reduce the length of time fish were out of the larger body of water
increasing survival rates