Any Advice for Current Conditions?

Two of us fished by the dam Wednesday afternoon and Prescott in the evening and were blanked. Guides we talked to said it was tough. Just saw a Facebook post from someone staying at Everts since Sunday and they haven’t caught a fish!
Tomorrow’s weather looks nice. Any advice on tactics for P4 given the current conditions?

Just keep fishing! search side image if available, they have to eat sometime. I might be on P4 tomorrow afternoon to try later in the day good luck

I’ve been on lower pools, but really no difference. Coming off of full moon, rising water, lower water temps, dirty water, and the need to get shallow and make babies.

Do not stay on spots with too much current . P4 is nowhere as bad as lower pools, but still too fast is too fast. If you need more than 1/4 ounce to get down, too fast.

Slow down. Off times to prime bite windows with the conditions we have can be like ice fishing. My last trip out was getting bit on lipless baits on very long pauses. Nothing on a lift at all, and very few on the drop. Just sitting still. Even plastics were slow. The lighter the bite the slower you fish

The majority of fish were in 6’ or less of water. Look at what is prime spawning habitat and focus of the deep water close to it and work your way shallow

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Walleyes in P4 spawn in weeds and willows unlike eyes in lakes where they like gravel.

Pitch to the weed/willow edges, more so early morning/late evening. Like Randy said, don’t even think about depth.

Walleyes are not picky when it comes to spawning. Find a snag of cable, sunk barrels, crapped up fishing line….. like a lot lizzard, they’ll do it about anywhere

thanks for the tips guys..

Cant speak for pool 4 but pool 2 fish have been anywhere from 6ft to 18ft.From very little current and getting away with a 1/8oz jig to current needing a 1/2oz jig.One day minnows one day plastics,then from dragging to verticle.Biting great for 2 hours to not a bite for 2 hours,there for one hour gone the next,rite on current seams to nowhere near them.Everytime I seem to think I can replicate what worked from one day to the next or even one pass to the next it seems to change.Thats fishing,if it were easy everytime I would have given up long ago.Good Luck

No one catches fish by the dam. Find warm water, find current seams, find fish and fish them. You never hear people saying they had a great day of fishing by the dam.

Subtle movements, if you’re on fish and they’re not biting, maybe try a fathead on a jig. All the fish I’ve caught down there have come on plastics. Pick it up and hold you jig a couple inches off of the bottom. Last time we were there, it was dragging jigs and plastics at .3 mph and slowly raising and dropping to bottom along the way.

Once the spawn hits and into post spawn- the dumb bite is over. What makes it tougher is influx of rising, cold water, which happens yearly around this time with melt water. Most people don’t move with the fish – usually out of the current and into the shallows for the most part. Less current is warmer water and rising water moves fish shallow. Bite windows are shorter, like BK said early and late in day can be main focuses. I am a firm believer not as many fish migrate out of the lake (esp. saugers) in the spring when the water does not substantially rise. We can look at this spring as more of a “low water” event. Most fish currently in the upper river are resident walleyes and fall run saugers. This can be backed up by lack of fish in Hay Creek hole, High Bridge area and other spots that load up with migrating fish. Best advice is look at it the same way as a good night of bar hopping – if the joint is hopping stay, if not leave and find another joint. Jump from spot to spot but don’t get married to it unless your catching fish. Fish are there and can be caught, you just gotta find them.