Help with pool 6 walleyes, reports

Looking for any reports, pointers, places to start searching for walleyes on pool 6. Thanks everyone

I was out on Monday but only caught bass and garbage fish on some of the wingdams down from the winona bridge. Of course it wasn’t ideal weather being hot + bluebird skies and middle of the day when we were out there.

we tried trolling the dike but there was so much garbage in the water we stopped after about 30mins and tried the wingdams mentioned above.

Some of the boathouse guys were telling me the wingdams closer to the dam was holding a few fish but sounds like it was slow this weekend for everyone I talked to.

Hope that helps.

Did alright trolling/jigging last weekend, nothing amazing but caught 7 total and 3 keepers. We had to try a lot of wingdams before we found one with fish biting. We found them south of the powerlines.

Only problem we had is some a-hole fishing off a jetski saw us catch a few and starting fishing 10 feet a way from our boat. Ended our day a bit early.

This board seem a lot less active than a few years ago, there’s got to be some other pool 6 guys around to give an update or two.

I was out Saturday and Sunday this last weekend its been slow best time to try i have found is early and hit the wingdams if there in there it only takes a pass or two and then hit the next spot . Fire tiger shad raps been working best for me live bait hasn’t been keeping up.

Slow. That’s how’s it’s been.

Fountain City Rod and Gun club tournament had under 16# for 1st place that was with 4 fish.

Also morel king. Find the right live bait. Leaches are the ticket.

New to the site, and the river as of this year. I’ve been fishing pool 6 and 7 the last half of the summer. Still haven’t figured out where to find the walleyes. Was out last night, on some of the wingdams above the winona bridge, just before sunset. Was anchoring and throwing a drop shot, tried the front, back, and tip of each dam I hit but didn’t catch anything. I was marking some fish in deeper water on the back side, around 25 feet but couldn’t get any to see what they were. I’ve tried just about everything lately, from live bait jigs to bouncing square bills off the top of the rocks….fished shallow to deep. Frustrating, coming from knowing how to catch walleye no problem on lakes, to getting skunked on the river! Oh well, can’t complain about being out on the boat.

A local bait shop told me those that have had luck are catching them on the back sides of wingdams, more flow the better.

Question for you guys, how are you jigging wing dams this time of year, as far as boat position and casting? Are you anchoring and jigging below the boat in slack water, anchoring off the tip and casting upstream, dragging along the face, along the back, etc? I’ve tried each of those and haven’t found one to really work. Maybe I just haven’t put enough time in. From what I’ve learned these river walleyes are a different animal, and you really have to have your bait close to or on the bottom.

Anchor a cast length above the dam. I’ve been having a great summer on pool 8 throwing a live bait rig. Kind of cast parallel to the dam and let the bait sweep across the face. Same thing with a jig. Or cast up on the rocks and work it back down into the trough.

Use caution anchoring above or below them I’ve had too cut the anchor rope once and also almost had to do it a few other times but was lucky enough to get it up , if its calm enough I don’t anchor i just drift around them with the troller

I anchor with my xi5 trolling motor.

targaman wrote:

Anchor a cast length above the dam. I’ve been having a great summer on pool 8 throwing a live bait rig. Kind of cast parallel to the dam and let the bait sweep across the face. Same thing with a jig. Or cast up on the rocks and work it back down into the trough.

Are you catching them on several different dams or mainly one spot?

92 million different dams. Every wing dam in the universe.

Thanks for the tips, Targaman. Now if this rain would just let up so I can get out some more. I think it really just comes down to time spent on the water. I know I’ll find a good group eventually, have only pulled up rogue fish so far. A few saugers off the top and a smallie or two.

I noticed a few nights ago that the shore-side of the wingdams hardly had any current hitting them at all, it was pretty still. Only the outer half to the tip was seeing much flow.

Right now in this flow I always Start on the Tip of the dam no need to spend any time on the shoreline unless you want bass. Anchor or Spot lock up river with a 1/2 Oz Egg sinker swivel and 24″-30″ snell and start throwing bait. Start casting out towards the main channel side of the tip and slowly work it back to the boat then you can fan cast to the inside of the top of the dam and work it out from there as well. IF you aren’t hitting rocks with your sinker while your sweeping the bait your fishing to high above the dam. Get ready to loose a lot of rigs. Look for wing dams that have deeper water on the tip above but more importantly deep water behind the tip. If you want to throw cranks you cant miss with a Fat Free Shad.
Goodluck

Got out last night around Winona, caught some panfish back in the slough, and then hit a few wingdams. Caught a single smallie on a crawler rig, casting the face of the dam. Tried fatheads too and had a few misses.

From my understanding, the surface ripple is the water dropping off the back of the dam, correct? I’m working my bait 15 to 20 ft upstream of the ripple, which should generally be the front face of the dam? I’m letting the current sweep until I feel rock. New to the river so I want to make sure I’m understanding it correctly. I come from the Mille Lacs/Leech Lake/Red Lake style of fishing.

Going to try to get out again tonight and this weekend, with some leeches. Bait shop was all out last night.

This time of year I always start with a crankbait a number 7 Flicker Shad, number 7 Jointed Shad Rap if an unusually steep deep face Hot N Tots in Crawfish colors Reds. My next go to bait is a Blade Bait 1/16 to 1/4 ounce. I will pitch to the top of the dam and work it down the face, if that does nothing then a 1/16-1/4 ounce jig with half a crawler.

I will pitch BladeBait`s and jigs to the top of the dam feeling for the rocks and work it down the face to the base of the wingdam. Have to learn the feel when that bait hits the base of the wing dam the feeling of the jig will change from a pull to more of it is just there. This is the area of no current at the base of the wingdam where fish lay waiting for food to come buy. I will try and drift the bait in this slower water along the face feeding some line if I need to until the bait washes out of this area.

I dont append a lot of time in one area of the wing dam unless I encounter fish usually 15- 20 casts of each bait then move out or in depending on current more current move in less move out. If I feel everything is right and I think fish should be in this area I may spend a bit more time changing up baits.

I’ve made it out a half dozen times the past few weeks or so. Flow and water level is pretty low, I was finding scattered walleye on the fronts of wingdams on outside bends. I got out yesterday and found them both on the very tips and 20yds below the wingdams. They were still fairly scattered. This cold front should drop water temps a bit and hopefully pick up the bite.

I’ve been marking fish in scour holes down at 20 to 25 ft, is there a chance those are walleye or do they not typically sit that deep in the river? I’ve tried to get them but have had no success getting a bite from those deeper marks.

For those of you dragging cranks, do you focus on pulling them around current breaks or do you just go with current and find the depth you’re looking for? I’ve seen that sometimes just a foot or two of rolling depth change can hold fish.

I’ve seen the same thing but never caught anything either on those scour holes. Not sure what they are.

Trolling cranks I like to go parallel with the dam or troll upstream and go right over the top on the deep end of them but p6 this year has been as weedy as I can remember it, constantly cleaning lines unless you can find a wingdam or two in a pocket of cleaner water.

What I’ve had some success with this year is tie a banana sinker or similar about 3-4ft up your line and put a floating jig on the end of it. Cast the rig in front of the wingdams. The floating jig keeps the bait off the bottom but the current pulls it right in front of them and moves it around in the water.