pool 4 dead sea

Bk I’m not saying the fish are not there iam saying there not there in the numbers or size they were 5 or 10 years ago ya I could go to many spots on the river drop down my camera and see walleyes but just a few years ago u could drop your camera anywhere and see what the videos that was posted on here showed who ever says the numbers are the same or up are clueless I fish this river 10 times a spring for last 10 years and I know and so do 98℅ of the people that fish the river this spring something is wrong

Have u paid attention to the conditions on the river since last fall?? It’s been a roller coaster of water levels,flow and temps! Nothing has been stable enough for long enough to develop a pattern as the fish are ALWAYS moving around and changing. There are many many of anglers struggling including myself the fish are just not biting.
U could always just go fish somewhere else because that wouldn’t bother any of us.

Riverruns it’s been posted so many times I didn’t really thing I would need to repost it again. Next time the DNR has a seminar it might be beneficial to attend. They are free too!

I’ll catch up in the morning.

2015 MN DNR Sampling Chart

I do fish many other rivers in the spring thanks for your concern though

DNR lol yup I believe everything they report

I’ve also talked to many people who fish lake pepin and said this winter was extremely slow why is everyone in denial I never once said the river is the dead sea I said it has less fish than years past

What if the fish simply have enough easy feed were presentaions by fisherman are not as appealing as the real thing they eat during there feeding times. Just saying…..

Yes there does seem to be more bait fish in the system this year and I’m sure it has something to do with it bit not all of it I’m still catching plenty of fish just way smaller than the average has been in the past

Thank you internet is all that need be said, face it,how many of you fished it 10-15 or more years ago or 30 like myself and many others, and we thought it was bumper boats then, lmao, more fish are kept post spawn when they really throw the ol feedbag on, it doesn’t matter what time of the year one keeps the prime breaders. As far as the score hole goes you not shoot the ones that fish it, the antis have enough ammo as it is, just a guess but most of you in the 20’s and 3o’s never even heard about it, back off, if it’s legal shut your pie hole and join Peata, that said I tottaly agree it should be off limits but don’t crucify the folks that fish it, they may only fish it a couple of times in the spring, ugh, fisherman against fishermen is not a good thing in the big picture, but then again not everyone grew up in a perfect world, some of us learned the how much it hurt to lose a game, we didn’t get a ribbon for participating, and also got spanked but it never killed us, very little respect on the river anymore cause some just don’t get, so sad,that people have to anchor where one is casting, what a bunch of arrogant asholes out there now, good fn for you! tks for letting me vent

Wow! I go away from a thread for a few days and some guys from “Up-Nort” raise their hand.
The next thing I notice the ‘Nort” winds come back and phew!:???:
Lower your arms please!! and we thank you (in advance of course).

I’m going to be real honest. I’ve been fishing pool 4 in the winter and spring for 7 ish years. The first 4 years I would make it down 2-4 times in those months. With little to go on, I would follow the boats, and a majority of those boats are with in a 1/4 mile of the damn. You drive up to the no fishing sign below the damn and start your drift. What do you find? 60+ feet of water and loaded with fish. Well I couldn’t get my light jig down fast enough. So, what did I do? Put on a 1 1/2 once egg sinker with a 1 foot snell and a minnow. BOOM! Fish after fish. What a fishery I thought, but I never caught that monster pool 4 is known to have. Up till 2 years ago when I moved closer to pool 4, and was able to fish it more often and started learning more from IDO how to really fish pool 4 “which is still in the works.” I stopped fishing “The Scour Hole”, because it wasn’t fishing. It was just catching. You couldn’t even feel a bite in 60+ feet of water. I could just feel more weight on the line, and reel up a 14 inch sauger. There was no thrill in catching fish like that. So after watching IDO episodes and learning on forums and buying hundreds of dollars of BfishN tackle plastics, jigs, blade baits, etc. Fishing 20 feet or less, current brakes you name it. It’s a learning curve everytime I go out. I haven’t landed the mother load or big mama like some of the great fishermen do on pool 4, but when I do catch a walleye it is very rewarding to me. That is fishing to me. The sad thing is that I haven’t heard of “the scour hole” up till a week ago when people started talking about it on IDO. I had NO clue that all those fish I had released in years past would more then likely die. It made my gut hurt hearing that. I didn’t even know that deep hole below the damn had a name. Obviously, I think anglers need more education on not fishing “the scour hole.” I’m ok with a few meals of fish a year, but I never keep fish on pool 4, because I fish enough that I can get those few fish meals in lakes in northern MN. Nothing against people who keep fish on pool 4. Honestly, I probably killed a couple hundred sauger and walleye in those years. It sickens me. I’m not blaming Evert’s or 4seasons, but not once when I stopped in there did they say anything about the potential hazards of catching/releasing fish from the scour hole. It was always “how long are you fishing? Well, you will need 2 scoops of minnows…” Now that I’m learning the river I haven’t bought bait in 2 years. I would have liked to known that hey if you follow the crowd to 60+ feet of water your more then likely going to kill every fish you catch. I guess what im trying to say is, I wish I had the education that I have now, when I was going down there a few times each spring like the majority of boats out there do dropping there lines in 60+ feet. Maybe education needs to start at the boat ramps, bait shops, word of mouth. I don’t know, but those are my words from a novice pool 4 fishermen.

Outdraft wrote:

. As far as the score hole goes you not shoot the ones that fish it, the antis have enough ammo as it is, just a guess but most of you in the 20’s and 3o’s never even heard about it, back off, if it’s legal shut your pie hole and join Peata,

Lol

Outdraft wrote:

hat said I tottaly agree it should be off limits but don’t crucify the folks that fish it, they may only fish it a couple of times in the spring

Hand to face

Outdraft wrote:

, ugh, fisherman against fishermen is not a good thing in the big picture, but then again not everyone grew up in a perfect world

I’m so confused.

Shhh. Nobody say a word

Jeff Mattingly that took alot of guts to write what you did, and I really appreciate it. Kind of the perfect story of what happens at such holes around the country.

Jeff mattingly wrote:

. Maybe education needs to start at the boat ramps, bait shops, word of mouth.

Here’s another interesting thread in the making. What responsibility do businesses have that reap financial rewards from a natural resource have in protecting it, specifically in regards to this type education?

“Jeff Mattingly that took alot of guts to write what you did, and I really appreciate it. Kind of the perfect story of what happens at such holes around the country.

“
Jeff mattingly wrote:

. Maybe education needs to start at the boat ramps, bait shops, word of mouth.

Here’s another interesting thread in the making. What responsibility do businesses have that reap financial rewards from a natural resource have in protecting it, specifically in regards to this type education?”….nhammm

This is a great question from both parties.

Most of my river fishing is done on pools 4, 5, and the Winona pool and panfish/crappies are the targets. Walleye/sauger fishing I enjoy but I don’t spend a lot of time on chasing them. What I find interesting is that over the years when walleye and sauger numbers seem to come into question in their usual haunts I see more and more of them in typical panfish locations. That tells me they are following food. This is something I like to know, but its not something I will spill very easy.

Somewhere in this thread I know I read something about changing tactics and looking for these fish in new areas, those outside of typical. That is straight up good info, but if success is had how much of that should people be handing to baitshops? Or tackle shops? Or in the parking lot at the launch site? Or in a bar? OR here on the internet? Just food for thought.

Finding walleyes and sauger in places they normally aren’t common in simply tells me that they aren’t hurting in numbers. Far too many anglers fall into complacency when the bite is good and forget that when the table turns the real work begins if they want to catch fish. The successful anglers are the thinkers….those with creative imaginations. They also keep their mouths shut. The ones not doing so well tend to be the followers.

Fish are fish and can be decimated in a closed system fairly easily when information gets too loose. But that river has only 1% of its waters fished at this time of year. Their are those with forward enough thinking to use part of the other 99%. The naysayers should take up golf if they’re not smart enough vacate the 1%.

Tom, good perspective….they question is, when your panfishing locations aren’t going….do you ever look for panfish in the walleye spots

Evan….you have no idea how many of my panfish locations were found by snooping for walleyes and are found right on the main channel.

You are right, I have no idea but I can see how it can happen and it just makes goes to tell even more that in the world of followers, the creative thinker is king!

I had no problem what so ever yesterday, I could have had my limit in about an hour. I didn’t keep any yesterday because the majority of the nice fish were females full of eggs and I won’t be that guy.

What makes me laugh is most of the people down there are doing the same thing as everyone else and not catching much. They sit there with their spot lock on in their fancy new try hard boats and think they are king S*i& but can’t catch a fish. Yet here I am in my old Lund drifting down the river past the try hards smashing walleyes and watching them go from talking smack to their buddies to wow how did he do that. I was drifting past one boat yesterday who were staring and laughing, the funny thing is I a caught a 19″ walter right in front of them then threw it back because it was full of eggs. I wish I had a picture of their faces when i threw it back. Here’s the thing because you spend 12K on electronics and 2K on a trolling motor doesn’t make you a good fisherman. Just like it was said before try different tactics, in this case I didn’t have a trolling motor that would hold strong in the current and that worked to my advantage just some good ol drifting.

Sorry for the rant once May rolls around i consider walleye bait thieves anyways. I’m going to go out on a limb right now but have any of you noticed the jump in eagles and predatory birds? I was with my GF fishing and we were amazed at how any eagles we saw and the amount of fish they would snag up in the lock. Like i said im going out on a limb, just a thought.

Yeah….what Johnny said

I had to laugh on Sunday when I was on p4. I started up by the locks. Where the walls end and caught two within 5 minutes. As we drifted down towards the y, it was obvious there were shad, and schooling ( vertically) bigger fish. Figuring there were sheep, I threw on a blade and snagged one almost immediately. We left searching for better fishing.
We come back to that spot closer to 11am and there’s stacks of boats sitting on top the inactive sheep’s catching nothing. I just laugh at the crowd of followers.

Walleye almost never stack up like sheep. First clue.

I’m sure the river fishing used to be better, though I have no first hand experience. Of course I’ll agree with reduced limits. But I won’t agree with dead Sea.

I agree with FB&RM definitely not a dead sea, a tough bite yes. A fishless dead sea NO !!!!

Personally I will take the graphs of the DNR and my underwater video trips over the best angler that gets skunked a couple times and claims there isn’t any fish.

Are the graphs perfect? Nope. But they give a much better indication of the health of the pool then the anglers that are fishing one area all the time.

But that’s just me.

As far as education goes… I haven’t worked the bait shop much this year. I’m not sure what is or isn’t being talked about. In years past, we’ve had the DNR report that talks about depth mortality right on the counter.

It’s awkward talking about the reasons to stay out of the scour hole if the angler is looking for larger fish or wants to c&r. Most cases they don’t want to hear it because that’s all they’ve done for years. They are guarantee fish…small fish, but fish none the less.

I know of one angler that fished the hole for over 30 years and not too long ago was told how to catch larger fish without fishing the hole. Brought in for photos and released his first true 10 pounder. Man the smile on that guys face! I’ll bet a quarter he hasn’t been to the nursery since.

Fact is (as experienced on Mille Lacs now) if the fishery is hurt, so are the guides, resorts and bait shops along the river. Not to mention the DNR doesn’t want added grief. They get enough distrust when the fishing is good.

I need to get my boat on the water. <sigh>

Brian Klawitter wrote:

I need to get my boat on the water. <sigh>

I think everyone does. It’s that Chicken Little season, when the sky is falling. I blame it on the lack of time on the ice/water typical of this time of year.
As for P4 I’m sure there are few to no big fish in there. Everyone should just wait for May and fish their favorite lakes. The amount of people fishing the scour hole the past 5 years has been drastically more than the 5 prior to that which is why there are no big fish anymore. Everyone should just stay home… (END SARCASM)

Social media….. I’ll gladly give a conditions update but I haven’t caught a fish for at least 5 yrs….

Blame it on the scour hole…

lol

Nope no fish in Pool 4 stay home save yourself the trip

purehd wrote:

Blame it on the scour hole…

lol

Wait now, wasn’t it the one reactor being shut down?

Brian Klawitter wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>purehd wrote:</div>
Blame it on the scour hole…

lol

Wait now, wasn’t it the one reactor being shut down?

…. LMAO! …. rrr

Brian Klawitter wrote:
<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>purehd wrote:</div>
Blame it on the scour hole…

lol

Wait now, wasn’t it the one reactor being shut down

No there’s too many shad in the system

Yup the fish must not like ring worms or paddle tails in there new hiding spots hope bfishn comes up with something new like today cause pool 4 has the smartest walleyes in the world denial is the first sign boys