Pool 4 Report (2024)

I got out of the house and went out to Pool 4 02/02 – 02/04. The water temps were ranging between 31.5degF – 33.5degF and had several feet of visibility, super clear water for the mighty miss. We put together two limits the first day out, a mix of 17″ walleyes and 15-16″ saugers. I fished up towards the dam and all the way down to the start of the no wake zone outside of Coleville park. It took me a while to find fish, they seemed to be spread out and not congregated. The morning and sundown bite windows were definitely the best. I launched in the east channel. BE CAUTIOUS as there are 2 large trees above water (with lots more beneath) right up river at the Y, right out in front of the residential dock on the east side of the channel.

The common variable seemed to be the current seams that split current and slack water. I fished the edges of anywhere where I seen foam, ice chunks, timber all piled up. The shad die off was clearly present as there is tons of dead shad in these slack water eddy’s.

I kept it relatively simple and really only tried two things (Aggressive then Subtle).

My first step of any new location was to be aggressive with Berkley Finisher7’s, Glide baits, and 1/4oz – 1/2oz blades. Small little snaps with the vertical jigging presentations. This produced the largest of our fish for the weekend.

If I didn’t get any hits with in the first few casts, the second step was to switch to a jig and plastic and slowly drag up the seam 0.2mph – 0.5 mph, sliding the boat in a zig-zag Over and Up the seam. I love Moxy tails but the natural colored paddle tails seemed to do the trick better this weekend. My jig sizes ranged from 1/4oz (10-15ft-ish) – 1.2ox (20-25ft-ish). All depended on the current and how close to the slack water I was.

With fish so spread out, super cold clear water, and the river flow going down over the days I went, its harder then ever to “trust your electronics” when you don’t see the stacks of arc’s like you want. Slack water areas had tons of junk fish that can skew your representation of what walleyes “look like”, I was fooled too…

Here is the redwing river gauge.
https://water.weather.gov/ahps2/hydrograph.php?gage=redm5&wfo=mpx

Excited for the 2024 P4 bite to pick up as flow and water temp increase! How was everyone else been fishing around the rivers current conditions (Low, Cold, Clear)?

Nice report Brett! Thank you!
Were you in an Alumacraft by any chance?

Awesome detailed report. Thank you!
I’m in the “Thinking about it” mode for P4 as my boat is still in storage so I got nothing to share…. Yet…

Thanks

Yes sir, I was in the all black one.

Guess that wasn’t you I spotted by the Harbor Bar.

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Heading to Red Wing on Wednesday along with I am sure lots of other people since it will be so nice out. Any recent reports? Depths, colors, speeds. With the little flow, I am thinking deeper and still pretty slow. Just looking to see if anyone has any starting points. Thanks and will put up a report when I get back.

I’m coming up to fish Pool 4, March 23rd. Thanks for the update on the bite!

People are going to be much more closed lipped with the Freeze Your Butt tournament coming up. After that is done more reports will start flowing.

Thanks Mojo. Thought it was more quiet than usual. Make sense. I am not fishing in that.

Short Dozen 15-18 saugers for my short afternoon trip . Plenty of shorts mixed in . One 18 inch walleye pitching . Tons of boats out . Covill is open . Anyone else ?

Two people, caught 42 fish. Only 2 walleyes and they were both short. Caught and seen caught some nice quality fish until about 11:00am. Then didn’t see many or catch many decent fish. Kept our limit, but after 11:00am it was lots of smaller fish. Tried deeper, shallower, etc. was a great day for action. We fished below the Y all day. Water still chilly at 36.8. Most fish were caught on Dubuque rigs. Both minnows and plastics.

Went out yesterday evening on P4. Launched at the east channel ramp and went all the way down to Lake Pepin in front of Frontenac, had 33.5 – 34.5degF water the mouth. I caught a few saugers on glide baits (one that was 18.5).

I checked a bunch of spots on the way back up to the dam. Seems like the walleyes are very spread out, saugers seemed to be concentrated in any deeper aggregation near the main channel.

The Y had a ton of boats, and only a few were consistently catching fish. Controlled drifts with a single jig and plastic seemed to do it for me. Only had 1 walleye north of everts and it came on a jig and a plastic pitched up against the shoreline.

Lock side water temps were nearing 38 and stained.
Roller side water temps were 36-37ish and a little less stain.

Water is low… More flow would help I think.
https://water.weather.gov/ahps2/hydrograph.php?gage=redm5&wfo=mpx

great report DD……thanks. I was thinking of launching out of Frontenac in the next few days. Are people launching out of there yet that you seen?

Baypoint and/or Colville open? I’d assume so, but haven’t seen anything.

Colville, yes, Baypoint no, from what I’ve heard

Did word leak out yet what was working for the Tan Your Butt Off Tournament?

seen baypoint was open today

Baypoint opened up on Saturday. March 2nd.

Always appreciate other’s updates- so here’s mine. Made a run down to Red wing yesterday, put-in at bay point and fished mostly from everts up to the damn. Decent amount of guys for a Wednesday but not crazy. Not fast and furious but enough to keep me interested, and fill the box. Mostly smaller saugers but several 18-20’s with a few walleyes mixed in with a couple in the low 20’s but nothing bigger. Minimal current and clarity was good(for the river), a healthy wind actually pushed boats upriver so boat control was a challenge. We did best with as vertical an approach as possible. fat-heads worked better than plastics for us and the fish we caught were generally deeper (16-26fow) and pretty spread out. I heard bigger fish were still closer to the head of Pepin which makes sense and I meant to head that way after filling the box but ended up staying upriver and just enjoyed being out.

Little of everything worked yesterday for me . Caught a dozen or so over 15 but nothing over 20. Did see a nice fish caught by the dam in the slack water . Hell of a snow squall after dark . Was quite the ride back down the river . A friend on here showed me the safety glasses trick for snow / precip and I’m glad he did . Pretty eerie ride .

Also for the 2 big logs on the back channel sticking up I see there’s a third now ? I’ve split those logs a ton even on plane a few times and never picked up the other one on side imaging . Yikes . Hopefully the snow melt brings some flow .

fishing out of a boat while it snows is magical! kind of like being in a snowglobe. you are braver than I to be cruising the backchannel after dark. i get bad anxiety going up during normal conditions but the fishing usually outweighs the risk.

Stay safe out there

I’m only running to the ramp in the dark , I don’t think you could pay me to run the whole channel in the dark ! Still a few cans you have to pay attention for between there and Everett’s .

People can’t read calendars anymore, myself included. From the number of boats out there yesterday you would have sworn it was a Saturday

ScottSchreiber wrote:

People can’t read calendars anymore, myself included. From the number of boats out there yesterday you would have sworn it was a Saturday

I was shocked also for my after work dash … think I’ll start looking into other options for nice weather days .. AIM tournament on Sunday too . Just a heads up

ScottSchreiber wrote:

People can’t read calendars anymore, myself included. From the number of boats out there yesterday you would have sworn it was a Saturday

I wouldn’t mind the number of boats so much if they didn’t just anchor up right where someone else was drifting through. This is the reason I have weekdays off and work weekends, to get away from everyone.

all the crowds pretty much turned me off to spring fishing this year. i could care less about the boats, its the madness at the boat launches that i don’t care to deal with. no more fishing mid week either. i guess i will plan on going when its pouring rain nowadays?
has anyone been to parkside in wabasha lately? wondering if that ramp is just as bad.

I’ve launched solo on 4 over 20 times since febuary . Zero issues . Occasionally I’ll wait 5 minutes if there’s a line up or what have you . Usually off well after dark , and on mid day or mid morning helps . Don’t let spending 1-2 more minutes solo at the ramp get in the way of playing the game .

eyeguy507 wrote:

all the crowds pretty much turned me off to spring fishing this year. i could care less about the boats, its the madness at the boat launches that i don’t care to deal with. no more fishing mid week either. i guess i will plan on going when its pouring rain nowadays?
has anyone been to parkside in wabasha lately? wondering if that ramp is just as bad.

All fish are located by the dam right now. Check Youtube if you don’t believe me.

eyeguy507 wrote:

i guess i will plan on going when its pouring rain nowadays?

I try to fish days with rain in the forecast all season for this very reason.

Nice sunny weather brings out a lot more riff raff. Its not just a pool 4 thing. When we get to summer time, there is a direct correlation between nice sunny weather and the amount of recreational boats as well. I try to avoid those days if I’m able to for that specific reason.

You’d be surprised how many people avoid the water when there’s slightly inclement weather (like rain). Quite often the fishing is much better too.

There was a bit of a backup Wednesday morning at Bay Point as someone locked their keys in the car…..with the boat backed in the water at the ramp.