Pool 4…….Where have all the walleyes gone?

Well its good to have a sense of humor. I think there was some very good info posted betweem the wise acre comments.

yes I agree with B K the river is empty, try down stream basscamp!! if you go there the scratcher will not scratch you!!! what you think B K

The SCRATCHER wrote:

yes I agree with B K the river is empty, try down stream basscamp!! if you go there the scratcher will not scratch you!!! what you think B K

?? That makes no sense to this post?

riverruns wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>The SCRATCHER wrote:</div>
yes I agree with B K the river is empty, try down stream basscamp!! if you go there the scratcher will not scratch you!!! what you think B K

?? That makes no sense to this post?

I think this is potentially more kitty chatter / lingo

docfrigo wrote:

In the winter, and when the early spring allows, 30+ boats vertically jigging the scour hole tends to be the norm–much to the eagles delight!

I fish those times pretty heavily. Unless I just am ignorant on where the scour hole is I hardly ever see boats there.

Buckeye86 wrote:

Go back and look at what used to be on the site and on the river. The good and great fisherman of the old days don’t post on here anymore

Being that you posted here…? Not have any luck lately? Maybe you should hire a guide!

Go back and look at what used to be on the site and on the river. The good and great fisherman of the old days don’t post on here anymore

Ol’ Buckeye86 is a little cantankerous normally. It takes a village.

But the above was brought up the other day and make me think a bit.

If a person goes back to 2002-’05, this site had a number of good guides that promoted their service here. Pictures and reports generated business for them. Heck that’s how this site came to be.

Ten or so years later, those guides have moved on. James hasn’t guided in, well about 10 years. Dustin is spending time with his son in the woods without ‘net access (and loves it) and so on. We had Steve and Dean posting photo’s of vacationers not to mention Eric and Jason’s pigs of spring. I’m missing a bunch but I’m sure you catch my drift.

Facebook came along and many guides have chosen to skip having a dedicated website and just use a FB page.

Personally, I don’t see P4 has changed much over the last 10 years with the exception of more Pike and Panfish due to several years of flooding. Sure there’s good spawns and bad spawns but that’s nature.

Think about this for a moment. If you were new to P4 today and were a pike angler, you would be living the dream. Three to seven pound fish easily. Many 10+ pounders all due to the high water we had a few years back. Fast forward a few more years with less then “normal” spawns. The posts will be about “What happened to the Pike of Pool 4?”

I won’t speak of the other Pools, 5, 5a as I have zero experience there.

And as it was 10 years ago, we still have cantankerous posters.

Could not agree with you more Brian in everything you have stated. Dean when he was running Everts posted a ton of pics and reports of quality fish it drove business to his door and the guides. The fish are still there as Brian stated year classes change what the fishery is. Pepin has a short life span for Walleyes as they grow so fast it is unusual to see any fish past 9 years versus many northern lakes where fish are 15-20 years old.

I do agree with the explanation of where have all of the posts gone. I can tell you honestly that every time I post something on here or Facebook concerning a good bite going on or publish a report I receive a massive amount of backlash for promoting this fishery. I have actually considered removing our businesses from social media but it is a method to keep our business afloat and a necessary evil.

Here is where my problem is: The same guys I receive all of the flack from are fishing every “kill” tournament that comes to pool 4 and don’t think twice about whacking 28″ fish over the head because it is “tradition” and for a good cause. The other problem I have is that most of these guys (Not All) complaining about pool 4 fishing pressure have multiple photos of themselves with large catches of fish on their FB page from years past or from trips to somebody elses “home water”. I guess if you are visiting another man’s pond it is OK to harvest those fish. Ex. Lake of the woods, South Dakota Perch, Devils Lake etc.

Please do not take this wrong as I do support some sort of restrictive harvest regulations on pool 4 I just do not want to see the season shut down. I would like to see something like a 3 or 4 fish limit with a 20″ maximum and maybe a 1 over regulation. I would like to see this in effect during the winter / spring spawn. On top of that I would like all Kill tournaments to be stopped or at least have a maximum size put on the harvest. This would not have to be done via a law, the organizers could do this themselves.

So instead of beating those of us up that run businesses on this river why don’t we assemble a group to represent the pool 4 anglers and hash this out like mature adults. I would love to be involved with this and help organize it. I promise we all have the health of this river in our best interest. Thank You, Chris Winchester

4seasonsport wrote:

Please do not take this wrong as I do support some sort of restrictive harvest regulations on pool 4 I just do not want to see the season shut down. I would like to see something like a 3 or 4 fish limit with a 20″ maximum and maybe a 1 over regulation. I would like to see this in effect during the winter / spring spawn.

^^^^Agree^^^^

4seasonsport wrote:

On top of that I would like all Kill tournaments to be stopped or at least have a maximum size put on the harvest. This would not have to be done via a law, the organizers could do this themselves.

CPR (AIM Format) Tourneys are the way to go. Tourney anglers should push for this.

-J.

Well i must live under a rock because i don’t recall seeing any reports from everts in ages. I would say get a weekly report coming out of there. Unless business is so good you don’t need customers. Reports,bait & guides go together like peanut butter & jelly.

All species need some sort of protection and limits. Heck there was a report on bumble bee’s being in danger.

I digress. ????

Dutchboy, The reports for Everts come out under the 4 Season Sports name. Both businesses are under the same account here now. I could post one under each name but that would basically mean I would cut and copy the exact same report and then put it on the other. In years past there were people at the resort who took care of most of the fishing reports. The resort is ran a little differently now and we do not have an employee sitting at a computer on a daily business. I do know this is a weak spot for us and I hope it will get better in the near future. For now, I am concentrating on taking care of the customers that are standing in our shops and not spending our time online. You know…A bird in the hand is worth more than two in the bush!

Here’s the MN DNR Walleye Searcher presentation from 2014 talking about 2013.

The whole presentation is very informative, but I ask you to take a look starting at Page 34 “Group Questions”.

Attachments:

1. 

   waesearchers-2014-w-Nicks-notes.pdf
   

I found this quote in that report about the fishery very interesting:

My take away message to the group for this slide after presenting the data was that the extremely fast growth of Pool 4 Walleyes and Sauger makes slot limits difficult to justify. Fish grow too rapidly to stay in a harvest slot for more than a few months and either grow through a protected slot quickly if it is narrow or begin to suffer high rates of natural mortality from old age while they are still in it if it is made wider.

I am still not against something being done but obviously these shad eaters on the river may take a different approach than other bodies of water. I do think the fishery is still strong but I also think it could be better. On a side note, there are some awesome sauger being caught again this year which I am assuming are from the 2013 class. 1 more year and all those 20-23″ Saugers we saw in 2010 will be back.

I noticed that section also. Let’s let the DNR manage this area of the river based on data and science, not our perception of fishing success.

P4 is in good shape, it varies from day to day and year to year. You can catch all walleye one day and all sauger the next. You can get eaters and trophy fish, at the dam or away from it.

I’m beginning to wonder that since protected slots, special bag limits on other bodies of water are so prevalent, that people just can’t accept the fact that P4 does not need them.

Leave it alone, until the data shows we have a problem!

ET

For what it is worth, the fishery is as good or not better than ever ! Have fun fishing everyone, Pool 4 is a amazing fishery!

Holy Cow!!! I did not intend to cause a firestorm on this topic..

I was just looking for some techniques to catch walleyes on this river instead of sauger city out there!!

Thank you to the guys who gave me some good advice!!

stay away from the dam and pay attention to details and don’t listen to galling catfisherman

The catfish guys and walleye guys need to hug it out. Plug your nose and snuggle in. No spoonin!

my advise is go hire a guide or find someone to take you! all you need is 1 time to get a few tips and then take your own ideas and judgement and learn the ways on your own!! I went 1 time with a friend and then learned the river on my own, no social media in 1986 no posts on ido just spend time! I did not catch a trophy for many years now have caught and released multiple trophy walleyes. I won a guided trip a few years back and gained more knowledge on other tactics. I really enjoy p 4 and think it is great fishing

I think the culprit is snapface or bookchat. Guys that have been fishing it for decades will blame the internet. It is partly to blame for the bumper boat season only a few weeks away.

johnladick wrote:

Holy Cow!!! I did not intend to cause a firestorm on this topic..

I was just looking for some techniques to catch <em class=”ido-tag-em”>walleyes on this river instead of sauger city out there!!

Thank you to the guys who gave me some good advice!!

Un…no, this is far from a firestorm. Evidently you have not seen some other recent threads here that became “radioactive” but don’t look now, they’re gone.
This is a great thread. Lot’s of historical perspectives, mention of earlier “characters” and other early history of the origin of this site/forum. I am truly sucked in now so to speak as this fishery seems to hold so many that are passionate about it.
I have never fished it, only driven by. All my angling pursuits have been “Due North”.
As much as I’d like to try, I would not likely run up to fetch my boat a Mille Lacs where I keep it, and run it back down to P4 for an outing. Not that it wouldn’t be worth it for some, I’m just getting a bit old and tired to pull that off on my own.
So…if any of you ever have an open seat in your boat out there, I would offer to pay for the gas, buy the bait…and beer! Just throwing that out there…

Dutchboy wrote:

Well i must live under a rock because i don’t recall seeing any reports from everts in ages. I would say get a weekly report coming out of there. Unless business is so good you don’t need customers. Reports,bait & guides go together like peanut butter & jelly.

All species need some sort of protection and limits. Heck there was a report on bumble bee’s being in danger.

I digress. ????

Everts has a facebook page that pretty much gives daily reports.. And no you dont need a facebook account to read them..
All the guides have readily available reports available on facebook/websites as well.. If you havent looked on facebook, then yes you probably live under a rock

The SCRATCHER wrote:

…I did not catch a trophy for many years now have caught and released multiple trophy walleyes. I won a guided trip a few years back and gained more knowledge on other tactics. I really enjoy p 4 and think it is great fishing

Also having a boat named THE SCRATCHER can’t hurt.

All hail THE SCRATCHER!

AMEN!! being the SCRATCHER is not easy lmao!!

I don’t think it’s the limits, or there being no fish, I have just noticed that some years, some pools are better then others. One year I might be fishing pools 10 and 11, some years pool 9. Some years I will be fishing pools 12 and 13. If Pool 4 isn’t cooperating, try another pool. There’s lots of river and I know there are a lot of walleyes from pools 4-14. Anyway, I hope to make a pool 4 appearance, but I have been spending time on Pool 11 and I think that is where I will be for now. Turkey season starts in a week.