Spawned out?

Got out on pool 4 yesterday and went BIG WALLEYE hunting as you can catch 10-20″ fish most anytime on the river. We started out finding some real nice clean and clear water in a maze of trees deep into the woods but the water temps were 53 degrees which struck me as odd and had me believing the walleye in this area were already spawned out and it was time to get back into some cooler water temps. We fished a bunch of water on the main channel, back channel, woods and areas that have water now that at normal levels would be high dry ground yet we still found the water temps were 43 degrees to 48 degrees. Do you think the walleyes have spawned out already ? We did manage to find a hand full of walleyes and 1 sauger but no BIG PIG eye’s of 5+ lbs like we were looking for but we sure had a blast looking for them. This was a no photo trip except I got a couple a pics of how thick the woods we fished in were but I am having troubles getting them off my phone. We would have taken pics if a fish was well over the 5lb mark.

I personally know that Blue Fleck and Millerman will be happy to hear we found some active white bass as well

Not a chance their spawned out yet. All fish we caught yesterday big or small sauger/walleye were still plump as could be and the bellies still quite hard. We did however catch oour first milting male of the year. If this water temp. does not drop this week and continues to rise, which it should with the rain, pool 4 will see one of the best spawns it has for a very very very long time. With such a limited harvest by anglers as well this year things are looking very good in the near future for the river system!

Don’t the saugers spawn after the walleye ?

My guess is that if we get another week of those water temps the walleye spawn will be pretty much complete. it is my understanding that sauger do spawn after walleye in a little warmer water water and use a different spawning substrate than walleye. i believe the sauger spawns similar to perch using weed stalks and sand as primary spawning areas vs rubble/more rock substrate for walleye.

I hope Evert’s is back open on the 25th so I can take a shot at some of those saugers.

I don’t believe the spawn is near end yet. I’m still seeing fish full of eggs being pulled up. Sounds like you had a good time out there either way.

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Don’t the saugers spawn after the walleye ?

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I’m curious to know too I’ve always thought the saugers spawned after the walleyes. Me and a couple buddies fished pool4 on friday and the only eyes we got were real tiny males but we caught some dandy ready to pop saugers, water temps everywhere we went was 46-49. I know for sure the eye spawn is just starting on pool2.

Take Care!!

Kevin

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I personally know that Blue Fleck and Millerman will be happy to hear we found some active white bass as well

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Saawweeeeet!!!! I’m down for that action anytime!! Send me the GPS coord. via PM!

[quote I know for sure the eye spawn is just starting on pool2.
Kevin

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How do you know what’s going on in Pool 2? I’m seriously curious because I’d like to know, too!

I was fortunate enough to hook up with some 26 to 28 inch walleye yesterday that were plump full of eggs, so I do not think that all the fish are spawned out already. We also caught some sheephead which usually means the prime bite is coming to a end. Yesterday we also caught some walleyes that were milking. I just think that with the water temp varying so much in different areas, each area is holding fish in different stages of spawning.

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I just think that with the water temp varying so much in different areas, each area is holding fish in different stages of spawning.

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This is true, water temps were all over the place.

I was showing temps in p3 any where from 37-43 yesterday. We also searched for a pig and came up empty handed. I didn’t venture too far into backwaters though. I heard someone plugged a 10lb+ vertical jigging, guess I should have grinded it out up there.

i dont think that the walleyes are spawned out yet have caught some that where still full of eggs but i cant believe its to far away if the warm weather keeps up

We were out on April 2nd and we caugth a fat 22″ walleye, two fat saugers, one of them had eggs coming out already), and we caught a 16 inch male eye that was milking all over, and then one small sauger. Gotta be getting close to the spawn by now. All the girls were set free. We also had 4 other pretty nice fish on that we never got to see. Then the bite shut down for us. Water temps were about 40 to 42 at the end of the day.

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I personally know that Blue Fleck and Millerman will be happy to hear we found some active white bass as well

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Yes the Saugers are the last to spawn..walleyes I always say are a week to 10 days earlier. Of course that all depends on if there is any major changes in the water temp at the time.