12/17 Pool 4

Yesterday was a nice day to get out and enjoy some mid December fishing out of the boat. Mike V. and his co worker Dave hopped in my boat for the day. The sauger bite is almost, as Dean used to put it “suicidal” meaning to me those hungry fish will eat anything you put down to them.

We started the day off looking for big fish pitching blades, ringworms, paddle tails and a variety of other baits to rocky shore lines with only one 18″ walleye (pic 1) falling victim to my 1/4 oz. black blade bait in 14-18 FOW. We also picked up a gar, a small sauger and 1 decent smallmouth pitching.

After a few hours of pitching Dave mentioned wanting some eaters and Mike V. “just wanted to catch a fish” so it was vertical jigging time.

We worked 15-25 FOW with 18-20 FOW being our best producing depth for keeper fish. Mike V. was fishing a small paddle tail on 1 side of the boat and a Patriot hair jig and minnow on the other. Mike doubled up at times but said the small oyster shell colored paddle tail was the best producer. Dave was fishing a plain ‘ol ball jig and a minnow and caught just as many fish as he missed. Dave took home big sauger honors with this 18.5-19″ (pic 2) sauger caught on the plain ‘ol jig and minnow set up. As for me, I just jigged a sour apple hair jig and a minnow, caught just as many fish and navigated the boat.

Dave ended up bringing home 8 fish (pic 3) between 14 and 19 inches. I’d say on the day we caught 75-100 fish and only fished for 5 hours. If you have a kid, friend or relative that you been wanting to get on a good bite, now’s the time. Of course we had to sort through our share of small fish to get the keepers but it was a BLAST.

Thanks goes out Mike V. and Dave for all the laughs in the boat yesterday , I also would like to thank River Ramp Randy for keeping the back channel ramp in good usable condition and Dean Marshall, I better get that man some cookies

Well, I finally found someone brave enuf to crawl into my boat. Had a good day with Brucea.

And since he brought me luck (I caught 2/3 of the fish) he can go anytime!!

Had let an unnamed wonderful mechanic work on the boat. Had problems with cold starting (a little ether did wonders there) and once running notice that the alternator was flopping around.

Upon inspection, found the axle pin had fallen out. Well, one of the wonders of IOs is that WALLAH there the pin was in the bottom of the hold. Well, a few cold fingers later and a VERY patient fishing partner, we were under way.

17 trailers in the lot when we went into Wi Channel (thank you RRR, the ramp is wonderful)

Almost everyone was on the Vermillion mouth catching cigars.

Put on 4″ moxies and went all the way to the dam. Nothing until we got to the Y and we had a double with just two lines out. Well, the transducer wasn’t working (still have to learn which way on the switch is ON…) so we weren’t seeing anything.

The fish were nice 18-24″. Swung around and drifted thru the same spot and hit another fish before the jig was to the bottom. Again, a 20″ fish.

Then had trouble finding the school again (if you can call this density of fish a ‘school’) Made me realize i need to learn waypoints. Would have solved the issue.

We tried chartreuse, pearl, firecracker and black. All three fish hit black, and black with a black head too…

Then it got dark and my shop man had left the rear white on the table back at the shop, so we pulled the plug and went back to that VERY CLEAN ramp. Good decision.

So, going again today, hoping to replicate. If you see a boat with more armament on the back end than the USS Constitution, give a shout. Ran into Gordy from GC out there. Small world.

I’m going to drift crawlers with spinner harnesses on DRs today. Maybe, maybe not; only one way to find out. Thinking about swinging by 4 Seasons and putting down a couple of 4″ suckers too.

Nice fish Jesse !

Sounds like a great time!