Pool 6/7 Help please

I have been fishing the mississippi for walleye for several years now. I still fail to get on good numbers, and never find any big fish??? I am stumped and about ready to become a bass fisherman

Been finding a few fish on wing dams and thats about it. 13 inchers and one or two decent ones mixed in (15-18 inch fish)
Anyone have any advice especially for the big fish tactics and locations? I am available if anyone wants to go out today, Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday.

We can take your boat or mine makes no difference, I would just like to learn what I have been missing.

Feel free to pm advice if you prefer.

Thanks for any and all help!

(I left my usual name and password at home, this is not my first post, just dont remember my password, wow i must be getting old )

6&7 are good pools in the summer. The whole key for me is fishing as many wing dams as I can. I seriously will fish 20+ dams in a day if I can’t find anything consistent.

Also, keep in mind that unless you find just the right dam, they typically don’t replenish themselves all that frequently. We also haven’t had a “Typical” summer for about 5 years now. We’ve been through years of colder weather, years of high summer water etc…

All I can tell you for sure is to fish as many dams as you can, and fish them fast. I cast cranks 90% of the time just so I can fish more dams. If you want to fish bait, it can work but you will have to spend more time on each dam.

Thanks I have been casting cranks on the dams, and is about the only way I am finding any fish. I will cast a crank til I find one then switch to a jig for a few casts and maybe pick up another one if I’m lucky. I am beginning to really hate flowing water

That’s what the changing water does unfortunately. It either corrals them into a few spots, or spreads them out. Lately they’ve seemed really spread out. Last Thursday I had to fish 17 Wing Dams, some 2 or 3 times just to find a few legals.

The fish have been right on top of the rocks for me lately, and casting a jig/crawler on top of the dam usually is more trouble than I’m willing to deal with on limited time.

There was a 10 boat tourney out of Tremp on Saturday, and 4 fish for 8.5lbs won it. That just goes to show how tough things have been. You still hear stories of guys finding a decent bite, but I wouldn’t say it’s been anything consistent.

Up here on pool 2 I like pitching jig/crawlers this time of year to the dams. The dams with deeper bases seem to work well for this. Park that boat off the tip a little and up river a bit from the dam. Forget about even getting a jig to the top for the most part. Just work those jigs down the front face, the base of the dam and even out in front a bite.

About a two inch piece of crawler on a jig seems to work well for this. Get that crawler to long and they want to bite the tail off. Put that on a good jig like a H20 or Draggin jig with the metal bait keepers and it will hold that crawler on there fantastic. If you tend to loose jigs maybe try the draggin jig. They are great at staying out of the snags.

For presentations try real slow almost dragging across the bottom. Other wise some days Ill beef up the weight of the jig and hope them down the face and right back to under neath the boat.

Leaches, willow cats and other large minnows can be good baits to use with this presentation to.