Pool 4 Humble Pie

Made it out this afternoon for about 5 hrs with one 20″ walleye to show for my effort. Boated 6 saugers about 10″ long, 1 redhorse, and 1 whitebass. I read reports of people catching 30-40 fish per outing…I can’t seem to break 10! I still have lots to learn going on my 3rd year of P4 fishing. Anyone else out there on my side of the equation with a less than stellar outing? Walleye was caaught in 18′ dragging a fathead near the “Y”. Saw lots of dink saugers throughout the day but thats about it.

Sounds like tomorrow could suck for our boat, oh well beats work.

you are not the only one on that side of the equation……… hasnt been the best fishing in recent days, there is always guys that will catch fish on the river and there are some good fishing to be had but i will say its been tough for me as well! its only gotta get better!! keep at it and you will get em!

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Sounds like tomorrow could suck for our boat, oh well beats work.

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I don’t want to dampen your excitement so don’t let my results discourage you! I was just wondering if I’m the only one struggling. Time on the water is the only way to get over the hump so that’s what I will do.

Move, move, move! We had all of 30 on friday, at least a dozen fat legals. Took 12 moves to get them though!

Don’t let it get you down. I’m 63 and have been fishing the river for as long as I can remember. Every day is a learning curve. One of the best things I ever learned is that fishing is like sex. When it’s good it’s good, when it’s bad it’s still good. Hang in there.

What were you fishing in? I was out saturday and today and had a lot of success. between the 3 of us in the boat we caught 50+ fish each day. what we were noticing is a lot of people were: 1. dragging up river 2. using small jigs 3. using live bait. we were basically doing the opposite of them. we would drag downstream, using the trolling motor at times to get us moving faster than the current. we used just big enough jigs (mostly 3/16 and 1/4 oz.) to get us to the bottom, with 4″ moxies. and we did buy minnows for backup, but never touched them the 2 days out this weekend. Just my two cents, hopefully someone can take that info and replicate it for themselves!

Mmmmmm! Humble pie. I eat it all the time. At least you got out. It’s 3 hours, 25 minutes and 34 seconds to BK’s front camper door for me.
DT

I’ve been on pool 4 three times and haven’t caught a fish yet. I’m telling myself I’m waiting for the 10+ pounder. One day I’ll get mine.

Don’t feel to bad..I was at Evrets yesterday and know alot of very good fisherman came in with little to show for their efforts. Don’t let the finicky river get you down.

I used hair and meat (kelly green 3/16), silver glitter head with purple/char, and pb & J pulsars. Fished them vertical up by the dam area then drug them upstream and downstream all over the “Y” area.
I need toget more confidence in downstream areas it seems. Usually when I go downstream, I lose all confidence because it seems like a wild goose chase. Only spots I’ve ever caught fish are community holes Hay Creek, Young’s cabin, and can line. I need to take a day and put fishing secondary and exploring first and hopefully stumble on something. Thanks for the replies guys…hoping my next report has a few more fish! For now, at least the eagles are entertaining.

Seems this happens every year right when the melt starts. Water turns brown, and it won’t pick up bigtime till we start to get that water to warm up some. Cold dirty water’s always tough.
Most of those 30-40 are a few weeks ago with stable clean water.

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Move, move, move! We had all of 30 on friday, at least a dozen fat legals. Took 12 moves to get them though!

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Exactly! If you aren’t catching fish where you are, move somewhere else.

Cut your learning curve in half and hire a guide for a day, ask lots of questions. You will learn more in one day about the river then years of struggling on your own.

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Seems this happens every year right when the melt starts. Water turns brown, and it won’t pick up bigtime till we start to get that water to warm up some. Cold dirty water’s always tough.

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Exactly, these are about the toughest conditions that I know BUT it will turn around soon enough.

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Made it out this afternoon for about 5 hrs

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Well, was it a Mad House?

I must of missed you launching. Next time.

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Well, was it a Mad House?

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Not a madhouse at all! It was obviously busy but very well organized. I didn’t make it into the baitshop to see ya BK…I got my boat ready and sent my partner in to pay…jokes on him

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Made it out this afternoon for about 5 hrs with one 20″ walleye to show for my effort. Boated 6 saugers about 10″ long, 1 redhorse, and 1 whitebass. I read reports of people catching 30-40 fish per outing…I can’t seem to break 10! I still have lots to learn going on my 3rd year of P4 fishing. Anyone else out there on my side of the equation with a less than stellar outing? Walleye was caaught in 18′ dragging a fathead near the “Y”. Saw lots of dink saugers throughout the day but thats about it.

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1 walleye 6 sauger- 5hrs.. that sounds like a great day of fishing to me

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1 walleye 6 sauger- 5hrs.. that sounds like a great day of fishing to me

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So true Moxie. We are spoiled no doubt.

Growing up in the middle of the state, catching eye’s or saugers this time of year legally was/is unheard of.

P4 does this to people.

We honestly haven’t got a bite today. Saw a few caught at the dam, but nothing special. Trying to be a hero down river, but we have only been zeros so far.

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jig and a minnow. Play with jig colors. Raise and lowering jig frequently but not to vigorously . Fish were hittiing very light so had to be quick to set the hook. 16-20ft of water produced around a dozen walleye and saugs with one of the saugs pushing over 20″ and missing a dozen + more for the 4-5 hours we fished yesterday

Thanks for the advice! Funny you say that because right after I made that post I switched to a hair jig and minnow and caught a 21″ eye and 7 14-17″ saugers.

Here’s the biggest tip I can give you in cold water. Fish cross current, you’re trying to hone in on a certain depth etc… right now. You can’t make active fish be where you want them to be, but you can cover more areas by fishing cross current than fishing one break line.

You need to find the active fish before you can catch them.

Fished Sat from 4am to 6:30pm from dam to below Bay Point. We fished shallow dragging jigs to 14fow till day light zero fish. We went to middle channel at dam from 8 to 1:30 pointed boat down stream set trolling motor at 4 using 3/4 jig with paddle tail for dropper and 28 snell with minnow from 3 way. I would say 50-80 fish with 8 keepers. From 2pm to 4:30 dragged and pitched jigs with not a fish down river. Back at dam till 6:30 dragging down steam put fish in boat again. We stayed on outside edge of all the boats seemed to work for us. I would like to say thanks to Steve and Kari for getting us stuff set out for us to fish early!! They are great people and did an awesome job with keeping boats/trailers moving in and out without any issues!! Everts is back and awesome like the past Thanks again Steve and Kari

We had a nice little flury in the evening, not huge numbers but we had 15 or so, all would have made a good meal. A few walleye mixed in with the saugers too.

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If you don’t mind me asking, what depths were you targeting with your dubuque rigs?

thanks

Joe we started in the 14 to 16fow early and by mid day 26 to 28 to wing dams and back forth from 18 to 20fow. We would make a drift and repeat if noting would move deeper or shallower just had to keep moving where no more than hand full of boats were drifting.

We didn’t knock them dead today but caught around 10 that measured from 14-22″, pretty much all were walleyes too. It’s getting close.

Is the dubuque rig legal on inland lakes or up on the Rainy River?