Pool 5 today Friday 3/28/13

First time to hit pool 5 in a while, took some newbies to the river. So new they had no clue what a blade bait or wing dam etc. Did some explaining and discussion as we pitched some wing dams. Not a hot bite by any means, we put together a decent 9 fish Sauger and Walleye bag averaging 16 to 19 inches had one ever 20 that went back. Blade color no consistency at all depths were from 8 to 17 feet. Finding the current seam was key and getting the bait in the zone. We could not buy a bite on plastics as hard as we tried every fish came on blades.

Good to hear the fish are starting to cooperate somewhat!!

When you pitch blades, are you concentrating on the upstream side? Shore out to the channel, or just the tips?

As a rule active fish are not going to be behind the dam they are going to be on top, the face or tip. As the current picks up it will push those fish in towards shore or they will slide down to a dam with lesser current.

It depended upon where the wing dam was to the current flow. The current is starting to come up a little but not enough to push the fish closer to shore. Most fish were caught from midway to the tip of the wingdam. With the lower flow and wind kicking up, little harder to read where there were breaks in the wingdams, and the tips that have been broken apart from ice or barges hitting them, that is where my side imaging shines pick those out in a heart beat. Spot lock on my Terrova has got to be the best thing I have added to my boat for searching wingdams. It made it so simple to slide over and work different areas of each dam from different angles. If I had to anchor like I used to or fight with a foot pedal, I don`t think I would or could cover as much area to find fish. I can concentrate on my presentation and not boat control.

I don`t think the master James Holst would mind one of the many things about fishing I learned from James. Every cast you make pay attention to where the boat is sitting and where you have casted, James is a master at this. If you catch a fish casting on a certain spot and the boat has drifted over 5 feet, and you don`t know this how are you going to repeat your success…….make adjustments to your presentation.

Only been fishing the river a handful of years. Great simple explanation of fishing wing dams.

Very good write. Just curious when guys say “current seams” how and where they are describing.

Do a search for current seams , way more information then I could wright at one sitting.

Current seam is any thing that diverts the water flow, from one lone rock, wash board bottom, pointes, logs, to a wing dam. Some current seams are very obvious the V in a wingdam, the end of the wingdam a sudden change in bottom depth either up or down in depth. Current seams are where fish lie out of the current but next too, waiting for the conveyer ( current ) to bring food to them. These fish are active and very catchable they are there to feed no other reason.