Pool 5 report - Mississippi River – Walleye - Mississippi River – Walleye

just got back from 2.5 days of fishing for walleyes on pool 5. friday was overcast and rainy for most of the day and ended with some severe weather coming thru in the evening. we fished in the back sloughs trolling with cranks and managed to put five keepers in the livewell and one 28″ northern. we probably released 30 other walleyes, all too small for the freezer. saturday was a beautiful day and we managed to keep nine more walleye, one short of our take home limit. again we found all the fish in shallow, 4-8 feet, with five feet being the optimum depth. we probably released another 30-40 fish from 6″ to 14.9″. we did get into some stripers off and on all day and probably boated 40 of them. we managed to get off the water in time to miss a fast moving hail/lightening/thunder storm. sunday we fished for half a day and started out with some more striper action that lasted about an hour and then trolled for walleyes and boated out last keeper, about a 20″ and released another five 15-18″ walleyes and numerous smaller fish. we trolled jointed shad raps sizes 5 and 7 in firetiger, tigercraw, and red craw. #4 gold/black shad raps were the hot ticket, but we also caught fish on #11 and 13 blue/white stick rapalas and jointed stick rapalas. fish were also caught on wally divers in green/black and shallow running fat free clown colored crank. the trick was to find a lure that would run about 5-6′ without fouling in the weeds. anything seemed to work as long as you dragged it in front of a fish. back sloughs with some grass were the best bet, although we did catch some fish next to shore in the main channel trolling up/down the shore where several wingdams came to shore in a short stretch, but grass was also present along shore in the area. grass seemed to be the key, coupled with the proper depth, then water clarity was a consideration, then current. the minn. side of the pool was very muddy and the wisc. side was fairly clear. also the further you went downstream the muddier it got on both sides. we caught all our fish in the upper half of the pool.
well that about covers it. i want to thank everyone who reponded to my questions on this forum. i would have been floundering around out there had it not been for the advice i got from you people and from reading your posts and reports. thanks again!