Pool 14 Eyes

Made it out on the river here Sunday and had a great day casting jigs. We concentrated on back water areas close to the main channel, as the water is dropping fast, but the fish where still up on the edge of the flooded timber. Boated about 15 eyes and saugers, with a few good eaters, a 23″ and 26″ fish released, and a lot of short fish. These fish where all very fat and healthy! Also stumbled on a 19″ smally, and a mixed bag of river fish to boot. The bigger eyes came from one small area of young willows, with just the tops protruding from the water. Also had a BIG slimer eat my jig and take it with her, cutting 10# fireline like it was sewing thread. All in all, a fun day.
Best bite was on 3/32 and 1/8 oz jigs with chart/pepper ring worm. Had some success with gulp crawlers on jig also.
Can’t wait till the river drops a few more feet and slows down, making fish a little easier to locate!
John

Way to go Jonh! I’ll be on Pool 14 this coming Sunday. You know where I’ll be at. Give me a call if your going to be out.,

Hey Tony, I plan to be out every day I can from now until July 11. I am fishing the Grand National Walleye Cup tourney here on the 11th. It is going to be tough establishing any kind of pattern with the water dropping SO fast, but at least there will be a lot less water to look in by then! I certainly hope to be out early Sunday, but will probably get off the water by mid day when all the crazies fill the channel! On the other hand, I’ve had some good days fishing when the river was so full of pleasure boats that you never stopped rocking! The area you are planning on hitting should be slowed down enough by Sunday to be holding fish. They are there now, but right on shore.
I’ll give ya a ring later in the week.
John

John:

Thanks for the report on pool 14. Its good to hear some news from the lower pools. Living outside CR, a trip to the Quad Cities area is a closer option than heading up to the upper pools. Its good to know that there are to fish to be had in pool 14. Being a newcomer from Maryland, I am still in the process of learning the river and so far have only fished pools 9 and 11. I will have to give 14 a try sometime soon. Reports such as this are very helpful to us newcomers to the sport in that they give us an idea of areas to try and techniques that are working.

Thanks,

Joe Jiacinto

Welcome to the site Joe .and thanks for a great report John, I just picked up my new boat and am dying to break it in..mabey this week

Tony, I’ve bought a different boat and have had to break it in carefully with all the high water, but now it is really down, and the fish have moved out of some of the shallower backwaters I was fishing. Had a great day today slow trolling down stream along a sandy shoreline with crawler harness w/ spinner. Found some really nice fish in a couple different areas, having 3 more in the 20-27″ release range. Found a few eaters also. Lots of catfish kept us busy between walleyes. Depth that was productive today was 5-9′, right on the slack edge of the strong current. No fish in the current, but lots hanging just off of it! It should just keep getting better as long as the rain stays away!
Congrats on the new boat! I know I love mine, but had to tell the Mrs. that it needs quite a bit more “breaking in” in the next week! (Although it is a 2000 model
boat)
Good luck, let us know how it goes!
John

Nice job out there! Thought I did great, but after your report, I’ll have to try harder. Spent June 30th trolling cranks along the west bank wing dams across from Albany IL. Boated a nice 18″ walleye, and 2 1.5 pound saugers. Lost something large and toothy on one of the wingdams too (took my wallydiver!). No bass all, though did see alot of whites swirling on minnows near the boat ramp. Spent the heat of the day under the limited shade and caught several cats, bluegill, the everpresent drum. In all, a very enjoyable day. Can’t wait for the water to drop another 2 feet. BTW, the walleye and sauger were caught around 8′.

Well, I got out Friday afternoon for some more hot action on the river. This time I decided to troll some cranks as well, working relatively short section of sandbar at the lower tip of an island, I brought in 10 legal fish, on 25″er, and lost one very large fish due to drag set being too tight. Oh, was I upset with myself on that one.
My first pass on the bar I boated 3 legals and 3 shorts, all in about 100 yard stretch of sand. The fish were tightly stacked in 6-9′ of water on the current edge. When I wandered off that area, I found catfish and sheepies, but what a fight they can put on!
If weather permits, I will be trying something new today. Probably give protected wing dams a shot, and maybe the channel edge for some trolling. It’s been like shooting ducks in a barrel these last couple times out, just wish it could last.
Make sure your boat is in good order and your tape measure is in the boat, as the Ill and Ia DNR are out in full force and are checking every one. I, for one, am glad to see them! Young man from Iowa DNR stopped me last night and measured my eaters, he is trying to contact as many fisherman as he can on the water, making sure everyone is aware of the new slot limit. Great young man doing an all too often thankless job! Good luck and good fishin’!

Hey Rooster. I’m just now getting into fishing the Mississippi by boat, and could use some advise. I’m familiar with trolling along wingdams and jigging behind LD 13 and 14 tailwater, but have never trolled behind or around sandbars. What do you look for in a sandbar, (since there are quite a few near the QCA? I could use the advise, as of right now, you luck is far better than mine on the water!
Thanks a bunch man!

Hey Skyguy, I have a few “go to” sandbars, most of which are immediatly adjacent to deeper water, near or along the main channel. If you have a good quality fish finder, you can read changes in bottom consistancy, such as mud to sand, sand to zebra mussel coverage, etc. It will show as a thinning of the bottom line when going from mud to sand, and zebs will usually show as a very slightly more irregular bottom than sand they are adjacent to. I will concentrate on those transition areas initially, as they seem to hold most fish as long as the current is reduced where the transition lies. Quite often the best sandbars for me seem to be at the outlet of sloughs to the main river, especially if the slough has no inlet upstream, or much slower flow coming through. Early and late day seem to be the best time to find fish on these types, as fish move into and out of the shallow sloughs to feed, and they also use sharp rising sand bars to trap bait fish against. Find one with a sharp drop to deep water and look for marks on your fish finder, find the depth the fish are holding and choose an appropriate crankbait to run that depth. Another area that will produce is the opening to quarrys, sand pits, and deep bays where there is a hump between the river and the no flow area. Hope this helps you!
John

Thanks John! I’ll be looking at my maps to find some of those areas soon. Unfortunately, I’ll be on midnight shift and with busy weather this upcoming week, there won’t be much time off for folks in the weather biz. (Look for some pretty significant rains Monday pm/night) All this rain the past day or two + what’s coming should keep water levels higher than normal for several more weeks…(reversing or ending the falling water levels we’ve seen lately) Thanks for advise! by the way, I forecast for the National Weather Service in Davenport.

Quote:

---

Thanks for advise! by the way, I forecast for the National Weather Service in Davenport.

---

I might not have let that one slip… People like me are always looking for someone to blame when our drunken weatherman gets the forecast wrong and we either end up out in a boat in hail and thunderstorms, or sitting on the couch during perfect fishing weather because we trusted the news.

My cousin is also a meteorologist. He gets his fair share of guff from me. It’s amazing that something can be so scientific, yet so totally unpredictable.

Question for you Southern pool guys, how would you rate the Quad Cities area in comparison with, say, pools 9-11? When I get a chance to get away for a day, I usually head North, even though the drive is about the same. I think there’s a couple of reasons, one being that there’s just so much water around the QC that it’s a little intimidating, the other that the scenery is a little better North of Dubuque. It would be good to expand my horizons a little bit sometime.

Fished pool 14 on friday and saturday morning till about 9:15. From 4:30 a.m. till 8:30a.m. we had to legal walleye. from 8:30 till 9:15 we boated 6, 17″ to 19″ walleye and then had to go. Gonna try to make it out this week again, before we head to wisconson for a week on the 10 to try our luck up there. We are going to be around the minocqua area.

Sky-I know the feelin! Especially the part about luck!

Quote:

---

Hey Rooster. I’m just now getting into fishing the Mississippi by boat, and could use some advise. I’m familiar with trolling along wingdams and jigging behind LD 13 and 14 tailwater, but have never trolled behind or around sandbars. What do you look for in a sandbar, (since there are quite a few near the QCA? I could use the advise, as of right now, you luck is far better than mine on the water!

Thanks a bunch man!

---

I’m gonna have to spend a night or two catfishing on the Cedar close to home, its been so long since I had any fish for the frying pan, my wife is wondering what I’m really doing when I go on my fishing excursions!

Btw, I find that the weather reports direct from NWS are probably the most accurate ones around. Our homepage back home was NWS Sterling VA; since moving to Iowa it has become NWS Quad Cities. The NWS forecasts are not real sexy, but they seem to be right on the money.

Btw, I enjoy reading the meteorological discsussions on the website; but then again I am a nerdy electrical engineer…

Regards,

Joe Jiacinto

Gianni, I,ve fished pool 16 for 40 years and I head north every chance I get, The fisin in pool 4/5 is great and the area beautiful, but we have some great fising here as well ,wingdams and sand flats current breaks,..just like up north,except we have tall buildings in front of them It should be very interesting to see how the Pro’s do in the RCL champonship,Your right there is a lot of water but you can eliminate about 75% of it,come on down and try it Good Luck!!!!

Pool 14 folks may want to check the forecast out today before heading out, as some pretty nasty storms are possible by early afternoon. If you get out this morning, might be a pretty good bite, with pressures falling fast and a thin overcast sky. Alas, I’ll be sleeping off a midnight shift, dreamin’ of the pre-storm bite!

Skyguy, thanks for the advance notice on the weather, kept me from getting soaked! I made it out on the morning of the 4th, and had another great day! Fished protected areas of wingdams after the trolling bite did not materialize where I had found fish on the 2nd. I fished from 5:30 until about 9 with no keeper fish, then found a stack of fish on the inside end of a wing dam , and caught around 25 fish in the next 3 hours, all from one wing dam. 3 way rig with crawler spinner worked best. The fish were not very aggresive, probably due to the very heavy boat traffic right over the wing I was fishing, but when traffic slowed for a bit, the fish bit. I worked 4 wings for two fish before hitting the jackpot. There was a nice mix of saugers with the eyes today, which is a bit unusual.
Heading out again in the morning to see if they will still be cooperative after the cold front has passed. It has been really great to be homed in on these fish for a few days, gotta enjoy it while it lasts! It may take me all summer to get on them again !
Gianni, I’ll tell ya a little secret about pool 14, if ya promise not to let it out of the bag . There is a stocking program here which greatly increases the population of eyes in this pool. On average, one of 3 fish I catch is marked from this program. There is a lot of water, but like Tony C says, you can throw a good deal of it out before hitting it with a boat. I am most familiar with upper pool 14 in the Clinton area. If you ever plan to come this way, drop me a p.m. and maybe I can get you started in the right direction. If I don’t have to work, maybe I could take you out and show you a few places to get started! I’ve never fished 9-11, so I don’t know how it compares, but there are certainly a lot of fish here to be had of late! Joe, Andy, same goes for you. Drop me a p.m. before coming to 14 and maybe I can give you some help.
,
Rooster

Made it out today 7th for a few hours and came home with 5 walleye from 16 to 17 inches. All came of wingdams in the albany Clinton area. 3 caught on night crawlers and 2 on crankbaits, but you think i could find that 6 th one. I prefer leeches but r&r wont have them till tomorrow. Hope to make it out tommorrow afernoon and friday morning efore we head to wisconsin for a week. THEM WERE the first 2 fish i ever caught on a crankbait, and hope to catch more. I have alot to learn about that style.

Great fishing

Hey walleyefarm, where ya from? I love fishing cranks, maybe we can get out together one a these days and pitch or troll some cranks!
John