Pool 4 yesterday

Pounded them on Wednesday 40 plus fish for the day small baits are key right now shorten up the ringworm hold it dead still and get bit, easy fishing some 20″ range fish and a ten lb northern where the biggest that we caught but overall size was good at around the 16″ mark the left side of the y has a lot of fish on it right now I’m assuming because of the 4 degree water difference I hope people will be a little selective on keeping more of the males but I seen a lot of potbelly females going into the live well yesterday… Kinda sad considering how well they are biting

Glad you did well. Thanks for the post. I was in Red Wing yesterday for work and I was so very jealous of all the boats I saw out on the river.

In terms of keeping spawning females: to all the anglers who do that I ask you “why?” Can we not be a little more conscientious of nature? I spend just as much money as anybody on fishing and I feel like I “deserve” something for my efforts, but if we all kill the spawning females what is going to be left for my kids and their kids? Come on, this stuff is obvious. Practice good stewardship. The same goes for all the yahoos fishing in the scourhole.

Over harvesting either way is bad but for the most part the pool can handle it I just don’t understand why someone knowingly wants to keep the future population of fish I don’t know exactly but seen in videos were there are ten males to one spawning female to fertilize her eggs wouldn’t make sense to keep the males otherwise if the female is gone she’s gone now there will be 30 males to one female ( in theory) hopefully it’s just a cycle as they say but fishing isn’t as good as it was 6 to 8 years ago and the typical people fishing in deeper water are catching the saugers, guess what? Not that good of a sauger population and not a lot of nice big 20″ females around to catch take a photo release and know they will be spawning. Instead let’s just throw those fish into the gut pile along with whatever else is legal to catch and keep

I love to catch fish. I like to try to catch the biggest fish in the system for the challenge. I don’t care if people do abide by the laws and take fish home lets just be selective in what we take. One 16″ walleye and a side of potatoes is normal for what I can eat for supper. What are these people doing with a limit of 6 per person in each boat out there then going back down the next weekend doing the same over and over that’s a lot of fish to eat period. Hmmmmmm???

Were you pitchin jigs and letting them sit? Or were you drifting and dragging them along the bottom? Thanks

Man We fished from 7-3 on the left side of the Y and there were alot of dinks i seen caught but nothing crazy we managed about 10 fish only 3 keepers in hte 15-17″ range. Never had a bite up by the dam. Heading back up next wednesday hope it heats up

When pitching I was pitching down current letting it hit bottom then picking it up and holding at still as possible that’s how we caught our bigger fish. I fished on the left of the y for an hour or so to let my buddy catch some fish as he was struggling I was just holding it dead still and letting the wind and current pull me along I noticed majority of people were using Lindy rigs and minnows. They were catching a lot of dinks and mean small like 6″ to 10″ very small fish I was using a ptail and a straight tail minnow on a Dubuque rig but they were all taking the paddle tail in the bottom and a lot of times it was gone down their mouth I kept getting bit by little ones just grabbing the tail and pulling it off. Those little buggers!!

Eyecon what boat were you in

tan crestliner IA tags what boat were u in?

No offense, but it isn’t your place to tell people what they can and can’t catch. That is just like telling people what deer they can and can’t shoot. I think it is wrong. Most of those guys that keep those probably don’t hurt the population anyways.

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No offense, but it isn’t your place to tell people what they can and can’t catch. That is just like telling people what deer they can and can’t shoot. I think it is wrong. Most of those guys that keep those probably don’t hurt the population anyways.

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But it is your place to him what to or not to say ?

Go home and bury your head in the sand !!!!

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No offense, but it isn’t your place to tell people what they can and can’t catch. That is just like telling people what deer they can and can’t shoot. I think it is wrong. Most of those guys that keep those probably don’t hurt the population anyways.

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But it is your place to him what to or not to say ?

Go home and bury your head in the sand !!!!

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BAM!

No kidding trumar! Please, take your unnecessary negative comments elsewhere! Suggesting to throw back the mamas (although it should be a given) is the right thing to do

Hunter1723 I assume then you are one of those people raping the system then? I never once told anyone what they can or can’t keep I’m more interested in having an open season and being able to catch quality fish in ten years from now but hey go ahead snag all those little saugers out of deep water and see how the population holds up . FYI those fish dies or do people need a photograph of all the fish floating on by . Thank god the fish moved in more shallow otherwise it would be a blood bath sorta speak only because the water came up. I fish out of a 98 magnum 165 alumarcraft grey and white with a 60 yamaha I’m always wearing my green guide wear bibs if any feels like they need to discuss anything with me in the future. I am down there all the time and actually give two shits.

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No kidding trumar! Please, take your unnecessary negative comments elsewhere! Suggesting to throw back the mamas (although it should be a given) is the right thing to do

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I have very young kids that enjoy fishing and I hope when they are OLDER they still have fishing as we know it today

Can’t we just all get along?

There’s never any cocktails or extra beers being consumed here during the evening conversations had here are there?

I was agreeing with you, trumar. Sorry it didnt seem like it! Im also young and I would like to continue catching a fish or two on the river (or anywhere for that matter)!

Over harvesting of Saugers happened here on the Mississippi at the dam at Guttenburg. It got so bad that the DNR had to close the season when they were the most vulnerable. The saugers were being caught all winter for just something to do, and not giving a guy any more meat then big bluegills.

A guys got to lighten up on the females because it WILL happen just like it did here.

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I was agreeing with you, trumar. Sorry it didnt seem like it! Im also young and I would like to continue catching a fish or two on the river (or anywhere for that matter)!

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I did understand that, I was just adding I have kids that enjoy fishing as much as I do

Nice report Josh. We were out Tuesday and Thursday. Tuesday morning was brutal, and on top of that our trolling motor decided to take a dirt nap so we were without it the rest of the time. A big thanks to Steve at Everts for offering his help with foot control but unfortunately that was not the problem. We did manage to catch a dozen or so saugers Tuesday afternoon by drifting with a drift sock to slow our speed. Jig and minnow and purple chartreuse tail moxie was our choice. Tried different colors but that is what worked best. Wednesday morning we anchored on a current seam down stream from the Y and did very well with the same colored moxie. We did not get to the water until around 7:30 but fish were snapping right away. Boated close to fifteen walleye and a half dozen sauger. Sauger ran between 13-17 inches with all walleye between 16-20 inches with one 24 inch female that went back. That female walleye seemed as tall as she was long she was so heavy. All in all a battle with the weather on Tuesday but was all worth it to be able to catch fish pitching jigs on Wednesday. While pitching we were somewhat aggressive with snapping the jig a foot of the bottom and letting it fall back to bottom. The bites we had were bone crushing. The bite slowed around 10:00 but still picked fish now and then until we left around 1:30. Good luck to all the next few weeks as the fishing will only get better. Current seams, current seams, current seams!!!

Post deleted by BrianK

I travel an hour each way to red wing and never keep fish so hopefully the ones I catch you can catch also. What’s your favorite lake from where your from RiverRuns I wanna go fish there.

Here’s a couple from Wednesday

Just popping in for a little note…

Ido was built on sharing and helping others catch more fish.

Please let me know if anyone has an issue with that via pm. I will be happy to explain this in great detail.

I’m the mean time, back to fishing.

/End of Moderator Note

There are a number of inaccuracies in Mossy Dan’s post. 1. The fishing was not closed at Guttenberg. The winter closing on the river was from the Dubuque Damm South. Above Dubuque was never closed because Wisconsin did not think it necessary and would not agree to it. 2. Lower sauger populations were never determined to be from fishing pressue. The closing from Dubuque down was proposed for a five year study the impact and ended up lasting six years. The closing was cancelled after that because there was no appreciable improvement in populations or size of sauger in those pools. The conclusion has been that poor spawning conditions and envirionmental issues are the problem, not sport fishing.

I was told in a previous post that fishing pressure had little to no effect of the walleye/sauger population yet you guys are saying otherwise? I can’t imagine someone keeping a few larger females would ruin our walleye sauger fishery on pool 4. Notice the heavy amount of sarcasm in my posts and the pointing out of how a lot of you, not saying anyone specifically when I said a while ago I believe fishing pressure is to blame for the decline in population. I was then told that fishing pressure has little, or nothing to do with it by several members. In that theory alone you should keep what you want to keep. Glad you guys walked right into my trap to prove what I have said before on fishing pressure on pool 4. I also believe that you guys posting every fish you catch is just as bad as well as telling people where you are catching fish. Basically puts more fish in other people’s boats if you think about it. Keeping large females hurts the population, putting people on fish that normally wouldn’t be on fish allows them to catch/keep more- hurts the population. When you guys figure it out let me know. Until then I will do what I want to do. Bigger fish means more meat! (Sarcasm)

HOOK–LINE–SINKER

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The conclusion has been that poor spawning conditions and environmental issues are the problem, not sport fishing.

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I and the at least MN and WI couldn’t agree with this more.

Sure if I go out and catch a limit there will be 6 less fish in the system, that doesn’t mean it’s being hurt.

Showing photos of fish will increase traffic to a pool, no doubt. But that certainly doesn’t mean there are any more or less fish caught. Some of the best sticks have told people where to go and how to catch fish and then they come back skunked.

I posted a photo of an estimated 11 pound fish here a while back. On FB it received over 3000 views. It showed spot on the spot location. I received plenty of nasty grams for posting the photo with the back ground showing. I would think by now someone would have hooked into another lunker and posted their pic! Not a one, why? Because location and bait is only 2/3s of the equation.

Moving on to the next point, I mentioned earlier that Ido was build on sharing info, helping people learn how to catch more fish. Certainly there needs to be some conservation minded decisions made in making posts more so on smaller waters.

If sharing of info sits in your craw the wrong way, you will be very frustrated here. Might want to find a golfing website.

But yet my buddy sits in the boat and has caught three fish and I have caught around 50 last two times out. It’s funny how you can tell majority of people were you caught fish and they still can’t catch them. Hunter go ahead take a look at all the pics doesn’t mean you can catch em. But when you do keep those big females along with the thousands of other people down there and tell me the population won’t be harmed at some point . Lakes like blackduck lake have special regulation on keeping of panfish so it doesn’t get caught out and it does happen I live in faribault and when the ice houses can get out early it’s amazing the following spring there isn’t much for fish. It does happen don’t lie to yourself . Have a nice day

I come on here BK and make several posts related to different things, I was just stating it as a valid rebuttal to what they were saying. I have posted info on here as well, but I am just stating what it does and how it has very similar effect to the keeping of large pre-spawned fish.