Was anyone out thereable to catch walleye with all the shad flies out there. I was in clinton at 4:00am o get gas and they were terrible and i went fishing anyways with no luck. Tried vertical jigging and the wing dams with crankbaits with not even a hit. Some nice gills on the flats but no eyes. Has anyone ever used ringworms locally. They look like they should work but i am sure there is a place and a time for them. Thanks for any advice.
THOSE RINGIES WORK DOWN HERE TWO I HAVE DONE REAL WELL IN CLINTON AND ON UP. BUT MOSTLY IN SPRING AND FALL. TRY CASTING CRANKS TO THE WINGIES, OR LIVE BAIT. THE BOYS IN DUBQ, ARE KILLING THE FISH ON CRANKS ON THE RIPRAP GOOD LUCK WISH WE HAD A POOL 4
LOVE THOSE RINGWORMS 
Was wondering on where to head tommorrow morning to target fish. like flats wingdamns or what. where did anyone have any luck today
TRY THE DBQ, POOL DOWN BELOW THE BRIDGES AND ACROSS FROM HORSE SHOE BLUFF THOSE WINGIES ALWAYS PUT FISH IN THE BOAT.
Guys:
I fished 14 today, from about 8am-1:30pm. This was my first trip to the pool. We launched from the ramp in Albany on the Illinois side and tried our luck on the wingdams.
I will preface my post with the fact that I am a very inexperienced walleye and Mississippi river fisherman. We fished Dubuque rigs; I used a 3/8oz orange hammerhead jig on the bottom with and orange Gulp minnow grub. I tied a chartreuse rattlin’ bead with a bare hook on the longline, tipped with a Gulp leech. We essentially dragged the jigs downstream. On our first pass, I hooked a skinny 15″ within the first 15 minutes below a wingdam in an area with a very rocky and irregular bottom in 6′ of water. With action that soon into the day, we were filled with hope. We released the little guy to grow bigger.
But that was it, except for a sheepie that hit the leech a little later in the morning. We worked several other wingdams and saw at least 2 other fish caught by two different boats, but nothing other than that. Near Albany, at that time of day, it seemed generally slow. I’m not sure if it was the shadflies or if this front messed it up. It was cooler, breezier, and cloudier than they were calling for yesterday.
However, I was pretty excited that I got one on my first trip to a new pool . 
Not only that, but that was my first walleye caught on a jig. 
I’ll be back to 14 as its only an hour and 15 minutes from home, instead of trekking almost 2-1/2 to Lansing or Desoto.
Regards,
Joe Jiacinto
KornKing
Fished from 6 to 10:00 this morning and we boated oe 24, one 19 , 18 , 16.5, and a cople smaller ones. my favorite walleye fishing is with 1/8 ounce jig heads tipped with a tube jig and a stinger hook, tipped with a leech or a crawler, drifted over flats or clam beds. That 24 incher gave up a nice fight. We tried casting crankbait on wingdams this morning and nothing. we trolled crankbaits and nothing. Jigging with the lightest jig head you can control is my favorite by far. its a thrill when you get into them because I use light spinning tackle with 6 or 8 pound line and a 6.5 ft Avid St.Croix light or med-light action , so you get to actually fight the fish. I might go out again tonight for a little while to see if i can pick up a couple more. I wen to get bait afterwords and saw one flat by fulton with 10 boats on it. Heyif you have any more questions on the area, let me know. I launch out of albany also and travel to the dam and south to the power plant. Sometime maybe i might have an open seat if you wanna give it a try. I am not a pro on wingdams but i love fishing the flats. I learned it all by my self from watching other people on the river and the local bait shop. Wingdams i usually anchor above and throw out a night crawler or a leech on a three way. thats how i have the best luck. So today was alot better than yesterday. Talk later.
‘Farm:
Thanks for the update; glad to hear you guys did better today. 
As I said in my post, I’ll be back sometime soon. I did do one run with the leadcore later in the day yesterday, but the traffic was getting heavy and I had to slither my boat between the jiggers and pleasure boaters. That run ended with a lost crankbait on a stump. But before that happened, I pulled in a nice clam, 
so I know I was on good bottom. That was at 1:30pm, and my kitchen pass ran out at 4:00pm so I figured that was enough for one day.
I took a guided trip with ecnook last May and learned alot about long-line trolling. Since then, I have been teaching myself how to troll with leadcore with lots of advice from a good friend at work and the IDA board. I am starting to get comfortable with it. Jigging is another story, but I’ll get there.
Same goes for you regarding the open seat. I have an 18′ semi-vee john with plenty of room to spare.
Regards,
Joe Jiacinto
Went out tonight from 6 till 8:30 , man what a great time my wife and i had. The first pass of jigging she caught a 17 in walleye, then me a 14 inch walleye, that made her night after i had to convince her to go with. Then the next pass she caught a small one and then i caught a bluegill. Next time nothing. then she caught about a 16 inch sauger,and that was it for a while. Then we move to a different location. I was so happy for her since that was her first time jigging, but i couldn’t let her know that. I was also thinking i better ge in gear or i will never hear theend of this. So on to the next spot, first came a miss and then came a 22.5 incher, what a fight . Then on the next pass i caught a small one. Then i made her nervous, out of the same little area I hooked a 25.5 lunker, man did it have some shoulders on it. its hard putting them back but it’ll be great in the future. That’ll make your heart beat faster. So she was conviced to catch one of them. So on the next pass she got another 17.5 incher. So i still get to live another day hearing who caught the most keepers. not that i caught the biggest one. Well its great knowing that she enjoyed our outing tonight and she already says lets do it again sometime.
Joe, Drifting those clam beds with a light jig is a blast, as walleyfarm said. One thing I’ve learned of late on this pool is to keep mixing things up until you find what works on a given day. There is a whole lot to learn, and a lot of work involved, but very rewarding when things start coming together for you.
I often went out with a plan for the day, and maybe one backup plan, and if they did not work, I just kept hopping spot to spot and struggled to catch fish. A great thing I learned is to always keep in mind that the fish are out there only responding to their environment. Keeping an eye on river flow for a few days before a trip, checking for water clarity conditions, rising or dropping, insect hatches, water temps, and weather all have impacts on where the fish will be found. It is akin to a massive puzzle that one day falls together and you can hit the water with confidence that you will find and catch fish.
Jigging is my favorite presentation, and is a must learn for a river guy! Oh, on the subject of ringworms, I have had some great days in mid summer casting a ringie on a 3/32 to 3/16 jig to wing dams. The key is to use a jig just heavy enough to tick bottom occasionally, but not hit and stick. I anchor or hold above the top of the dam, or above the outside end in low flow, and cast the jigs across current or quarter upstream, then let them drift through the hole in front of the dam, keeping line just tight enough to see a strike by line tug. Reel up a hair and set into them. If the fish are not in the hole, you can quarter cast down to the wing and let the jig drift across the rocks, but be prepared to tie a lot of knots!
John
KornKing
Just got home and i hate to rub it in but i had to clean 4 eyes and should of been 5 but i lost it in the net. It was slow from6 to 7 and then i started picking up one here and there and a few small ones but thats what keeps it interesting. And guess what i caught them all jigging. hope there still biting the end of the week when we try it
‘Farm:
Keep rubbin’ it in! 
It may seem hard to believe my sincerity, but I’m happy to hear about others catching ’em; just knowing that such a great fishery exists here in our neck of the woods is pretty cool, even if I go a week or two without my fried fish dinner. I’m hoping to make it out later in the week.
Don’t let me down man, I’m getting tired of eatin’ at Long John’s… Better get that net thing down before Thursday! 
Regards,
Joe Jiacinto
Quote:
Better get that net thing down before Thursday!
Joe, when do you work???
cc: Joe’s Boss
Good question, John.
I’ll be honest, its quite a challenge to balance my needs, but I somehow manage to fit in at least 40 hours of **** into my demanding fishing schedule. Besides that, I have been clinically diagnosed with the disability known as WARM (Walleye Angler Recurring Malady). So the company goes out of their way to help accommodate my special situation. You should get checked out too, John, next time you are the doctor’s. You sound like you may be in the early stages, but, don’t worry, you can still lead a very active life and career with full-blown WARM. And with the doctor’s note, you too can leave at 3PM once in a while and gain the therapeutic benefits for your worsening case of WARM. 
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