Pools 9 – 16 Anyone having any luck?

Well, the weekend is rolling around and it looks like I will be allowed out of the pen to do some fishing tomorrow morning. Per my post below, we managed to pull some fish out of 10 last night, but they were all short; so I am tempted to hit some different water for a change of scenery.

Obviously, technique and skill (which will take me some time to accumulate, being primarily a weekend fisherman) have as much to do with success as anything, but am curious if anyone is catching fish in pools 9-16 with any regularity as of late and what techniques seem to be best? I have been primarily focusing on wingies with cranks OR dubies, though I do have a leadcore rig that I like to break out when other techniques/locations are not producing. Any ideas or suggestions are greatly appreciated. I’m not looking to raid anyone’s spots General areas and techniques suffice.

Regards,

Joe Jiacinto

Dude… cranks and doobies don’t mix. Hooks everywhere… it’s a bad scene.

Dude, cranks OR Dubies, not both at the same time! Let me go edit my post…

However, some guys do pretty well with a rapala on the 3-way during some parts of the season.

Larry and I are gonna flip coin at 4am: heads, we head to Lynxville, tails, we head to Camanche. I’ll let you know how we do and where we did it.

I realize it’s probably too late, but there’s a pancake breakfast in Commanche on Sunday. As wicked butt-cold as it is, some hot food and a cup o’ joe would be a good thing coming off the water.

Good luck. I’ll let you know how Coralville goes.

I’ll answer my own post.

Yes, we had some tremendous luck today on 14. 8 fish caught, all walleye and sauger. We had succes employing several key methods: leadcore trolling crankbaits, vertical jigging, and slipping the wingdams with 3-wys.

Never have I had a day with such a crash-course in walleye angling, in unfamilar waters to boot!

Having spent some time in the Albany area, I decided to fish the upper end; from dam 13 down to Albany. We started out at 6:45 and were still skunked by 9:30 after working several wingdams with cranks. We decided to leadcore troll some rip-rap into a slough channel and I pulled a fat 15″ sauger on the first run on a black chrome wally diver. We got bit on subsequent passes, but they were all “cigar” walleyes under 13″; but there were alot of them.

We jigged through the same area and caught yet another cigar. Later in the day, a fella that we had chatted with at the ramp pulled up and asked us to take his picture with his big fish, as he was alone. He pulled a 7# monster out of his livewell (to be CPR’d) and we snapped him some shots. Turns out, he nabbed the sheeba using a Gulp crawler on a spinner harness fished on a 3-way, slippin the outside end of a nearby wingdam in the heavy flow near the channel. He was a local that fished 14 regularly, he felt it was an exceptionally slow day.

After that, we rigged up something similar with a leech and I was able to get the boat to “slip” in the zone in front of the dam well enough on one pass that Larry nailed a plump 19-3/4″. I got the prize for most fish today, but he definately got the big fish award.

The stories are true. 14 is polluted with walleyes and saugers….

Regards,

Joe Jiacinto

Way ta go Joe . Glad to hear you got on the fish! I do take it you left the dubies out of the boat !
I just got back from vacation and am dying to get out. Maybe Sunday or Monday I’ll go pound ’em! You got me goin’ now!
John

Seems likely I’ll hit 14 a week from Monday (23rd). I can’t get going until after noon when Ms Ruby gets out of school, and need to be back in time to put her to bed at 8, so driving clear up to Lansing or Prarie would eat half our fishing time.

Might could be I could hit Guttenburg… haven’t been there once this summer. Either way, I’m sure we could squeeze in a third person in the boat, especially if we’re fishing wingdams.

Hey Fellas,
I’ve spent the last two weekends hooking a buddies mobile home up in North Buena Vista.We haven’t had any time to fish yet but with the lights and water hooked up and a new deck attached finally we can get some relaxing in. I’ve never fished down there but would apprieciate any info. I am looking to target walleyes and smallmouth.Should I head upstream or down from J.D.’s landing in North Buena? I did notice the wingdam below the gas dock and a few boats trolling the rock downstream. Thanks for any heads up on what has worked for you in the past! Thanks,J.D.

Nit:

This past Saturday, we explored the area of pool 14 from the dam down towards Albany, though most of our efforts were within 2 miles of the casino boat. This was only my 4th trip to the pool, but I’ll try to help.

There are several decent wing dams in that area, as well as some delicious rip-rap shoreline just beggin’ to be trolled (just above the bridge). There is a slough channel that is called willow slough, it separates willow and joyce islands I believe, that is just up from the casino and marina, we pulled quite a few fish in this area trolling and vertically jigging over sand and shell bottom; however, many were short; so if you are looking for meat, unless the bigger ones moved in, expect to do some sorting.

The bigger fish seemed to be on wingdams. The 7# monster we photographed for the older fella came off a dam on a 3-way rigged with a gulp 6″ crawler with a spinner and a few beads. We got a very fat one that came close to challenging the 20″ slot size (just under) with a similar rig, only using a live leech.

Down near Albany, there is a large flat that is pretty much a clam and zebra mussel bar where we have had success last month vertically jigging. It is just above the power lines on the Illinois side; use your electronics to find 7-15′ of water with irregular bottom (may be shallower now, as the river is probably lower).

I launched in Clinton at the ramp on the north side of town, there is no dock here, but there is a pebble bank suitable for beaching and sanding your hull. The ramp in Albany is pretty nice; it has a dock and, as Rooster mentioned in another post, a coffer dam that keeps the full force of the current at bay; a real plus when loading.

I visited R&R Sports for the first time and amazingly found their crankbait prices competetive with the larger chains. Its a good place to get bait if you are in the neighborood. He had a nice selection of guns too…

Regards,

Joe Jiacinto

The ramp just North of the Miss Belle in the back channel has a good dock and is out of the current.

Thanks Korn king!I have to pull up a nav map and look at the areas you’ve mentioned.I’ll be posting after I get some fishing in and we can learn together.See ya out there. JD