pool 4 report

1-28-05

Steve- sorry I didn’t stop in to give you a report. My friend had to be back in the cities, we were late. We missed countless bites. The bite was very quick and mostly grabbing the tail. The fish we hooked were on the lift from the bottom or when hanging the jig still. The kid said ” I am up one crank from the bottom dad, what’s your problem”. My son caught 4 nice saugers all about 18″ 3 other 15″ers was all that made it to the boat. There was a guy from Iowa who tossed some plastics into the boat for us up by the dam. Very nice of him. He also offered to clean our fish when we stopped back at everts. Too cold to let him do that, I am going to clean the fish soon. The fish being caught were up at the dam. from 50 fow out the back end of the plunge pool and/or off to the sides up to 30 fow. ALL 4 GATES WERE OPEN. I didn’t get a chance to ask Steve if that was recent or not. A lot of current up front. That may have caused the fish to be stingy. I only managed one 15lbish paddle fish. My son had never seen one before so that was cool. I will be down tomorrow with my nephew and his cousin. We were using minnows. Others were having luck with the plastic. I am going to give that a try tomorrow. Be there at 7 or so Steve

Thanks for the help.

Dan

1-29-05

Launched at 7:45 or so. Bite was basically the same as yesterday, plunge pool edge or out the back. My nephew and his cousin were with me today. We actually fished plastic seriously for the first time. Our first 5 fish were taken on them so I gained some faith. However the bite slowed and I switched to a REAL bait. (just kidding) Most of the rest of the fish came on minners. We started our drift deep 60-70 fow. drifting back to 30ish fow. We did catch a handful of walleyes, most 13″ers and going back in. We caught those in 30 fow. Most of the saugers were 14-17 (the ones we kept) we did catch a lot of smaller ones. The biggest ones were caught in 45-60 fow. Quite a few were stinger fish. Some fish were there after the first bump, others took 10-15 seconds of waiting to get the hook into em’. Tried to give them a little line but they would just let go. They wanted the bait on or near the bottom. No jigging, just touch bottom and let it hang 6-12″ up. I may have another report on monday or tuesday. Good luck.

hi Frostbite,
Think I’ll drop in here with a few pointers for you. you will have much better luck fishing when jigging in 30 feet or LESS. and most of us who have been on the river many years have learned this. It is earier to fish and much easier to control your boat over you baits in that down to 30 feet and not deeper. AND one of the main reasons is that fish caught deeper than 30 feet, and esp. down to the 50 to 60 feet you are talking about does nothing but kill the fish. there is no catch and release from that deep of water. yes they swim off but they will die, and the Eagles get enough food without our help. my general Sauger depth I use when jigging is generally 18-28 feet, very rarely at 30 feet. and walleyes are generally shallower, shoreline down to about 15-18 ft. also in these depths you can feel your jigs much easier, feel the bites easier, and that usually means more fish boated, and when they are released will survive. Steve is out of town this weekend, but will be back in a day or two, Ask him what I talked about, and there may also be a few more opinions on here also to help you. good luck, and post back and let us know how you do. Jack..

thanks for the advice. I am an educated fisherman. I have been fishing down in red wing since the 80’s. I am aware of the issue of deep fish. That is why we fished there today and yesterday. They were bigger. not huge, just keeper size. We ended up with 18 fish. All except one from the deep. WE had only 2 that were to small to keep normaly.(they were put in the well) I still stand by my decision to fish deep and keep. I don’t do that if they are shallower. Deeper than 40 do not go back. Boat control is easy with the tiller, but I think the fish know when I am adjusting position. They like to catch me off guard. Feeling bottom is not an issue. The Smaller ones were in the 30-40 foot range. I don’t like to target the smaller ones just to get a couple of keepers especially when they are deep like they are. There were 5 or 6 boats that must have caught a HUNDRED of little ones, all thrown back. All caught in 30-50 fow. That was a shame to see. There were a few fish caught out of the back end of the pool in 20-30 fow but not many. There are few if any fish shallow right now. We started shallow both days. Several boats fished shallow for a while, but all ended up in the pool. There were two walleyes (mid 20’s in size) caught in deep water 30+. I don’t eat fish, well very little. If I go myself, I would not fish that deep unless I was going to keep a few fish. I hope I don’t sound like I don’t appreciate your advice, I know you are trying to help. I could use some advice on shallow plastic fishing. I am going to work on plastics in shallow water this year. I caught a few today on plastic that gave me a little confidence. To be honest, I would go tomorrow, but I don’t need fish. There were some signs of movement to the shallower areas later in the day, about 2 or so. I may try it again on tues, to see if they have moved up. I will post a report after my next trip.
Dan

Thanks for the reports frostbite. The word from the river today was of a pretty fair bite with increased activity early and late in the day. With temps in the mid-30’s through the middle of the week we’ll see an increase in boats out there for sure.

Frostbite/Dan,
thanks for the note back and your PM. It is your legal right to catch and keep from any depths, and it sure sounds like you know about the effects on releasing deeper caught fish. We should help our fishery in educating those that are not familiar with this subject. Keep those posts coming and good luck. As far as your comment on learning more about shallow plastics, do a search on James’ or Dustin Stewart’s posts from March thru November. these guys are shallow water gods. I also recommend you get a copy of their first video on casting and pitching shallow plastics. Steve has copies avail at Evert’s. Good luck. Jack..

I noticed on your post you said the rollers were wide open.
I wonder if you can tell me are they still that way?

The rollers are in their winter positions and haven’t changed to my knowledge since the middle of December.