Frustration on Pool 4

I know it was a weekend and i knew it was going too be busy but some of the crap i see (and again i almost expect this stuff its so sad) really gets frustrating. Early morning lock side of the “Y” theres about 10 boats i’d say already working the channel edge and rip rap. We did catch and release a few dandies real early there. So we are working this area kind of single file, the boat ahead of us working is about 25 feet in front of us i’d say when (i think it was a guide) all of a sudden a guy starts throwing the rip rap from just outside us but like in between us and the boat in front of us. Then proceeds too get the shoehorn out and nudge in front of us. I mean we had too stop the trolling motor so there was enough room for this guy too get in front of us and didnt hit us, for he was getting in front of us at any cost. I couldnt believe with all the miles of river someone would pull this. He knew we were pi$$ed and laughed at us. Im boiling as i write this, too drive an hour and have people pull crap like this. Its not like we were all pounding fish, a dozen boats already there the bite was already over, why do something like that too other fisherman?? We got out of there and headed downriver without much luck. About 2:00 we headed back up too check the “Y” out knowing it would be pandamonium. And it was but we tried it anyway. There were a few saugers being caught. And a few 13-14″ eyes being caught and released by a couple boats. And of course a boat of 3 from IA we saw put at least 3 eyes well under 15″ in their well in the half hour we saw them. I did call the tip line quickly and a message was put forward too the area gamewarden. He was on the river but didnt get my message until last night but he did call me and i gave him all the info needed and he thought there was a reasonable chance he might find the same guys there today. He said he nabbed a trio from IA yesterday with shorties in their well but it was not the boat i described. He said this stuff happens, not because people dont know the regs, but because they dont care, they drove a ways too get too Red Wing and are going too take fish home. I’m so glad we have game laws for people too abide by. Just venting here a little. Like i said i knew too expect this crap on a saturday but i cant get down there on a weekday. Just very frustrating. We drove an hour too fish, released two fish, 21″ and almost 24″, both beautiful females plump full of eggs. And released some smaller 13″ walleyes and saugers. We drove a ways too like many people but it didnt give us a right too break the law and keep illegal fish.

I’ll ignore the Iowa comments , because you, as well as anyone else who posts on this board knows, there are slob fisherman in all of the quad-state region, whether their hull number originates in Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota or Illinois. As far as their breaking the law, if they did, sure turn ’em in. I just get tired of hearing some of the Minnesota fisherman urine and moan till the cows come home about all the Iowa guys destroying their fishery. It gets old fast. Not every fisherman in Iowa has a disregard for ethics and the law.

However, I will sincerely sympathize with you on your issue with lack of courtesy. I was at dam 13 last Monday, and I had sh** like that going on for most of the morning while we tried to fish on our day off. It seems the vertical jigging bite below the main dams brings out the best in us. Sure, I would get out of folks way and take extra caution to stay in line and be courteous, while most of the rest just plowed on in, with nary a care. Why does it seem I always stay in line and get out of the way of others when they just seem to walk all over me? It sucks.

I basically maintain my cool and treat others how I would like to be treated despite the rudeness showed by others. I suppose it is putting Father Dave’s Sunday sermons about “if you get slapped on one cheek, offer the other” into practice. Eventually, when I feel my temper get to be more than I am comfortable dealing with, I throw her into gear and try to find some nice rip rap or a wingie a few miles downriver. 8 times out 10, after making a move like that, I get into fish. Plus my blood pressure goes down, too. Life is too short to spend more than 5 minutes pissed off in your boat…

I’m from IA and my fishing buddies and I fish IA, SD, ND, and MN we always follow the rules. In my 25 years of fishing walleyes I have come across poachers many times also and it is very frustrating. What I have noticed is most of the poaching that goes on is done by a handful of locals and every area has them.

Everett
———
If I can’t fish in heaven, I’m not going

I agree Cornking, we fish SD far more than MN and everytime we go to SD 80% of the boats there are from MN.

Everett

Why don’t we post the kind of boat and color boat of these rude boaters. Maybe this would make them think about how rude they are. We would also be able to stay clear of them or suggest something to them when they are being rude. Just a thought There will always be people like this, we have to do what we can. Jim

Frustration and lack of courtesy is the exact reason I avoid Pool 4. It just isn’t worth it. Alma, Winona, Whitman and Dresbach; none are even close to the crowd Pool 4 atracts.

I watched your situation unfold and I told Dustin about it last night as it really stuck in my mind as being completely out of character for the guys that did it. I was “the guide” behind you and I watched these guys move their way right through you onto the shoreline. I saw how frustrated you were and thought you handled it very well as some guys would have turned it into a potentially explosive situation. Later we netted and released a 6.5 lb fish and another boat did the same thing to us. I was not happy to say the least. We went to the other side of the river and we had 3 fish in VERY short order including a chunk 5 lber and promptly got avalanched by guys.

I had a full-day trip with a couple of nice guys. After 2 hours of catching fish and attempting to release them quietly without being noticed only to be swarmed by boats we called the day short. We weren’t having fun at all and we were amazed at the audacity of some of the people out there…. people that should know better.

This isn’t a bash tournament guys post and it should become one. I also ran into a couple guys that gave us a wide bearth when they saw us catch fish. These guys are class acts. Those that didn’t either lost their heads on tournament day or just have no respect for others.

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I know it was a weekend and i knew it was going too be busy but some of the crap i see (and again i almost expect this stuff its so sad) really gets frustrating. Early morning lock side of the “Y” theres about 10 boats i’d say already working the channel edge and rip rap. We did catch and release a few dandies real early there. So we are working this area kind of single file, the boat ahead of us working is about 25 feet in front of us i’d say when (i think it was a guide) all of a sudden a guy starts throwing the rip rap from just outside us but like in between us and the boat in front of us. Then proceeds too get the shoehorn out and nudge in front of us. I mean we had too stop the trolling motor so there was enough room for this guy too get in front of us and didnt hit us, for he was getting in front of us at any cost. I couldnt believe with all the miles of river someone would pull this. He knew we were pi$$ed and laughed at us. Im boiling as i write this, too drive an hour and have people pull crap like this. Its not like we were all pounding fish, a dozen boats already there the bite was already over, why do something like that too other fisherman?? We got out of there and headed downriver without much luck. About 2:00 we headed back up too check the “Y” out knowing it would be pandamonium. And it was but we tried it anyway. There were a few saugers being caught. And a few 13-14″ eyes being caught and released by a couple boats. And of course a boat of 3 from IA we saw put at least 3 eyes well under 15″ in their well in the half hour we saw them. I did call the tip line quickly and a message was put forward too the area gamewarden. He was on the river but didnt get my message until last night but he did call me and i gave him all the info needed and he thought there was a reasonable chance he might find the same guys there today. He said he nabbed a trio from IA yesterday with shorties in their well but it was not the boat i described. He said this stuff happens, not because people dont know the regs, but because they dont care, they drove a ways too get too Red Wing and are going too take fish home. I’m so glad we have game laws for people too abide by. Just venting here a little. Like i said i knew too expect this crap on a saturday but i cant get down there on a weekday. Just very frustrating. We drove an hour too fish, released two fish, 21″ and almost 24″, both beautiful females plump full of eggs. And released some smaller 13″ walleyes and saugers. We drove a ways too like many people but it didnt give us a right too break the law and keep illegal fish.

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I was not bashing IA fisherman, i reread my post and i know it sounded that way. I was bashing a boat of fisherman who was keeping shorties. I was just pointing out an IA boat because i hope that maybe that boat might read this post and think twice next time. I fully know well that local fisherman will do more damage day in and day out than people who have driven a ways too fish. Sorry for the misleading comment. Again i was and still am just mad at the things i saw.

Oh and James i thought that was you behind us. I wasnt sure what your new boat looked like. Im sure you didnt recognize me but i am the UPS guy you’ve talked too a few times in rochester. Did you venture downriver at all yesterday with luck? We had poor luck downriver.

Downriver has been slow for me since the water came up and the barges started running. Wednesday and thursday we slow altogether with Friday being a solid day with a pair between 7 – 8 lbs and a good start of Saturday that just turned into a hassle with other boaters.

Thank god for rainy mondays!

Saturday morn.when I was busting the ice to get Bay Point open I had a tourney guy tell me I could not do it nor could I launch my boat there,I told him to go home.I liked the river alot better 25 years ago when I was 1 of 3 or 4 boats out this time of year.But word gets out from this site,national mags and such, so I try to deal with the rude folks in a calm way but its hard. Stuart Oh ya the fishing was tough for us this weekend only 2 decent eyes and a couple saugers.

You know you are at the Dam on a 70 Degree day the first weekend in APril you better expect this kind of stuff.
and you know from my past experiences if you would have said something to that boater and pointed out what he did it probably would have gotten you alot further than being mad about it all day and then complaining on the website.
don’t be afraid to let people know what they did was wrong it will make them think before they do it again.
I know it was packed up there and I seen alot of people doing dumb things but when I did I pointed it out to them and they made sure to make there space.

Last time I was down to pool 4 I was only at the dam for 15 min because of some rude boaters so I just totally left the area. But that didn’t help because I ran into more rude boaters further down on the river. It was really slow for me down river which wasn’t frustrating because I found some really cool areas. But with all the ‘mean’ people I wasn’t having fun so I went home early. Which really stunk because with all my school I hardly get anytime off to go fishing. Haha…I wasn’t planning on driving 2 hrs just to get frustrated. I was trying to get away from all my frustration with my Topics in mathematics class. Not much you can do about it. All you can do is lead by example and be polite.

Eric

Why should i have too point that out too a river guide??? I think he knows better, he obviously didnt give a rats behind. Like i said this guy knew we were peeved, he heard us talking, he laughed at us. He didnt care who he was making mad, he was getting in front of us at any cost.

My 2 cents! What happened to courtesy/respect? James, Dustin, and several others post information for everyone to read. This lets everyone know what’s going on. This does NOT mean that you go out and follow, harrass, and/or crowd these guys or anybody. I watch other fisherman just like everyone else. The thing that I do that most don’t is when they catch a fish, I don’t motor over to crowd them out. I make a mental note of where and when and check it out later.

I feel that I can catch fish anytime and anyplace. I do not think that I know everything. I observe both good and bad habits.

The river is huge. Find your own spots!

FJ

This post is one of the reasons I stopped fishing the bigger tournaments. It wasn’t long ago when there was respect for all people out there. Sadly, things have changed, at least in my opinion. People are buying bigger and faster boats, and top of the line electronics. But all that goes out the window if God forbid, someone else catches a fish around them! I did not fish either of the tournaments this weekend. I did however take my son and nephew our for the day on Saturday. We spent about 20 minutes at the “Y”, and found people nasty and testy. You had drifters jigging, and draggers and trollers heading up river, neither wanting to give way to another boat! We heard a lot of expletives being tossed about. The kids were distracted from “Fishing”. We headed down river a ways to find some cleaner water. We started getting into some nice fish, and it was like showing a fresh arm to a flock of mosquitos! We lost our spot to about a dozen other boats in 10 minutes! The only consolation we had was releasing a 3 pound fish in front of them before we left. You know what? I am glad we did! We found more fish in our third spot. There are fish all over the river right now. Look for current breaks. If you will find them, the fish are there. We did catch a number of smaller fish, but they were fish!
People really need to lighten up!
Tuck

Wow we tried many spots downstream, most centered around current breaks but we couldnt get anything going. Some of my favorite spots downstream had plenty of boats on them so we didnt even try them. We tried too find water that seemed fairly untouched but it was difficult. This time of year on Pool 4 has me very frustrated for another reason, i can catch walleyes on any other body of water, any time of year, I have confidence in that, but i absolutely cannot figure this river out this time of year. It has me beat down so bad right now. I’ll admit it, these river eyes are a different beast. I read all the info i can on here and try too put it too use and i just cant seem too put it together. I get so pumped every time i go down because i’ve got new ideas after reading this website and talking too other people who have had success but it hasnt worked for me so far. I wish i could get down there on a weekday when boat traffic isnt as much of an issue. Give me Winnie, give me Pepin, give me the lakes around Mankato, Osakis, i can find the eyes on new lakes i fish, but man i cant on Pool 4 in early spring. That just adds too the frustration i encountered saturday.

I know what you’re talking about! I have a beat up old Alumacraft and get walked all over because of it all the time. It use to get me so ticked off that it almost ruined my day. I have found out that it doesn’t pay!!! Time off is too precious. I love fishing the river and I LOVE pool 4. I am not going to stop fishing it so I have learned to just let it go. I know it’s hard. I am lucky enough to have a work schedule that allows me to fish more during the week, but if you don’t, you’ve got to deal with the boneheads. Hope things get better for ya and good luck!

D. Andrews

D Andrews, you have an advantage with a “beat up old alumacraft” that you may not know of. hint hint

I hear ya Herb, that’s funny!
It was grandpa’s old boat and I’d like to think it still has some magic left in it….but not that kind. Lol!
D. Andrews

Since you caught it, I’ll let it go at that.

Chris,

don’t you think it would be better and much less stessful to fish either Pool 5 or Pool 5A. I realize those pools aren’t as good as Pool 4, but you will catch fish.

Gas prices got me down! Pool 5 is too far away!
That is an option, but really, like I mentioned, if you get around pool 4 in the lower traffic areas, there are fish to be had. I still think people need to lighten up. I have been on both sides of the fence from a tournament angler, to just a guy out fishing. We all have to have respect for each other. I really have noticed quite a difference in tournament anglers over the last couple of years. I don’t know if there is more testosterone in the water, or what!
Tuck

tuck.. its those gosh darned steroids… havent you seen how much bigger their heads have gotten in the last couple of years… and those guys are really ripped too…. (even more ripped then me on a saturday night! )

With all the boats on the water over the weekend I find it hard to believe that the ones fishing the tournys were the cause to all the problems! The MTT had a 50 boats and the WWA was not a big field either. I would hardly call those a big tournament.
I fished the area by the Y at various times all three days and did not have any problem with anybody. We did not try to crowd anybody out of their spot or get in their way if they were drifting or trolling. With that many boats on the water paths are going to cross. When boats got close we would say hi and ask how things were going for them. Everybody we talked to was friendly and enjoying the nice days on the water.
When we did get in the way of somebody (by mistake) we said we were sorry and went on our way. If you do have a problem with a tournament boat, the best way to get it resolved is bring it to the attention of the tournament director. It will get far better results then a message board will.
The high, dirty water made for some slow fishing for us but we still had three great days on the water. From what I seen, so did the majority of other anglers. Have a great day, Don.

If you want to have a good day on the river, go after the opener. All of the lake guys go back home and we have the river all to ourselves.

I must just be lucky. I was out all Sat. and Sun. and I thought most of the boaters around me were very courteous. I even commented on it to the guys I was fishing with. I can’t recall even one thing another boater did this weekend that annoyed me.
I wish I had the same luck with my fishing this weekend. It was as tough as it gets for me.

Im not trying too say everyone was rude, i just had this 1 incident and there were literally hundreds of boats on the river. But it was a rediculous thing that happened and it was very uncalled for.

I was out on Pool 4 Saturday afternoon and most of Sunday. We fished up in the area of the Y for most of this time, and I’d have to say it was about as orderly as you can expect with that many boats in one spot. We fished next to many of the tournament boats and others, and didn’t have a single bad encounter with any of them. People need to lighten up a bit, and get some thicker skin. I can see being a bit annoyed if someone cuts you off, but getting steaming mad and letting one single encounter like this ruin your entire day seems more like rage than reason to me. Just my two cents.

We have all run into our fair share of village idiots. I have often said that the only thing required to have a boat is money. No common sense is needed, nor is a license. I used to be against the idea, but I am beginning to think that a license should be a requirement. But even then, you can’t teach common sense, nor can you teach someone who is old enough to own a boat anything about manners and courtesy. Maybe we should all use or camera’s to “shoot” these rude boaters and then post the boat pics…the internet is a powerful tool when used correctly.