Pool 9 Report 4/29-30

Weather will be what it will be; vacation days and cashed-in wife permission slips notwhithstanding. Conditions were more typical of mid-November instead of late April. The greening trees were simply an illusion. If you didn’t like the weather, all you had to do was wait a few minutes; we had it all, rain, sleet, snow, wind-you name it!

These are the days warm sweaters and breathable rain gear really prove their worth.

Water Temps: 49-50

Location: Pool 9 (launched at Blackhawk)

Technique: trolling

Colors: Firetiger, Red Craw, Silver

Baits: Jointed Shad Raps, Shad Raps, Wally Divers, Floating Rapalas, Jointed Rapalas (stick-baits).

As we crossed river into PDC on Friday, from the bridge we could see the wakes trailing the cans; the water was still pretty high and moving at a good clip.

On the way up, we stopped at the Falling Rock for lunch. The food and conversation were excellent. I know people will come on here and sometimes poke fun at some of the endorsements on the site (including myself), but those of you that know me well know that eating is my fourth love; behind my wife/kids, grouse/woodcock hunting and fishing. I don’t say something is good unless I really enjoyed it. I had a western burger, 2 frosty-mug draughts, and a pile of jalepeno poppers. The food was fresh and cooked to order. You know you gotta eat, so if you are on the road north on the way to Lansing or Genoa out of PDC, this is the place to stop and get fueled up!

On Friday, we started fishing around 2 or so, if memory serves me correctly. 2 of our party were arriving later and meeting us at the ramp, so we decided to stay close and just troll Battle slough and the eastern side of the main channel. I iced 2 nice greaser saugers (15″ and 16″) on my first two passes.

Action was slow, so we motored to Victory. No action there either. We shot up Minnesota slough and couldn’t make it happen there, so we slid back down to battle slough.

This was not a bad decision. We ended the day with 10 fish, 6 on my boat and 4 on Gianni’s. We had all male saugers, Gianni had a couple of walleyes. There’s nothing like tossing your buddy an eager male sauger at this time of year. Productive depths were anywhere from 18′-3′. Red Craw, silver, gold, and firetiger patterns all produced.

Saturday, we started out in battle slough late in the morning. My boat managed only 1 keeper in nearly 2 hours of fishing. It was time to move, so I shot down to DeSoto and worked Desoto Bay. Gianni stayed at Battle. DeSoto proved to be a bust, so we headed back up to Battle slough in order close the day out.

We came to find out that Gianni and crew were smokin’ em in the slough, with 10 fish in the livewell to our 1! So, we decided to make some more passes. I managed a fat 18″ sauger that ended up being the second largest fish of the trip, When it was all said and done, we had 2 fish in our tank to their 10. Every now and then, I “let” Gianni outfish me, wouldn’t want him to get too jealous…

Plenty of funny and strange stuff happened, which Gianni may or may not corroborate when he gets back. Hopefully, I won’t need to drive back up PDC later tonight and post bail for those guys. They’re still up there up tonight partying without me. My pass was only good for one night this go’ round….

Nice meeting you Korn King, glad to see your group had a good time!! Maybe I’ll bump into you again in the future!

Great post KornKing.
Pool 8 was the same for me on Saturday, slow for eyes. The northern and white bass had a good feed bag on though.
The weather was the same. I had to just bust out laughing when it started to sleet to keep the anger in control

We’ll be up again, ‘Reef. Pool 9 is one of my favorite places to fish, so I’m sure we’ll cross paths again. Maybe next time, I can buy you a beer at the Falling Rock?

That sleet and snow was something else, Bret. I’m originally from a much warmer climate, so you can imagine my reaction! My crew were all hardened Iowans and North Dakotans, so they barely raised an eyebrow at it. That doesn’t mean they necessarily have common sense. One of the dudes in my boat, Paul, was sure wishin’ he had brought some foul weather gear when those squalls blew through!

I didn’t hear about any large fish being caught this weekend, and by about 2pm, most fellas were off the water; the ramp was pretty desolate. Probably a little more sane than us. The tournament must have had a light turn out. We had some company in the morning, but nothing too bad. No blown tempers or confrontations arising from too many guys working one area.

Plenty of eaters in that 15-19″ range, with saugers making up most of our catch. One of these days though, I’m gonna nail that 10#er.

Let me outfish you?

Yeah, should’ve broken out the leadcore sooner – ‘cept the fish were all in 5’ or less. Next thing you know, you’ll be throwing out the ‘dog ate my homework’ excuse!

Great weekend, though I will confirm that wierdness was prevalent and follows us everywhere we go (what do you suppose that means)?

I dunno, that nice last sauger came out of 17′ FOW…

Dude, you handed me my ‘arse on Saturday!

Friday, though, the day was mine. You guys were catchin’ up fast though.

What’s pathetic is that the “dog excuse” has a shred of truth to it.

When are we going again?

I can’t remember how many you guys ended up with on Friday, though what I do recall is that we caught both the highest numbers and the biggest single fish. I think you had two more in the livewell, but recollection is hazy – memories are dominated with spotted cows and bartenders.

Again? Well, I doubt I get another weekend pass, but I’m thinking a day-trip once the water warms up, maybe go crank some wingdams come June?

I spent last night doing my typical “post-mortem” that I do every time after I get out fishing. Here is what I came up with:

The fish were shallow on the tail end of the island inside the bend to escape the current. Buzzing Victory without even marking a fish should’ve been a red flag to me that the channel was ‘off.’ The light coloration meant that they’ve been spending the bulk of their time shallow. The lower levels and flow on Saturday are what I think caused them to move from the tail of the island to the break on the head of the next. With the cold front, slow and steady won the race; you would have probably doubled your catch if you’d tossed out a drag-bucket or tilted the outboard up to slow it down a little, and we probably should have at least spent some time anchored and pitching jigs to see if we could selectively target the bigger fish (though it’s hard to leave a consistent bite when one method is working for you).

Still haven’t come up with a good theory as to why that gator was so beat up, though.

They were alive and well yesterday afternoon..Pulled into Blackhawk and not a boat trailer in sight. Figured the bite was not there, but put in anyway. The saugers were on a feeding frenzy, trolling firetiger rapala. Caught 35 fish in 3 hours, kept 5 17 to 18.5…And never saw another boat It was a TIP TOP day….Left a note with the wife this am I may be on the water again this aft

Must be nice to get out mid-week; take pity on us pathetic souls sitting here 130 miles to the south in this flourescent-lit corporate hell.

Let’s see, I’ll be 32 in June, probably got at least another 30 years to go before I can retire?

Fortunately, the vacation bank is full. As Arnold likes to say, “I’ll be back…”