2/20/2003 – Mississippi River Pool 4 by Dustin Stewart

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Hey Dustin, Great report! Happy to be there to take a shot.

Noticed that you lightened up your jigs on your drifts. That must have been key to getting more fish in the boat. We could tell you were running light as your lines were away from the boat. Been thinking about that…. I figure you were getting bit better having the Ringworm out a ways from the boat. The water is running so clear right now that it’s almost like fishing a shallow clear lake on a sunny day. You don’t want your offering right under the boat as the shadow of you drifting by can spook the fish…??? Anyway, you guys were slinging them in a lot faster than we were!! LoL

Check out this attachment above. Shows a release of a fish on it’s way out. Kinda gives you an idea of the water clarity right now.

Jon J.

you guys have that right.. the water is low and clear with as little current as Ive ever seen….. and this whole downsizing thing…. I gotta do it!… its funny… guess what? today I had a real tough day on pool 2… but my first fish which came within seconds was on an 1/8 oz jig in 26′ of water…. but it was so windy out there that I was having some control problems…. so I switched back to 3/8 and never caught even ONE fish….. !!! why didnt I guess maybe I should have went back to the light head?… guess Im feeling light headed about NOW!…… and I have way too few light weight heads… most of my stuff is 1/2 oz and UP… I have to scramble to find 3/8… in fact for me 3/8 IS light…!!…. or maybe I should say WAS…… guess Im gonna be buying some lightweight heads and learning to fish them…. maybe vertical is NOT the answer…. unless the question is how can I catch less fish!

Way nice report there buddy !! I cant wait to get the boat out !!

Thanks for the report !!

Dave

Nice report Dustin!
Looked like a beautiful day to be on the water.
I remember last winter/spring up on Pool 2 I had to go so light that I never really felt the bottom consistanlty due to the current and the drift I had going. At times I knew I was 3-5 foot off the bottom when I got bit.

Looks like fun.

Jon, going with the lighter jig definitely helped me put more fish in the boat. I was having a hard time finding bottom but there was no need to I guess. With such a light jig you just need to have the feeling of confidence that you are close to were you need to be. If it isn’t workin try a heavier head. The fish kept biting so keeping up off the bottom a bit seemed to be key for me on that day.

DeeZee, I’ve had the same thing happen to me when pitching jigs a lot of times on pool 4. I think a lighter head is really effective when those fish are up off the river bottom chasing baitfish and such. A lot of times guys will fish underneath them. Walleye will come up to hit a bait but seldom will they suspend and look down towards the bottom of the river for a meal. This is especially true in late fall and late winter as we have right now with really low flow and clear water conditions. Dirty/dingy water I find myself having to be more precise with the depth control of that jig.

Tuck and I were down yesterday and I had a Ringie in the water about 3 feet under the surface while fishing a different rod,anyways tuck pulled up a nice fish and I got caught not paying attention to the Rod and turned back and that rod was twitching,I looked over the side of the boat and saw a really nice Walleye,And I mean really nice! Goes to show they aren’t afraid of the boat either.Can’t get much shallower than that!!

No kiddin ! How deep of water was the boat in at the time? What was your best Ringworm color chappy?

I think we were in 17-20 feet.The best colors we found was Purple and white and a choc.That one hit the orange and yellow ringie.Really neat to see though! I think it proably saw me when I leaned forward and released before I got the hook set.

Nice report Dustin, Goes to show you, had to take the little lady out of town for a few days, and wammo, you guys are bustin fish. will be getting down there hopefully soon. Jack.