question for james/dustin

Hey guys i just got a new fish hawk and 4-stroke yamaha and im looking forward to learning the river a bit better. I want to start searching new areas down river. I’m just wondering as im searching along how i identify these sand flats. Can i identify them using my lowrance? Am i looking for certain land features? Can they be found all the way from the Y down to the head of the lake? And when you talk about using ringies out a bit deeper are you no long pitching them but vertical jigging them? I guess any info you can provide would help my search. Thanks guys!

James, a good question indeed! I hope the new motor works out good for you.

There are several sand flats from the Y down to the head of Lake Pepin. You can find them on your electronics, and with experience, you will come to recognize areas that will produce fish. On almost every bend in the river you will have a sand flat, the outside part of the bend is where most the main force of the rivers current will be. On the opposite side of the river, which would be the inside bend, will be slower moving water that will be shallower since the main flow of the river does not wash it out as it will on the outside bend. You will notice on these sand flats a channel edge, sometimes it will drop abruptly in to the main basin of the river, or it may be just a subtle change in depth slowly getting deeper. The flow of the river will dictate where the fish will position them selves on the particular flat you chose to fish.

On long straight stretches of the river you will find sand bars and sand dunes that will form on high water years from the force of the current. A good place to find sand bars is at the entrance of tributary streams. Most often on the down stream side of a tributary stream, or small river, a great eddy area with lighter current present will be formed and at times hold good numbers of fish.

Another good area to look for is points coming off the backside of an island that has 2 channels coming together. When this happens you will have a really nice sand bar formed with good currents breaks on both sides of the sand bar. In this situation one side of the sand bar will predominantly have less current and hold most of the fish.

If I have it my way, I will try and cast ringies as much as I can down to 30′ of water. Casting will allow me to cover more water in the same area with one cast V.S keeping the boat in one certain depth and going vertical, some days they only want it vertical and other they will only take it on the cast.

I hope I have helped answered some of your questions and I’m sure James will be able to jump in and add additional info for all of us to read .

Hey thanks for the info. The portside console should be in this week for my boat. I’d like to get down this weekend and pound the water. I hear the weather is suppose to get colder though…so we’ll see!

Good info Dustin. I will put it to the test tommorrow on pool 2.
Looking forward to the trip on the 9th.

Good question, and great info. That’s a question that has bounced around in my mellon many times.

Thanks

Great question ..Great answer I found myself picturing places on our pool just like these and how i have fished them (usually wrong) I’ll work on it Thanks!