Pool 5A – This Weekend

Along with my son, his wife, and the dogs we camped at Merrick State Park this weekend. I fished Friday and Saturday, while the kids were out in a seperate boat on Saturday and Sunday. Suffice it to say because of heavy boat traffic we caught only a few fish in the sloughs adjacent to Fountain City Bay. However, in the sloughs and closing dams away from the park fishing was OK.

Aside from a few Walleyes caught on Willow Cats and a Sturgeon caught on a nite crawler all our fish were taken trolling either with Shad Raps or something called a GTW-Kick Tail Diver. The latter was on sale for $1.00 or so each at Gander Mountain a few years ago and my kid bought 50. They seem to work as well as Shad Raps and it was a heck of a price.

Between both boats we probably made six trips and caught about 75 fish, almost all Sand Pike and Walleye. They were on the small side, but I think we had about 15 legal Walleye and a few Sand Pike (Sauger) just under 15 inches.

The nicer Walleye were caught in several different sloughs and a few by the closing dams. My son also caught 3 nice Northern from 26 to 35 inches.

For Memorial day not a bad weekend of fishing.

2 Fishy,
I cut my teeth on the Miss down by Tremp.
Haven’t heard the term “sand pike” in a coon’s age. That’s what my Dad always called them. I did a bunch of work at Merrick back in ’79. Is Duellman still the head guy down there

Nobody seems to be the head honcho.They can’t even get the dock in at the landing before a big holiday weekend. They put a new landing in and riprapped the bank on both sides of the ramp so you can’t pull your boat up to the bank while you park your rig. POOR PLANNING

Spinner, right on. That landing is a mess and the rocks don’t help. A few weeks ago one of the Rangers told me installing the new dock was contracted out and they promised it would be in by Memorial Day — no such luck.

Frankly, the old landing was much better and the effort put into the new landing a total waste of $$$.

We’ve been doing fairly well on the wingdams the last few weeks…..With the higher flows the fish were hangin close to shore or on secondary dams…..but now with the water dropping so fast, the fish are moving out and up into the current.

Lots of smaller sauger, but also decent walleyes thrown in…..We’ve been getting fish over 20″ every time out. The key seems to be to keep moving…..fish a dam for 10-15mins, and move….if there are fish there, you’ll catch them…..spending any longer on any particular dam seems to be a waste.

Sunday we decided with the tuna boats and gale force winds, the main channel wasn’t going to be a plesent place to fish…..so we opted to chase BASS in the backwaters…….and wouldn’t ya know it……3 walleyes (16″, 17.5″, 18″) out of 3-4′ of water on SPINNER BAITS ……Just can’t get away from them silly eyes