Pool 18?

New to the site seems like lots of good info. I see posts from 16 and up wondering if anyone else is on pool 18 that does much walleye fishing or am I the southerner here. Scary thought. Thanks, Ben

Welcome to the site .I live on pool 9, were is pool 18 located?

Just south of pool 17 and north of pool 19.
Sorry, couldn’t help myself.

I don’t get out often. But when I do I will ussually be looking for eyes. Seems to be pretty tight lipped on this site about pool 18 eyes. I haven’t had much luck but I am confident thier there. I have thought about trolling swede lake when the water was up. also a guy using hoop nets to catch cats found some right on the ends of the wingdams by the boat ramp in New Boston. This is old info but might give you some ideas.

Hopefully there be more postings about pool 18. Seems to be alot of walleye holding water.

It’s been unbelievable down here. Hard to catch a fish a fish under the 20″ limit. Cranks, meat, jigs, spoons… doesn’t seem to matter what you toss or pull, the fish are biting.

I am going to be out around New Boston in the AM anyone else going out in that area?

I spend a good amount of time fishing Pools 16 and 17, but I have never fished 18–it is just a little more of a drive from IC. I have had better results walleye fishing around Muscatine this summer than I have in my first four summers in SE Iowa. Whether this is because the ‘eyes are biting better, or because I am figuring out the local patterns/tricks one needs to learn in order to catch fish consistently, I do not know.

I am not planning on putting my boat on the water anywhere this weekend–next Wednesday is my designated Weekly Fishing Trip to the Mississippi. Between the unstable weather and the hordes of pleasure craft, I want no part of the river before then.

I actually do most my fishing on 19 and its been a good year here too. I do some duck hunting up in 18, but haven’t really fished it. Should be busy the next couple days out there. Good luck. Ben

One of the reasons I like 18 is you don’t have to battle all the pleasure craft like you do on 16. Sat am all I caught was 2 white bass while trolling and 2 cats working around a rock pile. Still learning.

Fished 19 for awhile yesterday afternoon until the storm blew us off. Caught a few cats and eyes, but did alot of bounce with the big boats to get them. Felt like a halfback running through the line as the big boats raced the lightning back to the ramps. Fish gotta eat though.

I fished Pool 16 today, and had another decent day. Caught one slot walleye of 22″, a plump 17″ whose filets are chilling in my fridge, and two sub-legal fish. All were caught trolling crankbaits in front of two wingdams I have had walleye success on before. Given the sunny conditions, I bet chartreuse was the color to go with first, and that is what produced.

I also caught several channel cat, as well as the usual mudcat (or flathead, as you southern Iowans call them ), and some sheepies. I kept two of the channel cat, who measured 15″ and 16″. (Yeah, this is the walleye forum, but I caught them walleye fishing.) They were rather fat, but I was still a little surprised to find eggs in them, as I would have guessed the catfish spawn would be winding down by now. I CR’d a 22″ channel cat who was skinny, scratched up, and had the sort of blue color I would expect from a post-spawn male channel cat this time of year. Not a great day of fishing, but it still made sitting at home working most of the long weekend worthwhile, as the weather was nice, and I pretty much had the river to myself.