Pool 4 Wednesday…. ohhhhhh Carp…..

well for those wondering whats going on at pool 4….. the answer is a lit bit of everything…. today Stillakid and I caught 6 carp (up to 12#)… a bunch of whitebass… a few walleye and sauger… mostly small….. even a crappie…. we just went up to the dam, found a current break and anchored various places, tossing various bucktails, and plastics… best producer for us was an offbeat looking jig that Steve of Everts told me was a hot number… an 1/8 oz blue/white with an orange head… it caught pretty much everything…. after that it was bucktails of various other colors….. the water was a bit over bankfull but fairly clear…. fish were fairly close to shore or in big current breaks…. I did not see a lot of walleye/sauger action up towards the dam… we amused ourselves with the whites…. if your heart is set on walleyes I think your going to have to cover some ground… errrrr water….. work the shorelines, around logs, trees, and rocks…. and work some deeper current breaks… the fish are there.. they just seem to be preoccupied… or else they are not as fast as the whites… we probably caught over 30 whites.. mostly in the 15″ range…..some slightly bigger some slightly smaller… oh… and I suppose pulling 3 ways and cranks as suggested else where might turn ya some fish….
sooooo ya want to see the dam with all the gates raised?
ok… here ya go…….

ohhhhh and I ran across OMFT and company out there today…. so I took a candid camera shot…..
(I did not bother with fish pix today… probably should have taken a shot of a nice white or two… biggest sauger was about 16″, could have taken plenty of carp shots…oh boy! darn things were chomping those jigs that Steve sold me… I wonder if I can get my money back?? I think maybe he set me up!! )

Carpman oops I mean rivereyes. I caught that 50 lb walleye with your name on it right after you left. I erased your name off it. We did go to the other side caught alot of 14 7/8 inch eyes. Was nice meeting you and the pup, you got him trained pretty well . Jim

Lifes to short to fish with dead minnows! Jim

Next time your out on pool 4 try 3- wayin Phelps floaters with a 16″ lead to head and a 4 inch dropper to 3-3.5 oz egg. We got out yesterday and did real well considering the conditions we were facing. 1 5.5# Eye,3 16-18″ saugs, and 4 14″ eyes. Only 1 of the small eyes took a fathead the rest of the “gamefish” we caght all took willowcats.
Boy is that current blowin. We couldnt keep 2 oz down so we went to 3-3.5 oz and that seemed to be the ticket.
Just a suggestion
Question for ya RiverEyes. I was reading one of your posts and you had said you used to work with the DNR. Which state and what office were you out of? Your face looks familiar?
was wondering if I had worked with or alongside you at one point. Stop in the shop sometime I’d like to meet you and talk some fishin. I’ll at least sell ya some jigs that hammer trophy Mooneyes Steve you were supposed to sell them Carp jigs to me!LMAO Nothing like a little good humor in the Mornin! Take it easy gentleman. See you on the BackChannel.

Rivereyes,

Was wondering if you tried anywhere else besides the dam? I’m assuming you got you fish on the Minnesota side of the river by the dam as that where the Whites tend to stack up this time of year. Any action at the Y? How about debris in the water? I’m trying to find out if cranks are out and I should setup with floaters on the 3-ways. Any advise is appreciated.

Steve

BackChannel… hmmmmm trophy mooneyes? how can I possibly resist?
I used to work with the Iowa DNR in fisheries.. got to work out of Clear Lake, Manchester and Muscatine…. but my face does get around and has a way of sticking with people.. though usually in the form of nightmares and such….
Schmitty…. actually this may sound like sacrilige.. but the Pup just wanted to catch some fish… so we pretty much contented ourselves messing around with the white bass cuz they seemed to want to be caught…. I dont know how rampant they are elsewhere.. but they made up nearly the total catch up around the dam.. along with a few nice fat carp… there were eyes and saugs to be had… but you had to get past the carp and whitebass who right now are more active than the eyes… Im sure you can get into a nice mess of eyes now.. but Im also sure they are not on any kind of a tear right now… I have a feeling they are in the middle of the spawn and are just not real aggressive for the most part… the aggressive fish are scattered so covering water maybe what you have to do…. I am kind of wondering if working shady shoreline cover might not be productive… my biggest sauger came from under the shade right on a break in 15′ of water… and all day the walleyes I caught were sitting in shade and cover areas…. the whites seemed to be everywhere…. also scattered but fairly aggressive….. and yes we WERE fishing the Mn side… right in front of that little building… always a good place for whites….. but I think the Wi side was pumping out whites pretty good too… I saw LOTS of them caught at the first current break on the Wi side….

Rivereyes:

Was the first dam shot taken from the upstream side? If it was from the downstream side, it really has come up fast!!!

When were you in Muscatine? I spent ’91 – ’94 working in that lovely town. Managed to see the great flood of ’93. Thanks for the post last week on the rising river.

You want to talk about fishin’, last week we were with the fireflick at Alma and had a ball. We even caught fish with the man, nothing big though. (lol) He was disappointed in the great river change and worked real hard to get us a crack at a big ‘eye.

Many kudos to him, but his bro comes into town the next day and hangs that 11 pounder and his father a 5 and and 7 the next morning. One of these times, I am going to make the right choice for weather to give the flick a chance!!! lol

Mark

the pic of the dam was taken from downstream while anchored just off the Mn side…..
I was in muscatine.. in ’78.. kinda ancient history!…

Was that 1978? Oh, Iowa probably did not have DNR in 1800’s….. Sorry, could not resist. How ya doin’ Rivereyes?

yep… bak in 1878… amazin what clean living will do fur ya!…. I hardly look a day over a hunnert!…

Hardly look a day over a hundred???? You WISH

I spent wed,thur,&fri at everts and we also ran into alot of whites. Our hot ticket was three ways that way we mixed in a few sauger and walleye.Tryed going for cats with only one fish on that dragged me into the snag .Oh well just have to try another time. Just like to say thanks to Everts for helping me out with that flat.
Kevin Budny
LET EM RUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!

AND A NICE WHITEY THAT WERE FOLLOWED BUY AS MANY AS YOU COULD CATCH!

Glad ya had a good time Kevin! Thanks again.

Hey buddy! Thanks again for the day on the water! It’s awefully generous of you to just set aside your “walleye only” standards and let the “Pup” play with a fish or 3! It really did give you a good chance to show off your carp catching mastery though! Rivereyes, Master of “CARPool” #4!

All considered, no one got too insulted, hurt, wet, or wrapped in a trolling motor! …………………….. must be losing our edge!

yeah… well Ive not been feeling that good lately… hopefully I will soon once again be the respected and feared PUP mastuh!…
and dont really need an exscuse to once in a while take what the “defense” gives…. I had a good time relaxing on a nice day and catching some fish.. if Carp were walleyes I would have had some real trophies that day!…. I wish I could figure out what I was doing wrong!!!
I said the magic words and everything…. but all it produced was Carp! maybe I was holding my mouth wrong again?