Pool 14 – How’s it lookin’

How’s it looking around the Albany area? Wondering if it’s worth the trip out yet?

It’s coming up and getting dirty,not super dirty just dirty. Some floaters are starting to go by too. It’s still fishable. I’m undecided myself, was thinking about going Sunday, either to Clinton or down to New Boston. Right now I’m leaning towards New Boston.

u can take this for what its worth. before the rising ice flowing waters came up there’d be 2 doz rigs setting at 25th ave boat ramp. and a few others in south clinton, more in swan slough in camanche. even before the rising waters, fishing has been slow to slower (of course this does not include tailwaters…lol) i myself and many many others weren’t out today. checking out the water and activities at the ramps today around noonish, no rigs at 25th, one commercial just going out. tried to call my friend whom works at the lock and dam 13, but unable to get a rollar status. i guess its how bad u want to fish, now i didn’t see much ice floating at the time i was there. not sure how much higher its rising, but looks like at least 2 feet higher than a few days ago. good luck and be safe.

I talked to jeff h he was new boston wed morn, and did pretty well.

The COE’s water information site, rivergages.com, says water levels at the tailwaters are supposed to come up another foot and a half by Sunday from what they are now, and then level off. They have already come up several feet from the beginning of the week.

I was hoping to make it to Bellevue this weekend, but I am going to wait another week and see how the water level and debris situation shakes out.

If it means anything to you guys, I work in LeClaire. My work has a great view of the River and the ramp parking lot. Nobody has been launching in LeClaire. I did see three barges going upstream yesterday. Prior to seeing the barges the River was clear of ice flows. A few hours after seeing the first two barges the River was full of ice flows. I have heard they are catching them good below L&D 15, and have seen lots of boats out there.
Th

Where’s the best place to launch if I wanted to fish the dam area on pool 15? Normally, I fish pool 14 and launch out of Albany, I’ve never made it down to pool 15. thanks.

Downtown Davenport on River Dr. just west of the John Odonnell Baseball Stadium is the city boat ramp lots of good parking and less than a mile from the Dam

I spent about 5 hours on pool 14 this morning. The dam area is totally unfishable in the “normal” spring areas. Rollers on the Iowa side are up, and water is coming over and under, creating very dangerous conditions in the tailwaters.

We worked hard all morning in backwaters, community holes, and everywhere I thought there was a chance of holding walleyes, and came up with a big goose egg.

One sheepy and one big buffalo where the only fish reaching the boat today. The water is up several feet in less than a week, with a couple more feet to go. Not really muddy yet, but dirty and lots of small debri with the occasional large dead head floating down.

I believe the cold front had as much or more to do with our poor day as did the river conditions, but if I where going out again tommorrow I think I would fish Albany and south.

Be very careful if you venture out. Some large ice chunks still around along with the floating debri and strong current make conditions a little more hazardous than usual!

John T and All, thanks for sharing!

Based on the reports from Genoa on south, I think this weekend might be a good one to catch up on house chores.

Joe

just minutes ago i talked to a ole bud lite buddy who is a lockmaster at lock and dam 13. he explained why the rollers are set this way. they are drawing all the ice from the illinois channel side to the iowa side to keep the locks free. i told him i’ve never seen the current that strong before, looked like lake erie with current. the rollers will be this way until next week sometime, maybe tuesday. as if it isn’t bad enough in the daylite, he said last nite there were two flat boats snaging or should i say trying to snag spoonbills. i guess they survived, no reports of anyone drowning…….. yet. never seen a fish worth that in those conditions. also he mentioned that there is still suppose to be more big water coming from mn. and it hasn’t gotten here yet. i was hoping this what we have now…………guess not. well that be my 3cents worth, u make the call.

Your buddy is spot on, check out the text in red, below, which was updated this morning, looks like there’s still a lot of ice up in pool 8 yet to break that will be heading our way…

Here’s a link to the webpage with the lock conditions report (the latest of which I pasted below at the time of this post), supposedly updated every 2 hours.

Lock Conditions-Upper Miss.

Best to wait it out I think…

************************************************************************

St Paul/Rock Island/St Louis/Chicago Districts

Information on Navigation Conditions

Run at 03/17/2007 at 10:40

************************************************************************

NOTE: Gage,Elev/Change Dam Cond: last 24 hrs from 10:00

St. Paul: last 24 hrs from 06:00

Weather Temp/Precip: 06:00 reading only (all locks)

Wait/Ab-Bl: boats currently queued (arrivals and locking)

Lock Up-Dn/Delay: last 24 hrs from 10:00 (all locks)

MISSISSIPPI River Hydrologic Conditions Comm. Tows

Date Gage, Dam Weather Wait Lock Avg

Mile Lock/Dam Time Elev/Change Cond Temp Precip Ab Bl Up Dn Delay

—————————————————————————-

854 USAF 031707 U797.93 +0.10 0 A25 0 FG 0 0 0 0 00:00

0600 L750.10 -0.15 W36

853 LSAF 031707 U750.10 -0.15 4 A25 0 FA 0 0 0 0 00:00

0600 L726.09 +0.34 W36 01S02S01

No ice above or below lock except behind upper and lower long

walls.

848 L/D 1 031607 U725.90 +0.22 0 A21 0 CL 0 0 0 0 00:00

0600 L689.64 +0.43 W36

closed

815 L/D 2 0 0 0 00:00

797 L/D 3 031707 U674.69 -0.11 24 A21 0 FA 0 0 0 0 00:00

0600 L670.99 +0.54 W37 01R01L01

03-17-07 Flow this morning is 24,800 CFS. Ice along shoreline

only.

753 L/D 4 031707 U666.91 -0.16 72 A20 0 CL 0 0 0 0 00:00

0600 L662.61 +0.24 W32 01H00F01

Pool above and below are open. Lock is operational for navigation.

16-Mar-2007

738 L/D 5 031707 U659.80 -0.34 78 A19 0 PC 0 0 0 0 00:00

0600 L653.76 +0.02 W32 00 03

LOCK CLOSED FOR WINTER

728 L/D 5a 031707 U650.72 -0.25 93 A22 0 PC 0 0 0 0 00:00

0600 L648.88 -0.01 W32

3/17/2007 Pool and Tailwater Ice Free. Lock is operational.

714 L/D 6 031707 U645.17 -0.19 98 A31 0 FA 0 0 0 0 00:00

0600 L642.61 -0.06 W32 01R03E10

Pool Conditions: Floating Ice thru Dam Area. Ice along Upper

Guidewall

Chamber Conditions: 100% Open

Tailwater Conditions: 100% Open with floating ice passing thru dam

area.

Date of update: 15 March 2007

703 L/D 7 031707 U639.19 -0.23 93 A30 0 FA 0 0 0 0 00:00

0600 L635.57 -0.17 W32 00R00H00

no ice

679 L/D 8 031707 U630.97 -0.21 105 A20 0 FA 0 0 0 0 00:00

0600 L627.13 +0.03 W31 08R07B10

3/15/2007-Pool ice is approximately 7-10 inches thick and extends

above the dam approximatley 10-12 miles. Pool ice is black and

honeycombed. The flow is going to 79,00 CFS this morning and is

playing havoc with the ice. The lower pool is open and we are

looking forward to the first northbound commercial towboat and our

official start of spring.

3/16/2007- ice is still about 7-10 inches thick and channel is

pretty much solid in the channel with a few holes opening up

extending up the river aproximately 10 miles. flow is 82,400 cfs

this morning and is starting to work on the ice.

3/17/2007 -ice still 7-8 inches thick,but breaking with a lot more

holes than yesterday extending up river about 10-12 miles up

river. Flow is down to 79,200 and ice is starting to break up and

floating

648 L/D 9 031707 U619.69 -0.39 OUT A21 0 FA 0 0 0 0 00:00

0600 L619.28 +1.04 W– 01R04T08

16 March- Pool and tailwater are clear above and below as far as

can be seen from the lock. There are pockets of floating ice in

the pool. The roller gates on the dam were pulled at 1200 hrs

today.

615 L/D 10 031707 U610.75 -0.44 198 A23 0 FA 0 0 0 0 00:00

0600 L610.30 +1.10 W32 04R04T10

Ice below the dam is moving out. Above is still ice up thru

Mcmillan Bend as far as we can see. 13 Mar @1500

583 L/D 11 031707 U 15.09 +0.21 119 A23 0 PC 0 0 0 0 00:00

1000 L 9.69 +1.11 W37 01R01T15

Due to heavy ice conditions, n/b doubles will require double

tripping or use of an industry helper boat as tow haulage units

will be unable to pull cuts.

557 L/D 12 031707 U 11.93 -0.03 110 A22 0 PC 0 0 1 2 00:00

1000 L 10.44 +1.22 W32

Due to heavy ice conditions, n/b doubles will require double

tripping or use of an industry helper boat as tow haulage units

will be unable to pull cuts.

522 L/D 13 031707 U 14.63 +0.31 91 A24 0 FA 0 0 1 1 00:00

1000 L 9.05 +1.09 W33

Due to heavy ice conditions, n/b doubles will require double

tripping or use of an industry helper boat as tow haulage units

will be unable to pull cuts.

493 L/D 14 031707 U 14.76 +0.28 72 A24 0 FA 0 0 0 2 00:00

1000 L 6.89 +0.69 W39

483 L/D 15 031707 U 18.74 +0.34 34 A26 0 PC 0 0 3 3 00:00

1000 L 9.44 +0.60 W36

The Auxiliary Lock Chamber is closed to all traffic effective 18

August 2003. This closure is due to serious structural

deterioration of the miter gates. This restriction is in effect

until further notice.

457 L/D 16 031707 U 9.96 +0.33 194 A26 0 PC 0 0 3 2 00:04

0800 L 8.22 +0.22 W42

437 L/D 17 031707 U 10.71 +0.07 OUT A27 0 CL 1 0 2 1 00:17

0800 L 10.51 +0.09 W40

Extensive damage occurred to Miter Gate #2 on 27 March 2004. The

#2 Miter Gate was hit again on 6 April 2005. Towboats are advised

to stay off #2 gate. Any contact with the gate may also cause

damage to a barge.

410 L/D 18 031707 U 9.26 -0.17 142 A28 0 CL 0 0 2 1 00:00

he better be or i told him i be in trouble. i’m sure he was cause he just got off the nite shift and not in the bar yet. i forgot one thing he said, the water last nite has leveled off. today i took a ride over to the locks and the river is really muddy and a whole lot of ice and trash today. but i seen 3 boats giving it a shot down river.

I saw a guy launching in Albany late this morning. The river was about 50% ice chunks 25% debri and the rest open water. This guy was in a narrow 14′ flat boat. I stopped and talked to him, said he was heading up river to do some fishing. He had an early 60’s motor, about 10 horse. I told him I wouldn’t be caught dead out there today, but he just laughed and said the little boat was easier to dodge ice with .
Went back to Albany around 5 and his trailer was gone, so I guess he survived.
Thanks for the report 3-Way!

How ya been John, I am hoping to make it to Moline this year for the FLW Leauge Finals this year. We will have to hook up if I make it down this year.

Sounds good Steve! You know where to find me!

You guys are smart to avoid the big river for a while yet. In addition to the ice, we’ll be getting some big time rains across all of the upper midwest in the week ahead. This will either keep water levels high or make them go up even farther. Fast flow for a while! Anyhow, temps look good for anything else outdoors, so hopefully somewhere will be fishable. Cheers.

Got home this afternoon and looks like it came up another 3 to 4 inches since yesterday.Sunday afternoon around 3 pm saw a duck blind go by , that was pretty impressive. A friend went to Clinton yesterday and said alot of big ice very dirty water and only one sheepy to show for his effort. I am surprise by the color, really not as bad as I would have thought for how quick it has came up.

I spent the weekend in Genoa fishing the first W.A.T. tourney of the year. There is alot of muddy water and dirty ice to come down yet. The river crested Saturday night in Genoa and fell about 6 inches overnight .The bite up there was terrible out of 28 boats only 7 weighed fish. We ended up 2nd place with 8.40 pounds 4 fish . The winner only had 10 lbs 2 fish. We caught our fish at the outlet of a big slough 10 miles from the dam on plastic they would not touch a minnow. Don’t be affraid the look for fish away from the dam lots of fish never make it up that far. I’ll be out Sunday in good old pool 14 looking for the big girls down river. Good Luck !

I might see ya out there jigfan. I was thinking of fishing down river last Friday but got talked out of it by my partner for the day. Those big girls still gotta eat don’t they?!