Pool 12 Walleyes

Seeing how yesterday was my 50th birthday my daughters insisted that I go fishing after work. Things in my world have been a bit crazy the past couple of weeks as my exwife suffered a heart attack and went through multiple bypass surgery last week. I’ve been providing home base for my daughters as they deal with everything. I am very proud of the way they have dealt with the situation. In any case they didn’t need to tell me twice to head to the river.

I picked up a friend and we fished from 5pm until just after 8pm. The walleye bite on wingdams is fantastic right now. The fish were not receptive to crankbaits at all but instead preferred jigs and plastic bounced down the faces of the dams. Around 7pm the walleyes no longer wanted the jigs but were going crazy on nightcrawlers. I was fishing a 3-way DBQ rig with a 1oz drop jig and a crawler and bead on my long line. The fish were stacked on a couple dams that we fished last night. We caught and released a few fish in the protected slot over 20″ and released several in the 14″ to 15″ range. We also had several fish in the 15″ to 20″ eater range along with a couple nice saugers to boot. Needless to say it was a very nice way to spend the evening of my 50th birthday. Don’t yet know when I’ll have a chance to get back out but I’m hoping sometime over the weekend.

Eyehunter

Thanks eyehunter and I hope your wife makes a speedy recovery. Was wondering about the Dubuque bite,you guys are very secretive Going to finally get out this week end for some serious rock pounding, that is if my boys dont want to chase the gills,everything is heating up fast! Happy Birthday

Thanks for the update eyehunter! Wings have still been a little slow for me down here on 14, but I think things should be picking up very soon.

Sounds like you had a great birthday! Getting into a bunch of wingdam walleyes would have to be very high on my wish list as well!

I hope your ex-wife has a speedy recovery, and glad to hear your girls are handling things well. It has got to be a rough time for all of you. Prayers for a speedy and complete recovery are sent!

I made it out early Saturday morning with a buddy and did pretty good. I ended up keeping 4 fish between 15″ and 20″ and released a 24-1/2″ walleye and a 22″ walleye as well as about a half dozen under 15″ walleyes. My buddy was only able to put one 19″ walleye in the livewell so if you ask him how the bite was he isn’t going to give you the same answer as I am. As hot as the jig bite had been last Thursday we didn’t catch a one walleye on jigs on Saturday. I did catch a couple nice sheephead on the drop jig but no walleyes. Instread it was a crawler bite with all of our fish coming on the long line tipped with a crawler. Another friend of mine was doing just as well with leeches. It is rare that I keep fish but I have been hungry for a fresh walleye dinner so with my 4 fish and my buddy’s one fish I had enough for a nice fish fry. Boy was it good especially with a few morels as a side dish.

I talked with a few other walleye fishermen and they are having trouble finding legal size walleyes. One boat released 4 over 20 inches on Saturday with the biggest being 26-1/2″ and they released several short fish but found none in the keeper range. Lots of protected slot (20″ to 27″) fish being caught and released. I think the protected slot is working quite well as I’ve been seeing more and more fish over 20″ every year. The big test will be to see if protecting these breeding fish increases the overall number of walleyes in the river. I can say that if you are looking for a good chance to catch, photo and release some fat piggy walleyes that pools 12, 13 & 14 are a pretty good bet.

Eyehunter

i’m in pool 13. always wanted to learn the art of walleye fishing, but always seem to be a day late and a dollar short. can you give any tips? do you fish the upriver side of the wing dams or the down river side, or do you troll parallel? close to shore or out on the ends near the channel? any tips will be appreciated. thanx. troy