Pool 14 Saugers

I made it out Sunday up to the dam for a couple hours, and had a GREAT day for saugers with decent size and huge numbers. My partner started with blade baits and boated 2 fish before I got my line wet. I began with a jig/minnow combo and managed a couple fish, switched to chart/pepper super do and just hammered fish. Dead sticking the dos outproduced every other method we tried through the day by 2 or 3 to one ratio. I believe we landed 30 or more fish, with almost all saugers. A couple of nice eyes on Dubuque rig with a chart/pepper ringy on the dropper and a 3′ leader to a floater with minnow. One fish on bottom jig, one on minnow.
The majority of our fish came in 12-15′ of water along the lock, and 6-10′ on the Iowa side. The fish were in moving pods, so we would hit 2-4 fish in a minute or two, then look for them again. Kept the fish alarm on my garmin 240 on, and when it beeped, we hovered and caught fish! Great day on the river, and thanks to all on this site for giving me the confidence to fish plastics without meat . It has definetly been the best producer for me this fall in the dam area, and some pretty good success with big plastics on the wings down stream for eyes also!
Rooster

Great report! thanks Rooster ,its good to hear from this end of the river

Evileye,
Do you fish 14 too? I’ve gotten a few pm’s from other guys in the area, pool 13-16. I think we are going to get a little better communication with guys down this way!
I’m heading out this afternoon into night to give em . Was supposed to go out very early this morning, but sick kids put the dampers on me till afternoon! Plan is to hit the tailwater for a couple eaters for the Mrs, then go down stream and find some hungry eyes later in the afternoon. I’ll try to post results promptly!
Rooster

not sure if everyone has seen the news about pools 12,13 & 14. no more tail water fishing. starting dec. 1st through march 15th, starting jan. 1st. trying to keep those really small saugers from being wiped out. it’s been a long time in coming. they have been on the decline since the mid 90s. i’m sure most guys who have fished tailwaters have seen the way too small of saugers being taken and even if returned never survive. glad they have taken some action to help replenish our sauger population.

I agree 100% 3Way. I’ve seen days were hundreds of fish are pulled from 30 plus feet, bladders popping, and thrown back to die. I do not fish deeper than 15-20 feet, but am very glad to see these changes go into effect. I also wish they had been done 6 or 7 years ago.

i guess it’s better than doing nothing. they are almost tooo late for the saugers. they don’t stock them in this pool, only walleyes. wish i was out there today, but other people made plans for me today. i don’t understand why they don’t have a size limit on the saugers too. i hear there is a 25 limit and min.size coming next year on the crappies and gills. that’s over due too. i know a couple of guys who caught large and very large crappies one weekend. they cleaned over 90 slab crappies. no one needs to keep that many, and the next weekend caught over 35 slabs. this was a 3 weekend run for them. those are the only ones i knew of. imagine all the others ya never hear about. same for the walleyes and saugers. pretty sad!

Got some guys down here by Burlington that hit a brush pile continuously for 3 weeks. First day they pulled 200 big slabs out and took them home and they haven’t stopped since. 2 years from now they’ll be bitchin and moanin cause there ain’t no fish. And they’ll be the first to cry about the new limits.

Here’s a few I got tonight. The one on the right side is 17.75in.

Nice stringer Tony! O.K. Got my mouth watering. They would make a great Thanksgiving meal in my book! Did you fish up here in 14, or south? I knew today would have been a good day to be out, too bad the honey-dos kept me home . Howd’ya catch em? I am thinking of going out Friday or Saturday, depending on weather. Great to see you had a good day on the water! Happy Thanksgiving!
John

I’ve not made it out since the 21st, wondering if anyone has been out in this area, and how did you do? I had a tough day for numbers on the 21st, but did land one 28″ fish right at dark on riprap with a red/black core ringworm on 1/8 oz. jig.
Rooster

Rooster,
I’ve been out several times on pool 14. Walleye action has remained very good, averaging 15-16 fish per afternoon outing. Water clarity was poor, with all the winds, but should be improving. Looks like the corps was dropping it pretty good today, with flows dropping below 30,000 again. The last two trips (11-28th and 29th)found fish holding deeper on the same structures. maybe 8-12 foot instead of the 3-6 that was working most of the fall for me. Typical shift for this time of year, at least in my experiences. With the water temp down to 34, it could be tough fishing downstream with the floating ice about to start. I haven’t fish the dam yet, but might start if the cold weather makes it slushy. good luck if you make it out.
Randy

Thanks for the report. The more people share about the different pools the more everybody learns about the river. Its all valueable info. Keep it comin! Thanks, Bill

Thanks for the report Randy! Deer hunting this week and weekend, so I hope the bite keeps up and the ice stays away for a couple more weeks. Maybe I’ll tag out early on deer instead of holding out for a nice buck, so I can hit the water sooner!
Rooster

I was out on Pool 14 last Sunday. Only caught two fish, 17″ sauger and a 18″ walleye. Because of the fact we added a room on to our house, my weekends have been wrapped up for the past two months. It seemed like I hadn’t been out for ever. I was very surprised by how poor the water clarity was on Sunday. Does anyone know if the water clarity has improved during the week. I am debating to myself if I should winterize my boat or try to get in some more fishing. By the way, the two fish that I caught bit a firetiger tube vertical jigging in 14-15′ of water. Pitching ringworms shallow-10′ produced nothing for me.

Welcome tothe board gastracker. Sorry to say I have not been out in a while. I think the water was clearing up some, but can’t say for sure. Chasing those darn deer this week. Hopefully will be out next week on the river. Keep checking this board, it is an excellant resource!!!!!
Rooster