Fish Movement Question

I am am curious about the seasonal movement of walleye and hopefully some of you that get to chase them more frequently than I do can shed some light for this dude.

Will most (high percentage) of the walleye that “were” located in the south end of a given pool, migrate to a more northern position as water cools (such as behind the dam, or a wing dam on the north end)?

If true, about when does this start to happen? Any round about water temp to start looking for?

Or am I all wet and all of this is just an old wives tale?

I will be hitting pool 12 this weekend and again next weekend and am trying to figure out if I should be on the North end or the South.

Since I’m the walleye expert around here…(stop laughing!)

Grab yourself a pot of coffee and start reading. This isn’t pool 12, but theis article from the MN DNR regarding Pool 4 gives out MANY secrets…although they aren’t secrets once it’s read.

Fish are predictable just as Dean is salting the launches…not exactly sure when it’s going to happen, but it will happen!

Link<<

Good reading!

If you’re wondering where to look on Pool 12, I would say head north. I have been fishing pool 11 a little bit lately and have noticed that the fish are starting to move to their fall spots. My buddy is up in Genoa right now, pool 9, and he said that the bigguns are up by the dam right now. I think when the fish move is all indicative upon baitfish location which I believe is influenced by water temp. I know that pool 11 went from 70 degrees down to 57 in the matter of a week. That will definetly get ol’ marble eye moving. Good luck on 12 and let us know how you do.

Thanx Steve, I knew someone would help out!

A change in stage n flow will also be a factor or trigger as well.Good luck!

the fish move is all indicative upon baitfish location which I believe is influenced by water temp.

Very well stated!!!

Jags according to River Gages the water temp at the dam in Dubuque is 57 degrees. From past experience you will start seeing fish showing up near the dam now. But the bigger movement of fish is still to come. When water temps get to 50 and below you will have good fishing up at the tailwaters. Also check out any of the Wing Dams on the way up to the dam especially the ones north of the Wisc bridge. Live bait will catch you fish but we always catch nicer fish running 3-ways and Rapalas. Good Luck Glenn

I don’t know what percentage of fish move to the upper part of a given pool, but I do know that as the pressure increases on the uppermost parts of pool 14, I like to fish mid pool and up to within a couple miles of the dam.

While there may not be the numbers of fish, they are much less pressured down stream and I can usually pick my spots to fish without having to fight other boats and share a wing dam with several other boats.

That being said, I still really enjoy the sauger fishing in the tailwaters as well. I don’t think you can go wrong once the fall bite is in full swing. If I where venturing out here this weekend, I’d probably start at the dam and work my way down 5 or 6 miles.

Thanks all. Sounds like mid pool and up is the place to be. I think I will try a shot at the south end for a short time (I am located on the very south end of the pool), just to see if there is any action. I know earlier in the year when the ‘eyes were pretty active, there were a couple of wing dams that were HOT. In seven days I caught well over 100 of them. About 80% went over the 20″ mark with many in the 24-25″ range.

I suspect that they will be on a north bound path with the water cooling. It will be interesting to find out where they start to bite again.

Thanks again for the insight.

And thanks for the link Brian. I will have to get my smoking jacket and pipe out for that read. Thems alot of words.