Pool 4 Again! paddle fish?

Were heading down to pool4 again today. I was out on friday and we got into the little guys during the day boated 30+ saugers with only 7 being over 15″ a few pushing the 18″ mark. Caught 1 18″ walleye after dark. My buddy accidently snaged a paddle that had to be pushing the 40lb mark. Does anyone know if the DNR has numbers of paddles in pool 4? there has to be a ton of them at the dam right now. The sturgeon report at the seminar was informative wondering if they have similar info on the paddles. Also do you think that kicker motor is too loud for dragging jigs shallow?

Were you fishing with Trevor?
I seen the two he caught via phone pictures, if its the same guy?

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Also do you think that kicker motor is too loud for dragging jigs shallow?

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I am going to say no just use a lighter jig so it’s further away from the boat

If you have a trolling motor available to choose from then i would not advise using the kicker motor if you are dragging shallower water. They spook enough the way it is with a trolling motor it seems like.

if at all possible I would not use the kicker. With the water clarity the way it is right now these fish are ultra spooky. Will you be able to catch a few fish? Sure you will but “I” believe you are hurting your chances quite a bit while fishing the shallow water. If no trolling motor is available I would try anchoring up somewhere where you have located fish and that is out of most guys dragging pass and pitch plastics to the shallows

Well looks like I need to buy new batterys. We draged last night with some sucess. Our biggest was a 20″ with a few smaller walleyes. But, wow did we hammer the saugers just before dark. We must have caught 40 in a hour nothing to speak of size but still a blast. Purchased the dragging jigs video from dean I hope this will give me more confidence in this presentation. Cold but still better than looking down a hole.

Huntfish,
I talked to you a few times yesterday,
I was in the blu/silver lund rapala addition.
Them Paddlefish are amazing, defiantly the COOLEST fish I’ve ever caught.
I’ve never seen one caught down there till saturday,
and I’ve seen like 8 caught in 2 days.
So I’d love to know where they came from all the sudden!!
We figured we boated well over 40 yesterday afternoon aswell,
taking 8 home for the frying pan.
There really concentraded in one small area so far this year..

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Them Paddlefish are amazing, defiantly the COOLEST fish I’ve ever caught. I’ve never seen one caught down there till saturday, and I’ve seen like 8 caught in 2 days.
So I’d love to know where they came from all the sudden!!

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You mean one of these homely buggars?

Theres been 2 in my boat in the past week. They are really cool I always want to take a good look at them when we get one but, Im scared to have it out of the water for too long. I did some research online and they are a way cool species but couldnt find much the MN DNR has on them. Id like to know #s and how far they travel. They have to be really jammed up at the dam for everyone getting one. Feel bad for them the 2 we got the lampreys got too, both had several marks.

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Theres been 2 in my boat in the past week. They are really cool I always want to take a good look at them when we get one but, Im scared to have it out of the water for too long. I did some research online and they are a way cool species but couldn’t find much the MN DNR has on them. Id like to know #s and how far they travel. They have to be really jammed up at the dam for everyone getting one. Feel bad for them the 2 we got the lampreys got too, both had several marks.

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BK spent sometime educating me regarding the Lamprey on the river. The Lamprey we have here are the American Brook Lamprey and are a native species. I spent some time researching them and apparently their numbers low. Not necessarily endangered, but not high numbers.

I didn’t realize that and thought they were the invasive species (Sea Lamprey) that we have in the Great Lakes.

I thought they were invasive too. Guess I better quit killing them when I snag one.