Cranking 8/28 Pool 4 - Mississippi River – Walleye - Mississippi River – Walleye

After receiving several inquiries about how we managed to get into the fish Saturday, thought I would attempt to share our strategy. Evidentially, fishing for walleyes has been tough lately on the river. We hit the water about 7 AM with open minds and determined just to have a good day on the river. Those who know me are aware I spend a good deal of time pulling cranks. Usually I will use this method to find active fish then work the area with bait to get the numbers. However, Saturday I didn’t have any bait with me (Bob swiped all my crawlers). Kim and I had so much fun with the cranks, I doubt we would have switched to bait anyway. We caught a nice batch of 15-17 inchers for eating and a nice 7 pounder for a photo op. We also hooked a huge small mouth, a very nice crappy, several good sized striped bass and a couple monster catfish. All were caught pulling #5 jointed shad raps. We only used 4 crank baits all day with the Parrot out performing everything else. Second best was the fire crawdad. All fish were caught in 6 to 12 fow. Trolling at a max speed of 2.5 mph GPS down to as low as 1.2 with the key being regular variation of the speed. Seems as if the majority of the strikes happened after speeding up after a brief slow down. Also key was running sufficient line (anywhere from 80 to 140 feet) to keep the cranks slamming the bottom regularily. Current breaks and calmer water seemed to be key also. We covered water all the way from the dam down to the lake with the best action just down from Evert’s (both sides) and on the rocks above Young’s cabin. All in all, one of my best days on the river all year. Most fun of all was Kim catching her personal best walleye (7 pounder) and the biggest fish she will likely ever catch – 53 pound flat head. She definitely had the hot hand (and the hot bait – Parrot) the entire day.