Right now things aren’t in real good shape down there. The river is still about 2ft over flood and droping fast. Strong current, muddy! A lot of the tournaments have cancelled and the ones held have not had good catches. Things should get going in a couple of weeks but there probably won’t be much weed fishing this year

Spent some time below the dam over the weekend and had results similar to the reports. Lots of small walleye & and few sauger mixed in. Other fishermen reported that fishing had been very good up the slough but was slowing down.

http://www.mvr.usace.army.mil/MVRCams/RiverCam.asp

Just took a peak at the River Cam and there doesn’t appear to be any boats at the dam. Has the fishing been better up in the slough?

As everyone has mentioned, both pools can be good in the spring as evidenced by all of the 20lb bags. The fish are still there, just harder to catch this summer. Siltation in the backwaters is an onging problem. There are places I caught fish 20 yrs ago that are now dry. I’ve done this for so many years that I have the problem of becomming a “spot” fisherman instead of figuring out their movements and patterns. I’d probably do better if I’d let the fish tell me what’s happening and not try to make them bite. Anyway, there are good fish in both pools, look at this as an opportunity to possibly find something going that’s a little different than what we have all done for so many years. Good luck and have some fun.

Your photo is dated July but you’re dressed like it’s March. I can’t figure it out.

I drove by there on Sunday on a little scouting trip. The water below the rollers was terribly high and muddy. Not close to being fishable. I could see a couple of boats on the lock wall but that was it. It didn’t go back in the slough to see if anything was happening. Ramp seemed good.

If I’m not mistaken, Bob’s machine makes a jackplate in both manual and hydraulic versions just for the application you’re looking for.

I just went to check their website to see if there was any info and the sites down. I’m not sure if it’s temporary but it sure looks like the doors are locked.

Pool 13 has been real inconsistant for me the last few weeks also. It seems like one day they’re in the weeds and the next day heavy current. The weights don’t seem to be real bad when people find them but it sure hasn’t been me either.

I’m glad to see you got some quality fish out of 13. I was beginning to wonder what was going to happen there this year. Team Supreme had one of the lowest weights in a long time and I’ve heard lots of talk about tough fishing. Good job!

If the weathers stable you’ll have some great pre-spawn fishing in April. Wiggle warts and jigs will be the bait of choice. The backs of most of the coves and secondary points will hold fish that time of year. Pea gravel should be the bank type there on. If you’re fishing the weekend hope for cold/cloudy weather the keep the big boat traffic down. If the weather turns very warm watch out for the big boats on Sat & Sun. You won’t believe the wake some of these guys throw. It’s always fishable and boatable but please be careful. What area of the lake are you staying at? There can be some pretty diverse patterns depending on location.

I decided to do a little reading on the river also. Info is harder to sort through than I thought it would be but interesting anyway.

Longest Pools:
1. 19- 46.2 miles
2. 4- 44.1 miles
3. 26- 38.5 miles
4. 13- 34.2 miles

Surface Area
1. 19- help me out ???
2. 4- 36,300 acres(Looks like it’s about 64,000 when Pepin is included so this is probobly the largest pool on the river?
3. 13- 28,100 acres
4. 26- 23,700 acres

Does anyone know of a website where is info might be easier to find??

You’re correct that it’s going to fish small, especially if the water’s low. Smallies have been the key to some good weights for a few guys in the know. Like you said though, the populations are nowhere as good as you guys up north are used to. It’s too bad it’ll get pounded so badly this summer. Someone always figures them out though so the outcome will be interesting. If you’re comming down from the north, you’ll have to spend a little bit of time because it does fish a little differently than you’re used to.

Bassman- The fish populations in #19 have come back very nicely in the last couple of years. It used to be very popular and then dropped off for a few years. If you’ve never been there, find the corp. maps and look for an old fishing hot spots map of that pool. This will give you a good overview of where to start. This area is called or at least was called Lake Cooper. If you do an internet search this might help a little. Guys will fish both 18 & 19 in most of the larger tourneys. Try to begin looking at old tourn results and correlate this to the water level. Level is very important on those pools because of accessability to some areas. It looks to be a very busy summer in Ft. Madison. There are a couple of other larger tournaments there this summer. Good luck and have fun learning a very unique but productive body of water.

I’m only about 30 miles from Clinton so I also spend most of my time on 13 & 14. 14 seemed to start out real hot this year but sort of slowed down. I generally can’t catch as many or as large of fish on 14 as I do 13. Take a look at the results of this summers Team Supreme tournaments on pool 13 and you’ll see the weights are pretty comparable to the northern sections of the river. Like the tennispro said, the lower stable water this summer made for some real fun fishing.

Nice finish Dave! That’s a pretty competitive bunch of guys down there so I’d certainly be proud of a second place finish. The article and picture is on midwestbasstounaments.com. I imagine all of the pressure from the everstart and the other tournaments is what led to the long run you guys made. It looks like you went so far up the osage that it probably started looking like the muddy Miss. I fished the lower osage this past weekend during the terrible cold front and things have slowed down some to say the least. Again- Good Job!

Like TazBBass says, Mark Twain is comming back. It’s very suseptable to water fluctuations though and can get almost unfishable in wet springs. He’s right though, get the maps and look for the smaller municipal type lakes. These are really underfished and loaded with bass. Also don’t overlook Thomas Hill and Long Branch a little west of Mark Twain. These are good winter lakes. You’re going to find so much bassin within a couple hours of Northeast Mo. though that you won’t know where to start.

Where in the heck do you go to Med-school in Northeast Mo.??

Spring lake is closed. That’s why everyone has to go to ……..in the fall.

Moors resort in Gilbertsville is a nice place to stay. Good ramp, resturant, tackle shop, etc. Quite a few tournaments out of there so ususally able to get a little help. Take a big, big, big, big boat. South winds in the spring can make for some interesting waves.

I see there taking a pass on pool 13 next year. Does anyone know if any of the other divisions are fishing 13? Actually it wouldn’t hurt for the pressure to be off of that pool for a while.

Hog-
If your fishing the Clinton area your actually talking pool 14. Pool 13 extends from the dam above Clinton or Fulton Il and goes up to Belview.
The fishing was hot earlier in the summer but has been in sort of a slump lately. I’d say to get ready in a couple of weeks and work the wingdams all the way from Clinton to the dam.

Hot-spots used to have a map for pool#19. They called it Lake Cooper.

Rock Falls Illinois

The ramp in Albany is fine. It’s on the channel but there are good docks and the ramps are good. Lots of parking. The fishing has been excellent right in the area of the ramp. You won’t have to travel too far. I’m not sure about a bait shop. There is one right at the ramp but I have no idea on their selection of bait.

Hope this helps.

I’m glad someone else noticed the 4 foot rise. I thought I was nuts. The slight predicted rise is fishable, a 4 foot rise wouldn’t have been.

Ken-

Am I crazy or does it look like they are predicting 4 ft rise?

The pleasure boat lock (14A) is open only on weekends and holidays from Memorial day until Labor day. They usually open about 4-5 on Friday afternoon and lock until later in the evening 11-12pm. They again open early in the morning and lock until night. They are very accomodating, usually no more than about 20min wait and if there is a big event on either pool they extend lock hours. Be sure to respect the no wake in the LeClair canal. There are always a lot of pleasue boaters rafted up and dnr watches the area.

I’ve enjoyed reading the ongoing saga of walleye fishing on pool 14. I used to fish there quite a bit but unfortunatly was one of those guys with limited knowledge that hung out below the dam. Lately I’ve migrated to those ugly green fish that sort of live in the weeds. Well, after all of your reports I got excited to try some walleye fishing away from the dam. I armed myself with jigs, leaches, and crawlers and headed to a good looking rocky area early Thursday. Unfortunately, the minute I got there I saw some surface activity, I proceeded to chase schools of bass up and down the rocks until the storm hit. I ended up with 24 lm bass and 4 stripers. It was too fun to quit. Maybe I can use my leaches next time out.

I talked with the Savanna marina and they were closing about 2:00pm today. They also said 13 and 14 may close as early as tomorrow.