Matt, book says down stream from the mendota bridge. Gives a guy a little room to play with at least. If they stack up not far in it’s open and legal.

Matt, I’ve seen the old survey about that. With that said why not fish the legal areas in the Minnesota? Or because the water is so muddy you think they can’t even find the baits? I’d think if they run up it you’d be able to ambush a few as they are running up it? But then again they may have already moved up it a while ago.

Been a tough bite for me lately. Got out twice this week. Managed 5 and 9 but nothing worth noting for size. Seems to be I can get into some smaller males and some sauger but can’t seem to get any females. Is this typical of right near or during the spawn? Water temp last night I had at 47 so have to assume it’s getting close side note lots of shore fishing on the upper end of the pool. Fair amount of people at the confluence.

Ahhh that’s who you guys were I figured it was Josh’s rig.

Yeah it was tough on the hands and wore me out after a few hours. We ran around 40 miles in total that day trying different things but I we were shot by the time we started doing that.

I may have to swap to an outboard as the noise gets annoying. Great for hunting and getting to some crazy shallow spots as I only need 2-3” of water once I’m on plane. Use to do way more duck hunting hence the boat but I’ve really gotten bit by the fishing bug this last year and a half haha.

Likely get out tonight or tomorrow. See what I can come up with.

Cody Meyers wrote:

I saw you guys bopping around on Saturday. We had a similar day, slower than we’d like but not bad. All of our fish came vertical, we didn’t get a single fish pitching.

Cody are you referring to the shore fisherman or myself?

We got ours honestly pitching shallow. But. I’m not familiar with the north part of the river unlike the south / middle. I just need to spend lots of time uo that way to see what’s what I think. Went out at 4:00AM until lunch. Was real chilly early on. May try and get out during the week again and see if I can put something together.

Slow day yesterday for me. 10 eyes almost all males. We’re pretty shallow 6-12 foot mid morning. Think I just need to keep moving around. Thought it would be a matter of time but the bite window was 15-30 min then only caught 2 more fish hours later.

Anyone ever try south of 494 this time of year? I know most fish move up but there has to be some nice stragglers that stick back.

Matt,

I’ll give them a shot. I’ve had great success with them in lakes but haven’t tried in rivers. This time of year I’d bet is the best time as far as not getting snags.

Have to finish up my glide bait rod before I start using them though… building rods as a hobby is fun but also takes time to dial in what a guy wants for each technique.

We got there around sun down. May explain it. Worked the heck out of the spots we got on em Sunday. But also tried up shallow. Had a few solid bites but that was it.

Side note anyone ever use glide baits like jigging raps or pitchin puppets? Love fishing that way on lakes just not sure on rivers since it’s a visual reaction normally.

Made it out today and yesterday. Yesterday did well. I believe we ended at 17 eyes in about 4 hours. Good average size. Over half of them were above 20”. Biggest being a chunky 24 followed up by another 24. Lots of people.

Tonight, seems either and or both the pressure and maybe mood of the fish was negative. Super slow. Ended up empty handed. First time in a while I’ve had that happen to me. Have people seen pressure blow all the fish out of areas before? Or maybe other factors I’m sure. Just crazy how the bite shut off for us at least completely. Maybe I’m missing something.

Thanks Chris, J and Dustin for opening her up. We’re the boat that joined later that day… didn’t mean to encroach upon where you were fishing. We were trying to make it happen south towards the rock / sand transition to give you some space. Good numbers nothing real big for us.was just a lovely day to be out.

Checked today Still locked up. Not surprised. Hoping by Wednesday she’s open enough to get out. Side note Simone fishing on the ice up by pigs eye entrance. Kinda neat

Mike, looked like you out today. Judging by the boat at least. How’d ya turn out? We managed a decent number of fish 14 to be exact. Biggest was this fatty. Didn’t break into the 30s still but knocking on the door. Photo edited the back ground out so don’t mind that…

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Well ventured out a couple days before the serious cold. Was mid 20s. Fish were not fast and furious. Very limited to bite windows. But did manage 15 eyes. Here’s the bigger ones. 22-24 was common. Still no 30. Lol. 25.5 was biggest.

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That’s a hog! No 30s for me. But still had a 17-18 fish outing. Seems I keep getting 1-2 inches bigger each outting. Here’s a nice fatty.

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Matt Moen wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Prodigyboatsguy wrote:</div>
Put a few nice evenings together in the last week and a half. Best was 17 eyes but better size structure. Lots of 20-24. With a 25.5 in the mix. Still searching and working hard at trying to get the elusive 30” from the river. First year really fishing it. biggest is a 28 from this summer.

Anyways. Seems to be a mix of depths with the current flow being a little higher recently. Getting some in 4-12 and a few in the 15-20.

Be back out tomorrow to put in 3/4 of a day. Tight lines!

Good luck on a 30”…they are in there but not too many get caught. I’ve probably got a dozen over 29” in the past few years but cannot crack the 30” mark. Now is as good a time as any to get one though.

Better off on P3/P4 for a 30+?

Maybe I need to hit P4 up more.

Put a few nice evenings together in the last week and a half. Best was 17 eyes but better size structure. Lots of 20-24. With a 25.5 in the mix. Still searching and working hard at trying to get the elusive 30” from the river. First year really fishing it. biggest is a 28 from this summer.

Anyways. Seems to be a mix of depths with the current flow being a little higher recently. Getting some in 4-12 and a few in the 15-20.

Be back out tomorrow to put in 3/4 of a day. Tight lines!

Really appreciate the info. Sounds like a simple program. May have to get out this Saturday night. See what’s happening. I did try some larger sucker minnows and that seemed to be no difference in preference durning the day between sucker minnows and fat heads. Was hoping it’d help get bigger bites but it was really split 50/50 between fat heads and suckers. The ones I did get at least…

Got out Friday. Slow. 5 eyes. 1 massive 19” white bass and a good size pike.biggest eye was only 22”. Durning this time and later yet, do the eyes tend to be deeper? All summer i was fairly dialed. Averaging 40-60 eyes in a solid day out 2-3 guys. Now I’m struggling to put a decent day together. Tried the usual community spots but mainly tried and caught fish durning the day in 7-14 foot. Didn’t try much deeper than 16-18 yet.

Got out today. Heck of a half day for numbers. 30-40 eyes for myself and a coworker.biggest was a 24 with about a dozen fish in the 20-22” range.

Anyone been out recently? If so how’s it shaping up? Cooler weather I have to imagine fish will start picking up and moving a touch deeper?

Finally a nice eye. Got out this AM before the traffic. Managed 71 fish with 22 of them being eyes. 26.5” and second best was a 22” after that lots of 15-18” with a few sub 15”.

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Got out again. Fishing was very good. Again nothing big but 25-30 eyes. Most sub 15” with 6 between 16-18” lots and lots of sheep head and white bass as well as a few crappie, lots of smallies, 4 pike, and a common carp. 4 hours of fishing and a total of close to 60 fish it was fun. Still shallow. Sub 10 foot.

Matt, I bet you do. The smallies have been in that spot for a few weeks. A guy can blow through a scoop of fat heads if he so chooses to stick it out at this spot. About endless numbers of em really. May start venturing out now that I know where some decent fishing is in hops to find some bigger fish.

Was out for the first time in a week or so. Bite is good. Got out for 3-4 hours. Managed 8 eyes probably 20 smallies. 15-20 crappies 12-14 white bass and loads of sheep head.

Nothing big. Can’t seem to find the big eyes or big fish in general. But was fun getting those 20ish 1-2.5lb smallies. Biggest eye was actually a sauger. 16”. The rest were small eyes 8”-14” smallies were sub 6 foot on rocks. Eyes were 5-8 foot and same goes for the rest of the fish. Oh besides the crappies. They were in 8-12 foot. All nice ones. 10-13.5”

Cody Meyers wrote:

Did you catch the cats on the crankbaits?

Nope. Jigs. Be back out next week. Normally hit the river 1-2 times on week days.

Went out this evening. Lovely evening to be out. A bit hot but didn’t stop us. Managed 8 eyes, 10-15 white bass, doze sheep head, half a dozen cats a massive 10.5inch bluegill and a decent 11 inch crappie. Everything we got was sub 10foot.biggest eye was 22” most eyes were 16-18” oh and a bonus 2 sauger. Jigs and cranks did the trick.

Got out this morning and yesterday AM before the wave of rain came in. Managed 6 eyes. Nothing big but all 15-20 inches. A bunch of sheep head and some small kittys. Real shallow in 2-6 foot of water. Hope to get out once this week after work. Finally starting to put something together.

tomr wrote:

Lions Levee ramp is open.

Real question tho. Any luck? I’ll be out early in the morning. Check a few wing damns current seams and back water. Not sure they have moved onto wing damns yet with the high waters. Maybe that’ll change with the water coming down.

Launches back in shape? Might have to give her a whirl here this weekend