04/06/12 Mississippi River Pool Four bite is best described as “day to day”, where one day this week it has been easy fishing and the next slower, then the next in between. The good news is if you work at it and hit a few different spots pay attention to the details, you should get the poles bending.
This has been an interesting year to say the least, as the flow is ultra low and the water temp is very high. In all these years fishing the river, I have never seen the river this low this time of the year, or this warm. The combination of the two may never happen for another years 75 years… The biggest surprise to me is the hog female walleyes are biting, I thought it would be a poor big fish year, with the big gals being out of whack. Not so, they are spread out but so far it looks like a good big fish spring.
The next development I am surprised about, considering the warm water temperatures and the low flow, is the walleyes have/or are spawning on time. The fact post female walleyes have been caught, indicates to me that the females are spawning exactly when they do every year, which is early April in relation to the full moon. I thought like many that the females would not drop their eggs, or a large portion would not drop their eggs. The “spawn” may be a bust, meaning the actual success of the 2012 year class fish may be very poor, but again still surprised that they are spawning right now “on time”.
In the last report I put out, I talked about pitching, vertical, dragging, and trolling. Again all these techniques are working. I have seen no stand out presentation for the big ones. This is no real problem for me, a bait fisherman and a troller. I would say minnows have been the best for my boat. Blades are still working and a blast to fish, doing better on a straight retrieve than the sweep… Cranks are catching nice sauger and walleye. I am fishing in 8 to 17 feet of water. Saugers are still the main keeper fish, keepers are running 14” to 18”, with limits being caught three or four last trips. Keep Catcin’
For line I am using 6 pound Suffix elite mono on all rigs expect blade rods here I use Suffix 832 to feel the blade best.
For rods I use Limit Creek LCS83MLF for dragging and especially casting blades (killer blade rod).
LCS69MLF for vertical and dragging, and LCS66MF for vertical jigging.
Trolling cranks the LCT50MHF and LCTE86MHF.
Rapala Shad Raps #5
B –Fish –N paddletails firecracker/chart tail are killer.
Keep Catchin’
Nice fish
Nice fish and good report Turk
I thought my boy was the only one using the Limit Creek 8’3″ to fish blades. He sure swears by his for that application. I love them for dragging but never thought of using them for blades. I guess I should give it a try sometime—then again I can’t fish blades no matter what I use 
Nice fish and nice report. I think it’s really ineresting to watch how the fish are reacting to the odd conditions. I managed 1 outing this week on Wednesday night and probably stuck to my blade bait longer than I should have. I don’t think the fish really wanted my presentation but did manage a couple of nice walleyes 1 being 25-1/2″ 8 lbs. the others were mreaty walleyes still full of eggs and no males that night. Hopefully the spawn is still sucessfull.
Nice fish Turk!
We caught some big ones today on pool 4.. not as big, but 23 and 24 inches both over 5 lbs. ours were on crankbaits in very shallow water. nice catch guys!
nice fish
sure wish i coulda been fishin with you!
Awesome looking fish and a great time indeed!! What kind of boat should i be tail piping around on the river these days??