Pool 8 Wing Dams 9/3/12

There would be an opportunity to hit the water only one day out of this three day holiday weekend. Saturday it felt good to relax with the wife and wait for the kids to get home. We had a couple Birthday’s to celebrate so this would not be a day of fishing.
Sunday rolled around and another enjoyable family day was spent together, it was a day of snacks and a Grilled Turkey diner for the closer. It would be a lie to say there was never a thought about fishing. For awhile it was all that was on my mind.
Monday morning was closing in and this was going to be the one chance to scratch the fishing itch before heading back into the work week. After hearing a good friend say the bite was tough to say the least on Sunday, there was no feeling of urgency or a rush to get going. Dragging my feet the boat was finally launched around 7ish.

The floater was loaded with an arsenal of just about everything. UL rods to Heavy Rods, Jigs and crank baits along with Catfish dip bait. The thought….something had to be found on the chew, even with the report from the day before.
First wing dam and anchored upstream just off the tip, a 1/16oz round ball jig and crawler was tossed to the rock for gills. Nothing different as my last reports or the advice I have given in other forums. The correct size jig makes it easy peasy for taking nice size rock dwelling gills!!
With only the need for 6, 7 maybe 8 gills, there was only going to be a couple from each wing dam kept while playing catch and release with some others if they were on a chew. In just a short time on each rock pile it became evident, the blue ears were eating and there was more bait fish action blowing up than seen in the past few weeks. Bait fish leaping the heck out of the way is always a good sign. It was time to break out some predator busting baits in hopes of tangling with the wolves in their feeding frenzy.

The first attempts at enticing a bite was tossing chuck bugs and spooks while retrieving them across the rocky tops. A few half hearted swipes were made at the surface baits but nothing really wanted to commit. At the same time there was still bait fish leaping for their lives. The second bait tossed out was a lipless crank, third cast….wham! The lipless rattle trap provoked a number of smallies to hit with the best being 18inches. The average smallie was15-16inches and found on 2 out of 4 wing dams fished. Shad and Blue gill colors were the favorites on this day. The smallies would pound the bait as it bounced off the tops of the rock or as it just passed the face of the wing dam.
The same lipless baits found walleyes in the front trough of a couple wing dams too A long cast parallel to the face in the front ditch holding 8-10fow produced 4 walleyes just at 15inches with the best being 18inches of Esox. This day was turning out to be much better than anticipated and what a great mix of filets for a mid week fry!

The only thing left to do making sure all rigged lines were used was to set up on a channel cat hole for a brew or two while soaking Secert-7 Dip Bait in the water before calling it a day. The lines were rigged and a barley pop top was popped. Time was spent making mental notes on the days conditions. Over cast skies, South to Southeast winds, Tuna boat traffic, just about every condition that would make a guy stay home thinking the bite might be off. Glad the decision was made to get out on the river. A grin came across my face while thoughts had me lost inside my head only to be awakened by a rod that tried to jump over board! The battle was on with a dandy dip eating cat. The rod thumped with every stroke of the wide tail while the whiskered devil made for bottom. This was the perfect closure to the day around 1:30pm.
The wing dam bite has been treating a lot of fishers well the last few weeks in the La Crosse area as on other stretches of the river. It doesn’t look to be letting up much right now either
I hope everyone else had as good of a Holiday weekend and had the chance to hit some water!

Good luck fishing people