Fall Fever! Pool 9

My dad called me last week bragging about limits of 3 to 5 pound eyes. This was the call I’d been waiting for. I decided to take Monday Oct 1st off from work. I packed everything the night before and got to bed early. I woke up at 4:45, grabbed the dog and hit the road.

On my way up I saw a lot of dead dear and small animals. I had to stop for four deer crossing the highway. I even saw a bobcat on the side of the road. It stopped and looked at me coming and leaped into the ditch. Wow… I arrived at my dad’s place at 7 bells. Nice morning. We loaded the boat and a mug of coffee and we were off.

We arrived at the ramp…empty. We put the boat in while the dog took care of his natures call. We pushed of the dock and set out for a short ride. It was going to be a beautiful day. Low 70’s with a light south wind. Water temp was 61 degrees. What I realized quickly is that the Mississippi river was not moving. I’ve never seen anything like it. I started out fishing a. BfishN paddle tail and my dad was using old faithful tipped with a minnow. I was surprised to see him remove his stinger hook from the rig. We started out on his hot hole. It was a fairly small hole with a fast drop from 8′ to 18′ in about a boat length. We caught a couple nice stripers before my dad hooked the first eye of the day. My pooch watched intently while I netted the nice keeper. It was my turn next. I popped another nice keeper. It was starting to shape up into a great day…then the battery took a dump. It was too early to stop fishing. My dad took us in and pulled the battery. He ran to town while I goofed around with the dog. This was only the second time out in the boat for my new pup. He’s a 9 month old golden retriever with clowns personality.

My dad got back about 45 minutes later and we set out to try another spot. The next spot was a nice drift. The wind switched more out of the west so it pushed us along perfectly. Smally, Smally, striper, sauger, eye, small eye, saugeye, sauger, lost giant fish. Pretty good spot. Things were happening here. I started to mark a run of bigger fish. Just then I felt a powerful fish unload on my lure. I set the hook and fought the fish. It fought like a sheepshead put came to the surface in the form of a 4.5 pound walleye. It was a beautiful fish with dark markings. I had my dad take a pic and I released it. We took a last drift and my dad hit another 4 pounder.

Things dropped off to nothing so we decided to hit the other hole on the way in. My pup was feeling the need to relieve himself again. I thought maybe we would get another fish out of this hole but what I was about to witness my dad do was sick. He pulled up into the hole and dropped down. Nothing…..nothing….BAM! A nice 3.7 pounder. We drifted back into the 8′ deep water above the hole and I hooked another big striper. He started back into the hole….BAM! A bigger 5 pound eye. I was starting to feel left out. The back of the boat was sitting in 9′ of water…bang! Another striper for me. My dad released the fish back to the cool water. He dropped back down and moved the boat into the hole again….BAM! Another fish. Bigger….? I could tell by the fight it was bigger. It broke the surface and I put the net under the fish with my dog watching every move. 7 pound fish…photo…..released.

At this point I couldn’t take it and neither could the dog. He was shaking he had to pee so bad. I almost told him to go ahead…well, we ended the day with that. My dad felt sorry for the dog. It was an amazing day. I don’t know what I enjoyed more…… The fishing or watching my dog bob for minnows in my dads’ minnow bucket.