Here’s a quick report for all everyone trying to decide between deer hunting and walleye fishing. If you’re still looking to bag that deer you need to hurry it up and get back in the boat! Reports up and down the Miss share a very consistent theme right now… day or night, Pools 2, 3, 4 and south to the MN / IA border the intel is the same…. the fish are biting!
For our boat the presentation was pitching 3/16 and 1/8 oz jigs to the tops and face of wingdams and slowly retrieving these baits back to the boat. We fished B FISH N Tackle plastics, using both the PulseR and Moxies, with the Moxie being the hands down top producer on this night.
There’s still a lot of barge traffic which is keeping the water clarity down so unlike most years at this time when natural or dark patterns seem to be the top producers last night bright patterns were on fire with one color combo in particular standing heads or tails above everything else. A Chartreuse White Core Moxie with a Pink Precision head was on a tear putting most all of our bigger fish in the first several hours in the boat while old stand by producers like Oystershell and Pro Blue were putting very few fish in the boat and the overall size of the fish caught on the natural patterns was much smaller.
Once the barges slow down and the water clarity improves the fish will switch over to the more natural patterns. For the time being, Chartreuse White Core, Great White and Pink and White are getting the nod.
With the warmer air temps we’re still able to use thin diameter braid which makes fishing lighter jigs a bit easier than when colder temps force the switch to mono. Another reason to be fishing the braids right now is that due to the very limited amount of current in the river right now the fish are responding best to a swimming retrieve. A braid makes it much easier to slowly swim a bait back to the boat while keeping the bait near bottom due to the thin diameter.
For those not familiar with this bite on the Mississippi River you can expect to see this bite run until the river’s start to ice up some time late Nov. – early December depending on the weather pattern. I will say this, with the very limited flow on the river right now once we get a blast of wintery weather things will ice over quickly.
That’s all for now. I hope everyone has a safe hunt this fall and if you still have a walleye itch to scratch… a couple bags of plastics and a handful of jigs is about all it takes to get in on a phenomenal bite.
Very nice report…
I would also add be safe on the river after dark. Wear your life jacket when traveling and also your motor kill switch. Good idea to let others know where you are as well.
Even with the low flow there still can be hazards in the middle of the channel (logs, other debris).
Great report James !!
And it looks like you had some Great company on that outing as well !!
Thanks for trip last night James/Jake…Lots of fun and fun boat company..
Great read guys, how did the boat fish with 3 of you pitching & catching?
Very nice guys. Sure glad my boy bagged his deer today so I can get back to the river.
Jake and Cal had run of the back of the MX 2025 and mentioned several times how much they loved all the room. Without question it handled the 3 of us “no problems” whatsoever and earned two
Nice report guys. That does make my walleye itch a little stronger. Although, the rut down in Iowa is getting pretty hot. Hopefully I will get my buck soon so I can get to the river.
Deer vs. Walleyes. Not fair mother nature. I’ve tagged a few does, so I’ll be fishing soon I’m thinking. Mr. Big might get a free pass for at least a few nights!
Joel
Spot on as always James!
The guys down at Everts are seeing a slow down on bright days during the middle of the day but if it’s over cast they are snapping from 4 at night to 10 in the morning!
I know there’s always a run on headlamps this time of year!
Now I just need to find someone’s boat to jump into Friday after work. It’s going to be bacon wrapped walleye on Sunday in BK’s world!
Nice fish guys!
At times like this, I sure wish I didn’t have a full time job combined with guide trips on the weekends. Sure would like to get out and do more night fishing but it really cuts into my beauty sleep. And lord knows I need all I can get!
Another thought crossed my mind…
Every year just like clockwork those fish make the same movements. Looking back over the last few years, the reports from many Ido members and reporters show the same thing.
BIG FISH IN NOVEMBER!!
Get your DEER butt on the water!!LOL!
From a Dustin’s Guide Service report
Anyone have lakemaster chip? figured you river guys would know at what level they surveyed the river so we would be able to check and then do our water level offset accordingly. not to take away from the original thread because this is the reason seeing all these fish makes me want to get out!
Don’t know what level Lakemaster surveyed the river at, so what works best is when putting boat in the river do your offset according to the current depth and what chip says.
Welcome to IDO.
Good read guys and congrats on the good fishing! I really miss fishing on the mississippi river down in southern MN. Keep up the good work and excellent infornmation.