Mississippi River Red Wing, MN Upper Pool 4 Report

What can I say other than it’s mid May and the walleye are on the chew right now, some dandy fish have made it boat side on recent trips. Since I wrote my last report I have only seen the river 3 times and it has it has graced my boat with walleye gold each and every time. I have had a few presentations work in my favor for the bigger eyes but jigs/crawlers have been the mainstay of my boat on the last couple of trips. About 2 weeks ago I saw fish scatted over large areas with the lower flows we were dealing with in the mighty river but now those fish are schooling up in the traditional current break areas we high water fisherman like target. The good news with the water on the rise for the next week these shoreline eddies and current breaks will slowly concentrate more walleyes. The key is to pay close attention to the small details in and area you are targeting with lots of fish. Those fish will relocate on a daily basis with the rising water and be readily found in the general area that they were on the day prior. Just for an example. If fishing an area on and outside bend in the river during low flows the majority of those walleye will be positioned at the head of the hole on that stretch. As the water slowly rises those fish will gradually filter in to the shoreline eddies and current breaks farther down river near the tail out of that particular hole. If the water gets raging high, those fish will position themselves on the other side of the river on the inside bend and also move in to side channels and back waters areas. You might have to search a one mile stretch to find out where your fish have relocated to but patience reaps the reward on most occasions.

Depths have ranged from 2’ to 10’ in my boat with my bigger fish predominately coming out of the 5’ to 10’ range. The 6’ of water or less has seen a bulk of the action on eaters for my boat. I have 3 predominant colors working in my favor right now. Blue jigs have still been best in my boat for overall numbers and size. Red jigs have been a close second on the bigger fish but not so god for overall numbers. Orange jigs have seen some good success as well on a number of fish. Jigs in the1/8oz size and lighter have been the key for me.

The first picture seen above is of Phil Paladino holding on to a skinny 25” walleye that was caught in about 5’ of water on a blue jig. Phil was fortunate to have another fish bigger than this one right up to the boat. I’m sorry to say that one is going to have to be a lifetime story about how the big one got away! Phil had his 9year old daughter Elizabeth spend the day with us…….. all I got to say is that girl can fish with the big dogs. By days end we had a good bunch of eaters to go along with above fish. Looking forward to fishing with the 2 of you again in the near future.

Last Wednesday the 19th I was encountering motor problems and had to cancel that days guide trip. Since I was already at the river I got the motor to run and made a short 4-5 hour outing and took a chance at casting crank baits to some of my favorite rip rap areas. After reading Steve DeZuriks reports from pool 2 about the success he was seeing on the Bomber 6A’s that was my weapon of choice. The next 2 fish pictured here of me were caught in approximately 6’ to 7’ of water off the same current break on a fire tiger 6A Bomber. I had a few eater make it to the boat as well. Once this current break was done kicking out fish for me I jumped a few areas dragging jigs/crawlers that I had yet to try this season. One of those areas was loaded with 16” to 19” fish in 2’ to 3’ of water just waiting to be caught. I had a one man limit of fish in less than an hour.

This past weekend, Sunday the 23rd I spent the day with Tom Brum, his father in-law Connie and his son Randy. As anyone who ventured out to pool 4 on Sunday knows it was raining a bit but that didn’t stop us from doing our thing. The day was spent dragging jigs/crawlers in 2’ to 10’ of water with decent numbers of eaters making it boat side along with the last 2 fish pictured here. These fish were practically identical twins with one bearing more weight than the other. Both of these fish hit the tape at 28.5”. These two big eyes were located on the same little current seam and came within 20 minutes of each other. Nice fish guys! I am looking forward to our future trip this Summer.

The river as a whole is in good shape. Debris is minimal and the water has no signs of being muddy as of yet. I am still hearing second hand info of good reports on the lake trolling bite for numbers of saugers/walleye with an occasional big fish in the mix………sounds kind of like the river bite, except for the saugers! From the info I have received the lake bite has been predominately sauger for the most part. The guys finding the walleye have been doing so on the wind swept shoreline area a bit shallower in the 10’ of water and less. The shoreline on the WI side below the Rush river all the way down to Bogus creek has been a good bet from the guys I have talked to doing the lake bite. Several applications as well as locations are seeing good catches right now. It’s mid May and the fish are snappin!

I’ll see ya on the river!

Pictures may be clicked on for larger view.