Lots of things have changed on the river since my last report. The bite on my last 3 outings has still been good but locations and presentations have changed dramatically for me with the higher water. The water is high right now and is still on the rise keeping us anglers on our toes trying to keep good numbers of fish pinpointed. The river was really dirty on Wednesdays outing and full of grass and other junk. Pulling cranks on the last outing was almost impossible with all the debris I had to deal with so I just gave up on it. I have yet to see large amounts of floating timber to steer clear of but there is plenty of smaller stuff out there to watch out for. Once the river stabilizes the junk should filter out day by day.
Last week before the water really started to fill the banks still had me dragging jigs in the little current breaks and eddies along shore and on the inside bends of the river. On Wednesday the 26th Scott Kaiser and his buddy Aubry spent the day in my boat. It seemed we could do nothing wrong. The day started with us long lining cranks in an area that had produced for me on recent trips with over a 2 man limit of fish in the 16” to 18” range making it boat side in just over 3 hours. I chose to pull cranks on the start of this trip because of the influx of water we were starting to see. Covering water in this manner is a lot more efficient than dragging jigs when the fish have started to move around a bit. It wasn’t long and we had the fish pin-pointed in one small area so we started to drag jigs with crawlers or leeches and saw the average size of our catch increase for the rest of the day. Good numbers of fish in the 19” to 22” range were boated and released on bait. By trips end we had over 30 legal fish make a showing between the 2 presentations. The only bad part about the day was we never saw a fish over the 22” mark. Better luck next time I guess. Scott and Aubrey, thanks again for spending a day in my boat. I’m looking forward to our future trip.
Sunday of the past holiday weekend I fished with my Dad. Since there was no stress our pressure to catch a great number of fish I took it easy and went exploring some areas that are good for me during high water. Most of our day was spent castings jigs/bait and casting cranks to various shoreline eddies and current breaks. We didn’t break any records for the number of fish boated but found one nice fish that Dad is pictured here with caught on a jig/crawler casting to a small current seam along the rivers edge. All of our eaters came on cranks this day but that bigger fish wanted bait.
Yesterday I went about most of the day the same as Dad and I did on Sunday. Only difference was those bigger fish I have been finding along the river banks wanted cranks. I Have to thank Pool 2 reporter Steve DeZurik for turning me on to those Bomber crank baits he was always bragging about. I have fished with them for years but they have never been what I would consider a confidence bait for me until recently. Both of the next two fish I am pictured here with fell victim to a fire tiger Bomber. The last picture seen here of the fish with the Bomber in it’s mouth is the same fish as pictured right above. The other Walleye pictured was taken off the same spot later in the day. I only had 6 other fish for the day but I got a couple of the ones I was looking for. I am not seeing a large amount of fish concentrating my efforts shallow on the river banks but they seem to be holding some nice fish if the right current break is found.
I have still been receiving good reports of numbers of walleye/sauger caught on Lake Pepin. Trolling crank baits seems to be the way to go. I have talked to guys pulling fish casting plastics and hair to the rocks as well as 3-waying or lindy rigging bait just drifting with the wind or a controlled drift with the trolling motor. I am still seeing guys staying at Everts Resort bringing in some White Bass from the dam area. Not as fast and furious as it has been but there is still a few around and willing to bite. Areas close to shore in the dam area should be a good starting point for those of you targeting White Bass.
That’s all for now. I will be on vacation starting this weekend and will not have timely access to a computer. This will be my last report for the next 2 weeks. For those of you make it out on Pool 4 keep us all updated on the bite.
I’ll see ya on the river!
thanks Dustin, good report, I is great that you can get you father out for a few trips. Enjoy some time off while on vacation. I do not think you’ll be off the water tooo long. Jack.