Mississippi River Upper Pool 4 Report 6/24/04

This is my first report in quite sometime. James pretty much summed things up on his last report for the upper end of pool 4 so I thought it would be pointless for me to re-peat what would have been basically the same info on the bite and river conditions. Well, since James’s report things have changed greatly! For starters, the water levels are dropping rapidly and the cold weather has not been a blessing to have this time of year. The water temps have fallen off 6 degrees from what they were a week ago with this cold spell and in return, the walleye bite has slowed dramatically from what it was 2 weeks ago with the higher water levels. The bite has been really slow for overall numbers of fish for my boat on the last 3 outings but I have still seen some quality fish make it to the boat as you will see in the pictures posted in this report.

On my last 2 trips I have spent most of my time on Lake Pepin from the Pine Creek area and heading North to the head of the lake on both sides of the river looking for a good numbers bite but never found one. The river was really dirty for quite sometime with all the past rain we have had and the heavy pleasure boat traffic we usually see this time of year . With the dirty water I was encountering in the river, the river bite was off for me as well so I felt more confident in the Lake bite for numbers but never found it. Those fish we were targeting in the flooded timer all around the lake last week have slowly diminished and scattered back in to the 6’ to 20’ depths on the lake. In return making them harder to pinpoint in great numbers. That’s what I love about high water, once you find one, you find a bunch more real close by!

The first picture is of good buddy Keith Stough holding a nice walleye he took on a black and gold #5 Shad rap fishing with me in the time frame of the flooded willow bite on the lake prior to the IDA Tourney. Thanks for the help pre-fishing Keith. Glad I could put you on that fish so it wouldn’t bite come tourney day!

On Sunday the 20th I hooked up with Jeff Harcy and Jessie Preston. The goal was to focus in the river helping them learn more about fishing high water in early summer. Things started out good right away with Jeff bringing a 20” to 21” fish boat side in the first 10 minutes of the trip on a 3-way rig and leech focusing on the mouth of a side channel cut. Things were all down hill from there in this area with us only being able to boat small sauger and walleye the rest of our stay in this area. As the day progressed, we jumped from spot to spot, we caught plenty of short fish but the eaters were not showing themselves . At about 12:00 noon we hit the jackpot on 2 bigger walleye that were caught minutes apart 3-waying crawlers in 10’ to 20’ of water at the head of a deep hole just off the main river . Jeff is shown in the second picture with one of those fish. Jessie is shown in the picture after that with the other big eye. If it wasn’t for those 2 bigger walleye the trip would have been a wash with the days catch consisting of mostly smaller fish. I had a blast fishing with the two of you and hope you learned a few things for the day even though the bite was off for numbers of quality fish. I look forward to fishing with the two of you again in the future. Heck, maybe next time we can get Mary to come along .

The white bass are highly concentrated on the rocks below Bay City right now. #5 Shad Raps trolled at speeds of 3.8mph to 4mph GPS in 6’ to 10’ of water will get you plenty of action. Fire tiger or blue and silver will get you off to a good start. I have caught an occasional walleye in the mix as well.

Just an FYI on today’s bite. Talked to James earlier today and just wanted to pass along some tid bits from his findings. The river is cleaning up nicely with the water clarity and floating debris getting close to normal for this time of year. James also said he got in to um good this morning with a 4 man limit of Walleye by noon. Maybe things are on the upswing! He said trolling #5 Shad raps in fire tiger and the craw pattern was the ticket. He also said he was concentrating in shallow water, 3’ to 6’to be exact. Areas close to the opening of back water and side channel cuts were the keys to success. These are classic drop back areas that the eye’s will hold in with the water levels on the downfall. I look for good numbers of walleye to be present main and back channel real soon with the way the water levels are receding .

See ya on the river!

Dustin Stewart

In-Depth Angling Pro-Staff

IN-Depth Angling Video Productions

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Moving Waters Guide Coalition

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