A lot of things have changed since 3-4 weeks ago on the upper end of pool 4.………..biggest change has been the walleye bite. The walleye bite has been very sporadic and constantly changing from one day to the next. On average a guy is able to put 5 to 12 legal fish in the boat on a variety of presentations. The cooler weather that moved in and is now left us for the most part, put those 20 to 30 legal fish days on the back burner for a while. Right now we are seeing the exact same bite we see in mid Sept thru the 1st week of October on a normal year:(. Let’s just hope we don’t experience that Sept lull this year or it’s going to be a long month and a half until mid October. With the warmer weather back upon us maybe it will swing things around in the short term:).
I am predicting a very good bite for October this year, vs. last year, if the cooler weather sits down on us as early as I think it is going to. I am already seeing big schools of shad popping up in the shallows of the main river and back channel. On an average year I do not see a lot of this until a good couple of weeks from now. The walleye will soon follow and put the feed bag on once we get higher concentrations of bait fish making a home in the shallower water of the mighty river.
I have only been on the river 3 times in the last couple of weeks
. Trolling or casting cranks in 1’ to 6’ of water has been better for me on the 20” plus walleye than bait on 2 of the last 3 outings. Shallow clam beds and rip rap have been my areas of choice. Bait has still taken fish for me but cranks have allowed me to cover water more quickly trying to find those active biters.
I have run in to numerous smallies and largemouth while casting for walleyes . Keep’s things interesting even if it isn’t ol’ marble eyes doing the pulling! They can be seeing busting bait on the surface in several areas of the main river. 
I have messed around casting plastics with minimal success on a couple of the last outings. The 3lb to 6lb sheepers are loving k-grubs and hair jigs right now in just about any color pattern you choose to toss.
The fish are always biting somewhere, that’s what keeps a guy going;). It will be interesting to see how the overall bite shapes up for the next in-depthangling.com Walleye Tour Tournament on September 12th. Hope to see a lot of you readers there 
See ya on the river!
Dustin Stewart
In-Depth Angling Pro-Staff
IN-Depth Angling Video Productions
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[email protected]
Moving Waters Guide Coalition
Ph.507-421-2346
Great report as usual Dustin. I am going to check out the Pool 3 wingdams tomorrow morning—just me—the boy has football practice. Needless to say without the boy my odds aren’t very good but I need a fishing fix. If I happen to find them I’ll post tomorrow night. Thanks for the report.