Mississippi River Pool 14 Fishing Report

Pool 14 Walleye fishing has been a hit and miss proposition over the last week. I hit the water today with IDA member BIGJIGGER2002. We were met with very tough conditions, but did manage a few fish.

We began the day in the tailwater area, where a handful of boats joined us to fight the salad and sludge floating everywhere. Vertical jigging and 3-waying bait and cranks produced several strikes, but no fish. We witnessed a few white bass being taken, but no saugers or walleyes. After tiring of the grass battle, we moved down stream to work a few wingdams, with similar tactics and results.

With several hours of non-productive fishing in, we opted to pitch jigs to a few shoreline rocks, and my partner for the day landed the chunky 22" walleye in the first photo. With renewed interest, we worked several similar areas, but to no avail. One short smallmouth in the next hour, then we switched up and pulled 3-ways with bait, then cranks through the same shoreline area. Lots of fish where showing on the electronics, but we were unable to pull fish of any significance. The crappie in the second photo came on a 3-way/crawler harness in 20′ of water with moderate current.

I was out for a few hours last Wedensday and found a 25" saugeye, and a pair of dandy saugers in the 17-19" range. The saugers where taken on H20 jigs with firecracker Kalin tails. The saugeye was taken on a 3-way rig with crawler harness. I was fishing alone so have no photos to post of these fish. The grass flow was much worse last week, but is here to stay for some time I am afraid. Picking areas on the upwind side of the river and areas with reduced grass flow was critical to catching the fish we have managed.

Thanks to Rick (BIGJIGGER2002) for making a tough fishing day into a great day on the water!