Pool 5 Mississppi River Walleye Report

How does the saying go? Red skies at night means sailors delight. Now does this mean that there is going to be good fishing or just good weather? All I know this weekend it was windier than…we’ll just say windy and the fishing was great for quality fish once again pool 5.

My weekend started out planning on fishing pool 4 but with the call of 30MPH winds I decided that the Lake wasn’t the place I wanted to be. A few quick phone calls to my clients and we were back in business but on Pool 5. This was a good decision on my part for Les Carson of Warsaw, Indiana. Here is a picture of one of the good fish he caught this weekend with me.

The presentations I concentrated on mostly this week was trolling by either Long -lining cranks, pulling three-way and Cranks, and pulling leadcore. All three presentations put fish in the boat. Trolling side cuts still have been the best place for me right now. Trolling speeds have been from 1.4-1.9 MPH GPS speed. The cut I concentrated on this week was off a windblown lake. When winds start blowing hard and happen to be that way for a few days a few different things happen that a lot of people really don’t think about. The wind blew from one direction for three days. This little lake/bay had the water level drop do to all the water getting pushed out of the lake from the wind. This is like having the water drop in a river, the fish start moving out. The fish we were catching were all coming out of the lake making the side cut the right place to be. This goes for the same on other bodies of water. I know I have been on other bodies of water and ventured in a back bay on a windy day and only find out that my boat is scraping the bottom trying to get out. If the fish feel the drop in the water level they will work their way out of the lake making that area a prime funneling area to concentrate on these fish.

There are tons of fish at the dam right now also. You have to catch 20 small fish for every keeper but sure keeps young kids in check. Pulling three ways at the dam was best for me. I set up a 3-5 oz bell sinker on a 12”-16” dropper and a 6’ leader of 12# Silver Thread Fluorocarbon. Attached to the leader I have been running Smithwick’s Rattlin Rogues. A pretty simple system and easy to use, just drop it down and start trolling. Has anyone else ever used Silver Thread. I have really started liking this stuff. It doesn’t have a lot of stetch and seems to be really tough stuff. The spools even come with a little elastic band that you can wrap around the spool so that all the line doesn’t come flying off when you least expect it. Three ways are not the only thing producing at the dam right now. I have seen everything from three way and bait, using blade baits and guys jigging and they all seem to be doing very good. Most people are saying that one-day there are nice fish up there and then the next all little ones.

Sunday we still saw a lot of fish come to the boat the action was a little slower. Our quality fish moved from the side cuts out to the main channel. Here is me with a fish I caught on Sunday. I was clearing the line of for one of my clients when the fish hit the lure on the drop back.

Click on pictures for better viewing.