Pool 4 report , the bite gets warmer!

Fishing in my neck of the woods,(the U.P.), has been in my pretty slow lately so I called my good buddy Al Erickson and we decided to fill out absentee ballots and head for Everts resort for a couple days of fishing. We started out as soon as we upacked Monday afternoon. Our gameplan was to work the traditional methods of pitching or vertical jigging plastics along current breaks and structure. I was a little surprised to find 50 degree water temps as we motored up stream.

There were only about a dozen boats below the dam and were scattered about. The current was moderately strong and water clarity very dirty. Our first drift down the Minnesota side was uneventful save a couple of everpresent white bass that smacked our jig/ringworm offerings. My partner Al, the consumate live bait master, decided to drag a Pony jig/crawler while i switched to a chartreuse NuckleBall jig dressed with a 4" Kalin tail.We hadn’t gone far when a fat 17" Sauger inhaled it. This one(pictured) committed hari-kari by swallowing the whole enchilada. We had sporadic action so I moved up the Wisconsin side guessing that the increasing current flow may push some fish to the quieter eddies.

It wasn’t long before I noticed a couple boats seemed to do really well. Upon closer examination we say they were jigging bladebaits, such as Sonars& Cicadas. I have not tried this technique up until now and but had heard it could be very effective. But, since we had no such lures we kept pitching plastics and did pretty fair. The "last cast" produced a long exciting battle with sleek 7 lb Catfish for Al. We found back at Everts that Big B and the Iowa Caucus had done well also and looked foreward to the next day.

5:30 AM was too early to wake Mrs. Vick at the baitshop but I ran into Dan Wilson who was kind enough to give me a couple Sonars to try. It didn’t take long to figure out this was a very effective vertical jig presentation. It was hard for me to put that chartreuse Sonar down after several nice Eyes and Sauger hammered it. Here’s one of the fruits of the Sonar technique in the picture on the right.

A faster action rod seemed to get me more hookups with the Sonar. With a pretty strong current flow I found a 3/4 oz Sonar to work great using 8# StrenBraid and a 6’8" St.Croix Xtra Fast action rod. Its also essential to have a good reel with instant anti reverse. I love my Fin Nor 100s and the new St. Croix reels.

Wednesday we awoke to heavy frost and clear skies. The warmer river water combining with the freezing air gave us pea soup thick fog to deal with as we groped slowly up the river. We again tried various techniques but Sonars seemed to be the most effective. I attributed some of this to the very limited water clarity and strong current flow.

It was harder to keep other presentations in the "zone". The heavy, slim profile and strong vibrations emitted seemed perfect for those that favored artificials.

I did see other fisherman were having some good success pulling 3 ways with minnows or crankbaits also. In talking to fellow IDA staffer and fishing guide Dustin Stewart I would agree that the best fall fishing is yet to come. I can think of no better place to greet it than on the Mighty Mississippi! My thanks to Steve Vick for his great hospitality and sage fishing advice and great to meet Big B and the rest of the IDA IOWA gang( great PIZZA too!)The enclosed pic is from Jon and his friend Brad visiting pool 4 and getting some nice fish jigging Sonars and BFT plastics.

Good Luck and good fishing! Tom Gursky