Well I fished for a couple hours in a fairly heavy rain yesterday……DECEMBER 9th! It’s not supposed to be raining in December. I’ll take it though. The weather we have been having is incredible and the fishing isn’t bad either. For those of you that haven’t put your boat away for the winter, I would suggest to hit the river.
Are fish “jumping in the boat?”….no, but the action is more than enough to keep a guy interested. The bite below the “Y” has finally taken off. There have been quite a few reports of big numbers of sauger being caught in this area. The size ranges from boat to boat, but some are finding limits of 15-18 inch sauger with the occasional big one mixed in. Vertical jigging paddle tails, ringworms, superdoos, shad bodies, hair-jigs, jig-n-minnow etc. etc. are all taking fish. What color you say? Well, it’s funny. I have actually laughed a few times when asked this question lately. One guy comes in and says “If it didn’t have orange in it and it wasn’t plastic, you didn’t get a bite”. Next guy comes in and says he never saw a fish caught on anything but a jig-n-minnow……Third guy says….”man did they want hair jigs today!….” Now I know this happens all the time, but lately it has been so extreme, that I don’t know what color to tell you to use. I suppose a bait shop guy would say buy one of every color!
The dam area also continues to put out some nice sauger. They seem to be moving a bit deeper as of late, in that upper 20 foot range, at least for numbers. The larger sauger still seem to be hanging out in that 16-22 foot range. One constant I have heard over and over is that the fish want the bait barely moving if at all. Find bottom, lift 2-8 inches and hold for a 10 count…..find bottom again and repeat. Hay creek is also a good bet to look for some sauger/walleye. There are a few reports of fish starting to come from down there.
As for walleyes, pitching plastics and hair is by far your best bet. I’ve been asked a million times the past few weeks where the secret spots are for this technique. Well the simple/honest answer is that there really is not any one special spot. I have been fishing rip-rap and have been spending most of my time in 6-7 different spots. All those spots have been equally productive. All you need to do is find a current break (which there are a ton of) and start pitching. I strongly recommend watching the video that James Holst and Dustin Stewart put out a couple years ago about pitching jigs (available in my shop, online here at B-fish-N Tackle and other bait shops I assume)……One (of the many) excellent tips in the video is this: Find UNDERWATER current breaks that may not be visible on the surface. I’m not talking about wingdams, but an area of rip-rapped shoreline that may have a few more rocks on the shelf underwater than is visible on shore. These areas provide excellent ambush/resting places for walleye. You can find these spots with your graph or by putting the time in pitching and seeing how your jig falls down the drop. There are probably dozens of spots like this near the dam. Different water levels make some better than others at times. Part of the fun of pitching jigs for me is finding and catching walleyes in new spots. It’s hard to leave a spot that is producing, but it’s always fun to find another. K-Grubs have been my bait of choice, but ringworms can be just as effective, as far as plastics. Hairjigs are always a good bet as well. Get out and enjoy this nice weather we are having. Good Luck.
Thanks for the update Steve. See you on Sunday morning!
Good Luck Sunday. I will be gone Sunday and Monday off chasing roosters in Western Mn. Kevin will be running the show here those days. Let us know how you do.
Great report and info Steve! Good luck with the big roosters! Give your dog a treat for me, I lost mine Wed to heart problems.
I have a really nice non typical buck patterned and I’ll be back out with the bow in the Cedar Swamp this weekend.
Anytime is a good time on pool 4!
Good report Steve, a very concise summary indeed.
Tom sorry about your dog, that’s a tough thing.
Turk
Steve, thanks for the great report. I can hear my boat crying for me in the garage but I’m working the honey-do list today(but a couple hours this evening isn’t out of the question). Good luck chasing those darn Roosters.Tom, you may have lost your dog but the memories will be there as long as you are breathing. I put down our 17 YO Brittany in April and it didn’t bother me TOO much since she had had a long,wonderful life. Thanksgiving day as I am sitting down to eat She just flooded my mind and was right there. She always hated to miss a good meal. I miss the old girl but I’m sure we’ll be together again one day.
Very sorry to hear about your dog Tom. That’s the worst part of owning a dog….we usually outlive them. The best part is the memories. Good Luck with the deer hunting.
hi Steve,
Jack.. 
good report, you are by now out west and blasting the skies. the weather will be VERY windy in the morning. that will make a downwind shot almost impossible, good luck and hope to see more BIG walleye pics.
The only way to start a day on pool 4 is to stop in and get the latest scoop from Steve. Thanks for the report.
As Steve said a variety of colors and baits are all working. If the fish are in shallower water the neutral colors like oystershell are working well. When the fish are deeper, I found going to a florescent or chartreuse will trigger more bites. Paddletail, ringies, and doo’s are all working well.
Got out Saturday with IDA members Brian K. and Bob Johnston. We managed a few eyes pitching k-grubs and ring worms.
Later in the morning we found fish holding in the 11′ to 16′ range. Here is Bob with another fine fish.
Chartreuse K-grubs were working for me.
Bob with one more.
When this photo was taken Bob was telling me about his bass fishing days!
No pictures of Brian K so I assume you guys just spanked him good. Bob looks like he was putting the hurt on them but that isn’t unusual. We got out right at dusk and saw your truck at Evert’s, did you do any good with the late evening,after dark bite? We couldn’t get the walleye to go but the sauger were fairly cooperative.
Way to go Don! Any signs of a prop (or my new$$$ anchor?) down there.
Do you fish through the winter Don? I may come through there in the next couple months.
I wanted to get some photo’s of Brian K. but he informed me that he has a pending contract with a professional agency that does photo work for GQ and playgirl. They informed him that any amateur pictures of him that hit web sites or magizines may damage his promising modeling career. He was also sneaking some nice fish over the side of the boat when I was not looking. We had about a 15 minute hot bite after the sun went down.
Tom, my boat is always ready, give me a shout when you are coming down.
Steve, Thanks for the great report!
I thought I was smelling alcohal!
I was “spanked” good by Bob in the big fish dept for sure…. I have to work more on my pitch’en and less on my [censored]’en
Cool! I didn’t know you can’t say that here…with out being censored! What computers can do for ya…it’s amazing!
So…If I’m breeding a couple dogs and the sire is black and the [censored] is white….. just checking to see how this automatic FCC thing works.
Brian: Has the cold got you bored?? Next thing you know you’ll be getting out the dictionary to look up new words…
Tom:
Sorry to hear about your dog!!!
Mark