Pool 4 Walleye/Sauger Jan 24 2005

By riverfan 0

I suspect your first thought is why is a bass guy doing a walleye/sauger report? Well I have reporting privileges, I have a camera, I wanted to let people know what was happening at Red Wing and I really needed a fishing fix! My partner on Monday was Matt Larson of Nelson WI. Matt is helping me with an article I putting together for IDA. When I talked to Matt this weekend he said he had Monday off so we decided to take advantage of the first decent day in several weeks and fish Red Wing. The Photo is of Matt with his first fish of the day and the best of the trip. It was a 21” walleye that came out of 15 feet of water.

I would like to tell you the fishing was red hot but that wasn’t the case. However, we were able to put together a pattern that with patients produced some decent fish. We started out casting ringworms and shad bodies around wingdams, riprap and shallower flats without sucess. In the past, when this happens I’ve had my best results dragging the lure in contact with the bottom. I’ve adapted a technique the smallmouth guys on Lake Erie call fishing the swing. I suspect there is a walleye term for the technique but I don’t know what it is called. It’s casting the lure at a 45 to 90 degrees away from the boat, letting the lure touch down and using the trolling motor to drag the lure in a arch till it’s behind the boat. I don’t know if it’s the arc or not having the lure in the path of the boat that makes the difference, but it works! On Monday we used the technique successfully against the rip rap and on the rim of the plunge pool at the dam. The photo is of a walleye that came by fishing the swing along the rip rap.

There were a several other details that made a difference. The movement had to be SLOW! We are talking pulling 1/8 oz jig heads upstream in 15-20’ of water slow. We switched to 3/16 oz heads for the 25-30 feet of water on the edge of the plunge pool. Granted, the current is way down but if you moved at any pace you lost contact with the bottom. Clear and translucent bait worked best. Ringworms in oyster shell and firecracker and clear with silver flake shad bodies and grubs produced most of the fish. The last detail is when you hit an area where you lure hung up you wanted to be on your toes. You could count on getting hit in the area. Even though we were on alert we missed a ton of bites because the fish were so tentative. The picture is of Matt with one of the better sauger we caught late in the day.

What was interesting was we didn’t catch a sauger about 3:45 in the afternoon. We opted to stay out of the deep water of the plunge pool. However, we watched lots of sauger being caught in the pool in the middle of the day. I suspect the fish we caught move up out of the plunge pool and spread out to feed as the sun’s angle declines.

The bite has been tough for the last few weeks but it looks like things are turning the corner. We did well in the morning and evening. The middle of the day was slow but we stuck with what was working and caught fish. There was little traffic, the sun was warm and the winds were light. The ramps at Everts are in great condition so launching wasn’t a problem. All-in-all it was an OK day. I did start the 2005 bass-a-month club. The smallie in the photo came against the rip rap on a oyster shell ringworm. My goal is too fill all 12 months of the 2005 calendar.

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0 Comments

  1. John,

    I think I saw you pulling away that night. You have a black Chevy and your smaller boat right. Glad to see you got your bass for January. If you are ever up again and looking for someone to fish with let me know.

    Brad

  2. Good report .With the weather we have had the last couple of days I have had the urge to get out there but have not been able to find the time.

    Thanks for the update John.

  4. Nice Report John!

    I have been going through some major withdrawls also. I almost have the honey doo lists complete and the brownie points built up.

  7. Another update. I talked to two parties today and both reported the same…..two man limits in an hour for both boats! Vertical jigging near the dam. Things are starting to look up!

  8. perfect timing steve, me my son and a friend will be down there about 9 or so. Can’t wait to get up the river. SSE winds may give us some trouble but we will tough it out for 3-4 hours.

    see ya in the morning.
    Dan

  9. Steve- sorry I didn’t stop in to give you a report. My friend had to be back in the cities, we were late. We missed countless bites. The bite was very quick and mostly grabbing the tail. The fish we hooked were on the lift from the bottom or when hanging the jig still. The kid said ” I am up one crank from the bottom dad, what’s your problem”. My son caught 4 nice saugers all about 18″ 3 other 15″ers was all that made it to the boat. There was a guy from Iowa who tossed some plastics into the boat for us up by the dam. Very nice of him. He also offered to clean our fish when we stopped back at everts. Too cold to let him do that, I am going to clean the fish soon. The fish being caught were up at the dam. from 50 fow out the back end of the plunge pool and/or off to the sides up to 30 fow. ALL 4 GATES WERE OPEN. I didn’t get a chance to ask Steve if that was recent or not. A lot of current up front. That may have caused the fish to be stingy. I only managed one 15lbish paddle fish. My son had never seen one before so that was cool. I will be down tomorrow with my nephew and his cousin. We were using minnows. Others were having luck with the plastic. I am going to give that a try tomorrow. Be there at 7 or so Steve
    Thanks for the help.
    Dan

  13. Hi John, I have never fished Red Wing before but I am thinking of going Friday afternoon. I have a Crestliner 1850 and ready to get out on the water, do you have any suggestions. Thanks Steve

  14. Hey Steve have fun! Also Welcome to IDA!!! You aren’t from Durand by chance are ya? If you are bet you know who I am then.

  15. Steve,

    Welcome! Most of the action has been at the dam. If you haven’t been there before you need to know about the wingdams. An island splits the dam at Red Wing with the locks on the MN side and the Rollers on the WI side. There are three wingdams along the left side (MN) of the island heading toward the rollers. Stay away from that side till you know exactly where they are. The current is down right now so they don’t make much of a ripple. The sauger have been in the 30″ range along the edge of the deep water of the plunge pool. It won’t be hard to figure out where the fish are, just go with the rest of the boats. I would start out vertical jigging with ringworms on 1/4-3/8 oz head. If your not comfortable with plastics a jig and minnow will catch them. The best advice I can add is launch at Everts, get directions, the word on the latest bite and their recommendation for lures. There a lot of helpfull guys up there so if you’re struggling ask for advice.

    John

  16. John hit the nail on the head! That is a great starting spot. Don’t be afraid to venture out and fish away from the dam 1/2 mile or so too. As for the wingdams mentioned, if you stop in here i’ll show the exact location. They can be VERY intimidating if you don’t know where they are…you “think” you do, but if you’re wrong, that can really ruin your day. The bottom “downstream” one is mostly out of the water right now. The other two are upstream from that one just to give you a little idea. I guarantee you won’t make it over the next one upstream from the exposed one!

  17. Hi Krisko, it is great hearing from you, maybe we can get together sometime and wet a line. I appreciate hearing from all you guys because this is new waters for me. I am really excited about getting on the water and catching a few fish is just a bonus. Thanks for now and maybe we will see each other on the water.

  18. So if your heading up there this weekend Everts would be a place to stay and get some help if you have never been there before?

  19. Yep, Everts is the best area you can find around here!!! Lots of information and great servise from Dean!! He’ll put you in the right direction.

  20. All these guys catching fish has got me GOING, I visited Everts Resort for some info on how the fishing has been ,Dean as usual was very helpful and then I was really ready to try some winter fishing on the river. While there I picked a Video Disc on river fishing named “Mastering Plastics For River Walleyes” made by James Holst and Dustin Stewart. This Video was very informative and “honest”so much so that I had to go out and try this application rather than the old, but good “vertical jigging method. Dean set me up with a trip to fish with Dustin on Feb 1.The weather could have been a lot better on Wed. but we got started at about7:00AM Dustin showed me how to use the plastics in the river and they were very effective.The weather was not good and currents were strong for this time of year but we did catch a limit of very nice Walleye, and a couple White Bass???I would recommend talking with Dean, Dustin, James and /orjust viewing this Video. It really opens up an different approach to River Walleye fishing. I cant want to go out and try it again.
    Old Hastings Guy

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