Pool 4 Mississippi River Walleye Report

Mother nature is sure playing tricks with us this year. One week it is nice and warm and the next weekend your lucky to get to fish one day. I managed to get on the river for a few hours with a couple friends on Saturday. I was going to try and go sunday but didn’t feel like battling with the snow. It was brisk enough on Saturday when the wind picked up.

Our morning started out pretty much the same. First we pitch, then we drag and lastly go vertical. The pitching bite was really good for the first two hours of the day. As soon as the sun was high above the trees the action slowed down. Couple things I noticed that changed since the last time I was out. The water was dirtier and the flow really decreased. In areas that I was using 1/8 oz. jigs last week, we used 1/16 oz. this week. Water clarity is down only 2′ now compared to almost 4 feet the week before. Compared to last year we are about 2 weeks behind schedule for water temps and flows. Give us a couple good days of 50 degree weather and we will see a major turn around.

Once the pitching bite died we went up shallow in 6′ or less on the sand and found some descent fish in the 16-20″ range. Best bait this week was the Fire n’ Ice Ringworm that B-Fish-N tackle offers. Fire Cracker came in right behind Fire N’ Ice. 1/8 oz. and 1/16 oz homemade round head jigs still putting all my fish in the boat. One thing I do different is use a 1/0 on my 1/16 and 2/0 on my 1/8 oz. I feel I can get a better hook set with a bigger gapped hook.

The vertical bite is still in good shape up at the dam. The best vertical bite has been right in the middle of the day. All most any type of jig style is working. I have noticed that the saugers are really grouped with their own size. Little fish in one area and bigger fish in another.

It sounds like we will finally get some descent weather this weekend with temps running in the middle 30’s to lower 40’s. I just wish mother nature would quit teasing us.