The pool 4 bite is shaping up nicely as we begin to come into the “primetime” spring fishing. Both walleye and sauger are starting to show up in increased numbers. The boat traffic depends largely on the weather. There has been some very busy days and only 10 boats the next. As soon as the weather warms up a bit, it’s going to get busy! Walleye like the one here are showing up more and more. This one was taken on a ringworm pitching the shallows in the AM. It went about 7 lbs.
Where are the fish at? All over. I don’t mean you’re going to catch a ton of fish everywhere, but the fish are scattered all up and down the river…..on sand and rock. We have the typical early spring conditions right now. The water is low and pretty darn clear, which means the fish can hang out where ever they want. The current is not forcing them to current breaks or inside bends or to shorelines as much as it will be when the water flow picks up. The drawback to this is that you have to be mobile and willing to try various spots to pick up fish. The nice thing is that 100 boats are not fighting for two spots! Don’t be afraid to fish away from the crowd at all! You’ll probably have just as good of luck if not better. The vast majority of the walleyes being caught are in the 16-20 inch range like this bunch. There also seems to be a strong showing of the 21-24 inch fish as well, which I believe are the fish remaining from the very strong year class of 2001 due to the flood year we had.
Walleye and sauger are being caught on a variety of presentations. One that seems to be putting a lot of quality walleye in the boat is still dragging ringworms on sand bars. 3/32 oz. to 1/8 oz jigs are your best bet, but that will upsize as the current picks up with rising water levels. If I’ve been asked what the best color ringworm is once, I’ve been asked a million and one times! And I hear a different color from different people everyday! So I wouldn’t get hung up on one color. I would try the natural colors like “pro blue”, “oystershell”, “firecracker” and I would try some of the purples out there and I would also try some of the bright colors, like “chartreuse pepper”, “Chartreuse green core”, and “chartreuse orange core”. Presentation is far more important than color on most days!
If dragging plastics is not an option due to boat traffic or you don’t have a boat that allows proper boat control, casting is another good option. Plastics, hairjigs and plain old jig and minnow are all great options. Jigs and minnows being casted have done fantastic as of late! Don’t be surprised to find a few of these things hanging around. There has been a ton of northerns being caught lately. Here is a little guy Dean Marshall AKA “Fishmar” caught on a chart pepper ringworm casting rip-rip. He had one in the upper 30 inch range that day and he had one in the low 30 in. range Saturday as well. I’ve heard of 25-30 of em being caught in the last two weeks.
The river is in great shape as far as clarity and debris. There an occasional ice chunk floating downriver to be on the lookout for, but overall, it is not a concern. The flow is still low, but will change as soon as the weather allows some runoff. The river is open all the way down into the lake a ways. Fish are being caught all up and down the river from the dam to the head of the lake, so don’t be afraid to try new water if you’re frustrated with the crowds that are sure to show up very soon! I’ll leave you with another little surprise fish you may find hanging out on the rocks. These smallies are always fun to catch. Good luck to all.
I was going to a report myself but since Steve has this started I’ll jump in here and add some thoughts of my own and hope he doesn’t mind too much.
Fishing has been better than the weather! I fished Friday and Saturday with Dustin Stewart in advance of the IDA Walleye Tournament held on Saturday and the conditions were AWFUL… to say the least.
Friday we had high winds, blowing snow and cold temps. If you’ve never had snow accumulate IN YOUR EARS you just haven’t lived…. lol
Since we had the nasty conditions on Friday Dustin and I decided to look at alternative tactics instead of trying to cast jigs in that 30 mph wind. One technique we had talked about trying was “pole lining” which is basically handlining without using the handlining reel…. the weights are fished off of short and stiff fishing rods and this presentation worked great in the tough conditions we were faced with.
We used 1.25 Lb weights and two leaders per rod with rattlin’ rougues in clown and perch patterns to catch our fish. Best depths were 19′ – 22′ with a trolling speed of 1.2 mph resulting in the most hookups.
Our average fish was a bit small but we did manage one 5.0 Lb male (23.5″ long) and 5 or 6 other legal eyes in a couple hours of fishing. We caught numbers of smaller saugers but only one legal sand pike. We went looking but on Friday they kept hid from us pretty good. For those of you that like to pull plugs on 3-ways, this bite is already happening and will only get better.
Saturday was cold. So cold we saw polar bears wearing ear muffs….
But the wind had died down so the pole lining was put aside as a possible technique and we went pitching and dragging ringies on sand north of the resort. And it was a good move…. there is a large concentration of females in the area and we quickly had nearly 19 Lbs on 5 fish in the boat. All of these fish were in the 21 – 22 inch range and fat as footballs! Rarely do we fish on a group of quality females eyes like this and NOT catch a 6 – 7 lb piggie so we resigned ourselves to wait it out. And we waited…. and waited. And kept catching 3 – 3.5 Lb fish. It’s hard to believe but we actually got frustrated at catching the same sized fish over and over even though they would be considered quality fish just about any day on the water. By days end we had boated a ton of nice fish with best depths being in the 11′ – 15′ range. Pro Blue, Oystershell & chartreuse pepper ringies were the bomb for us fished on light precision heads. Black and pearl white took the most fish so I’d assume that the head color was really not an issue on this day but look for that to change as water clarity drops off.
The Vermillion River south of the locks is kicking out dirty water but the colder weather really slowed down the run-off so the affects of this influx has been fairly limited. Right now water clarity just isn’t an issue unless you’re fishing right in front of one of the tributaries on a warm afternoon.
With the forecast calling for steady and warm weather for the rest of the week look to see the bigger fish really start to turn on. I have to tip my hat to Team Nesbitt & Mathies for finding a way to AGAIN take the top spot in the tournament on Saturday! Check out the Tournament Headquarter forum for more details, weights and photos.
I start guiding this wednesday so look for more reports soon.
Good timing on the reports, James and Steve…heading up there on Saturday for three nites
…hoping the deep freeze is over. So James, did you get that new tub yet??
Still waiting. Soon, very soon. I have a loaner from the dealership so it’s not a big deal but I am quite excited to get the whole boat thing behind me and just start fishing.
Thanks for the great reports, Steve and James. I am so itching to climb in a boat!
Swede
Thanks for the report. I hope to get out there this week-end. Is the bite better at a certian time of the day?
9 AM – noon was hot for us or any time the sun popped through the clouds. Sunny days have been very productive this spring.
Thanks for the updates guys!
Hey is the back channel navigable yet? I would think it would be by now albeit with low water. Course with this chilly weather….? Hopefully see ya Friday.
Chris
Yup. Not a problem getting down the WI channel if you know how to run it.
James, are you using a shank when pole-lining?
Yes we were.
nice article. we’re heading downn thurs evening from long prairie, mn. supposed to be a rain/snow mix (figures). will rain damper “the bite” as you state the sun of late has been turning them on? thanx
I’ll get them warmed up for you! If you see an Alumacraft with an ETEC on it, say “Hi”! Rain shouldn’t hurt. Snow either! Wind sucks!
Tuck
You might want to take a good look at the weather for thursday night. We’re forecast to get hit with a major snow storm which would make trailering a little dicey.
Just a heads up.
Gotta work all week, and when it is time to fish the big dump comes!
I agree with ya that the wind sucks!! I was out this morning and it was cold and tough to control the boat.The fishing was good for me from 6-8 am then it died off a bit as I headed out in search of new water.I did manage a 6 and two 4’s in the early am so all was not bad.I caught a few nice saugers up by the dam but around 7 or so the boats started coming and I decided to look for new water,with nice weather on the way someday I figured it would pay to find some other spots.I was picthing oyster ringworms in about 8 ft of water when the big ones hit.Might have been a fluke,we will see on Friday if the weather cooperates.
IT figures …… Red Wing Weather
Crippling snow accumulations of 12 to 18 inches are
likely in a narrow corridor from St. James… to Waseca…
Owatonna… Faribault Albert Lea and Red Wing. It is not out of the
question that an isolated 20 inch amount will be seen in the
Interstate 35 corridor of south central Minnesota by the time the
snow ends late tonight. Increasing northeast winds of 15 to 25 mph
will cause significant blowing and drifting… and near impossible
travel conditions.
I’ll be nice and JUST say that this STINKS.
Very nice reports, Steve and James. Club is coming down this weekend, am sure some boats signed up for sat. will try and change to sun. Bill is right about the snow. right now southern MN on hwy 90, is having a hard time keeping open, and some areas of snow could reach 16 inches. good luck down there with that. see you on the river. Jack..
From my window in Hastings right now….
The weather sure made things interesting for sure. There were some crazy enough to venture out of Everts though. Steve kept the plow running and the ramps open
Various colors of ring worms, pitched or fished vertical produced some nice fish. As James stated you can boat some eaters and a good number of those 20 to 24’s.
Have fun out there Saturday and we will see you on the water.
way to go Don,
anyone going out on Fri can not be called girly men. looks like some nice fish. but the fishing would be tough with the snow and wind. good going. Jack..