Pool 5/Pool 4 Walleye Report 3-17-05

After spending both weekend days on the water this last week I think my body has finally unthawed. One day was spent on pool 4 and the other spent on pool 5. Both pools are offering some nice fish right now. With this warm weather approaching, sometime soon, one better get that boat ready if you havn’t.

I knew I had my work cut out for me this week. It seems like every time I get a group from the Chicago Land Fishing Group up we get cold or windy weather. It must be an Illinois thing. They are the only group that I know that can catch dead fish by the lips. LOL! My first day was on pool 4 this last weekend. We started like every other morning pitching riprap and other structures with some good success. Soon as the sun got well above the trees the bite slowed for us. So back to my sand flats we headed. This year there hasn’t been much change in flow or water clarity so if you were catching fish I would continue to concentrate on the same areas. I see this pattern to stay the same for another week or so. Like pool 5, pool 4’s sand flats are kicking out some nice fish right now. My best presentation so far has been working ringworms in less than 8’ of water. Even during the middle of the day. Like I mentioned last week, the higher the sun in the sky the better the bite. Best color for us this day was purple with chartreuse tail followed by firecracker and oystershell.

Sunday I spent my time on pool 5. There we are still seeing a lot of numbers. If you want quantity I would head out to the main channel, just below the dam, and vertical jig along the buoys. Guys have been able to sort through there fish and produce their limits each day. FisherFlick jigs and killer jigs have all been producing the numbers. However, if you are concentrating on quality the sand flats between the wingdams are the spot you want to target. Look for steep main channel edges that lead up to the wingdams to be the best areas.

This week I have been checking out my new Marcum LCX-3 flasher. Man are these things awesome. No, I am not sponsored by Marcum, but love what these things can do. If you like ice fishing you will like one of these on the bow of your boat. I was vertical jigging out in the channel and actually watching my jig on the flasher. These are so accurate and fast to detect fish it is unbelievable, well they are instant. These flashers are not like a graph were there are a few second in delay. It is so much fun watching the fish come up to your jig, look at it, then nail it. I can see why people get addicted to these flashers during ice fishing.

With the warmer temps coming this week and next start looking for some changes to happen. The three-way trolling should start picking up more and more with the warming days. I will be on pool 4 all this weekend so stop and say hi.