Since my last report, the water levels have doubled in stage and flow. The fish have reacted accordingly dropping in to those shoreline current break areas. On Wednesday of this week I saw a dramatic change in water clarity in all of the areas I have been targeting for the last 2 weeks. Instead of being a bit stained, the water went to a “thick muddy soup” in most areas. This did not worked in my favor on this particular outing with the overcast skies we were faced with 
My partner for the day was Jeremy Frigo. We spent the day casting plastics to various areas that have been producing quality eye’s for my boat with limited results. Those that ventured out this past Wednesday know the weather was not the best 
. We spent some of our time hiding out in the Everts Resort bait shop trying to dodge the lightning bolts. Once it cleared off a bit we headed back out for another 4 hours before the severe weather sirens started to sound off around 2:30, that’s when we called it a day. Best fish of the outing was a 4.7lb sauger that is pictured in the post below. This mama sauger was taken in 6’ of water casting a chartreuse green core ring worm. It was good fishing with you again Jeremy. I look forward to the next trip! Hopefully I’ll be able to put you on one of those big mama eye’s the next time around 
!!
I had the opportunity to hit the water again on Friday as well sharing my boat with Chad Nissen, and his neighbor Patrick (fish them all) Ross with a big turn around from the previous trip on Wednesday 
. On Friday, we had the sun I was hoping for 
. Sun has been the key lately for the better than average size fish with the poor water clarity that we are seeing in most areas right now. The wind was a real bear to deal with about an hour in to the trip. Even though the wind was a big problem fishing some of the areas I had wanted, we were able to upsize our jigs to the 3/16oz size precision heads vs. the 1/8oz size that had been working well for me and still get bit in most areas we targeted.
The fishing was not fast and furious for the three of us but once we had a put a couple of fish in the boat we had ourselves a nice little milk run of spots to hit throughout the day. Our fish on this day were all quality bites. By days end we only boated 5 fish under the 20” mark. Chad is pictured above with the best fish of the day topping the scales at 9.8lbs, just short of the 10lb mark. Unfortunately this fish was foul hooked 
but gave us a good idea of what the area we were concentrating on had to offer once they put the feed bag on 
.
Cartreuse green core ringworms, coupled with plain lead head precision jigs in the 3/16oz size, took top honors for the day boating the most fish with purple/chartreuse tail a close second. Chartreuse pepper did it’s damage on one of the two 7lb fish we put in the boat. 
Patrick must have missed this one 
. Patrick had the hot hand on this day boating a fair number of our catch, he was able to boat himself a 7lber as well. Nice fish Patrick!! 
Patrick is pictured her again with one of the 21” fish that we took a quick snap shot of. Other than the two 7lb fish, the rest of our catch was made up of quality 3.5lb to 4lb walleyes 
. A majority of our fish came in 6’of water or less on this day and they were aggressive. We had 3 nice walleye’s, including the 7lb eye I am pictured here with, darn near clear the water once the hook was set. This behavior confused all of us once the hook was set and we could see it was a walleye upon surfacing after the strike, but I have actually seen this on several occasions when the eye’s are feeding in that very shallow water.
The water levels are projected to rise another 3-4 ‘ in the next 5 days. What was here today…….. will be gone tomorrow! Best advice I can give an angler right now to stay on fish with the higher water is to focus on the closest quality current break you can find in the same vicinity that you caught fish the day prior. Those eye’s won’t totally abandon an area. They will only make minor needed adjustments in the area they are held up in daily until the river fill’s it banks to forcing a majority of these pre-spawn eye’s in to the tributaries and side channels.
That’s all for now.
See ya on the river! 
Here is the big mama sauger that we put in the boat Wednesday of this week. I have not boated a lot of these big saugers on the shallow sand areas like I have in years past. Maybe there just not here yet
Thanks for the informational day Dustin. Boat control with all that wind was very key. Couldn’t have caught those fish without your hard work keeping us on the fish. Once again you were able to find fish when others weren’t. You are a great guide and guy, thanks again!
Nice fish Dustin. The size has increased considerably since Bruce and I were there on Mar. 17th when we fished with James. A big thank you for letting him use your Rig on that day. I myself had a tough day, but overall we did well.
hi Dustin,
And NO smile???? 
must of been a bummer thinking you had a BIG Walleye to only have a bonafide 23″ Trophy Saug.. 
. I can’t feel your pain, I haven’t had a good Sauger for 2 years 
. I need a good one.
Great report, and a pic of you with a BIG Sauger, WOW what a PIG.
been looking for some sow saug pics, hope to see more. Keep em coming.
Is there any jigging left to be had with all the dirty water now here??
Thanks Jack…
Great report, as always, Dustin. Thanks for the information and pictures.
I fished Pool 4 all day yesterday with my boss and his cousin and we got skunked. I couldn’t believe it. 3, in my opinion, above average walleye fishermen getting blanked doesn’t happen very often. We casted the shallows with plastics and livebait all day.
What kind of locations on the river were you fishing? What other types of advice can you give? I’m all ears after yesterday’s performance. Quite humbling to say the least.
Thanks for the kind words Pat. It was fun fishing with you guys and I am looking forward to doing it again in the future. If you see me on the river swing on over and say
Jack,
I have not seen the jiggers put on a big show here as of late. We have yet to see a good push of those big saugers, at least in the areas I have been fishing.
Team Otter,
Sorry to hear of the poor fishing on Saturday for you guys. I was not out on this day so don’t know what was going on. Saturday was a whole different day than Friday. By looking at the tourney weights it was slow day all round for a lot of guys. I wish you better luck on your next trip
One thing that I have going for me when the water is as high as it is now is I know what’s down there when the water comes up. Most of the areas we caught fish the other day are on dry land during normal water levels. One of the areas we caught fish was a sunken rip rap section that is normally high and dry. On this day the current was just right for this particular area to be fished. Most anglers do not even know it exists and would not know by just fishing it at random. What is a very snaggy area to be in if you don’t know what’s down there, is a fish haven for my self.
When casting the shorlines in lower water, pay close attention to what is on the bank and remember it for higher water.
Anymore questions? Just ask away
He didn’t want his chew to fall out!
Great fish Dustin!
Tuck
Just wanted to thank you again for the great trip. As always it was a pleasure to share your boat for a day. I look forward to fishing with you again. We managed to scrounge a couple of nice fish to hit today, under rather difficult conditions, thanks in part to a better understanding of the river. They weren’t in the same areas we fished on Friday, but we have a better feel for where to look now and added confidence in our presentation.
Hope to see you on the river.
Chad
P.S. Your favorite “Biblical” landmark should be underwater and fishable by the middle of next week, possibly as early as tomorrow. It was nearly underwater today.
I got to thinking about that spot yesterday
. Like I said, if I get a good one there I will metion the “red bush” in my report 
Good fishing with you again as well
. Glad to hear you got in to some fish on what I heard was a really tough day out there 
.
Good advice on remembering landmarks/rip-rap, etc. when water is low. I found myself yesterday trying to recall what certain areas looked like. For us rookies on the river, each time we commit a bit more to memory, but tricky right now after only a half-dozen times out.
Here’s some more pics from the weekend. Things have REALLY changed since last Friday – Saturday with an extreme rise in water levels dumping in a lot of debris and obstacles in the water. The big fish bite was excellent friday and started out strong on saturday. My trip for Sunday was rescheduled when my client got word that his father was very ill so I did not fish that day but heard the bite was very slow and that was backed up by the tourament results from the MTT and the WWA.
I did fish Monday and the water levels had reached a level where the fish could get back into the trees and out of the current… one of the most difficult times to be chasing walleyes in my book. The sauger bite up near the dam has actually improved with larger sauger now starting to show up in numbers. Chartreuse pepper, chart. green core ringworms and similarly colors hair jigs took our fish in the AM on Monday. After the boats got thick a switch to a jig/minnow took some additional fish. Depths raged from 9′ – 13′ but basically the fish were holding on sand out of the current. Look for the current breaks / large eddies and you will find a bunch of saugers and some male walleyes to play with.
Here’s some of our fish from Friday when I fished with Bill Mueller and his friend Al.
Al with a 7.7 Lb ‘eye.
I catch one once in awhile.
I definitely think they’re starting to show up near the dam now… or maybe they’ve always been there and we just weren’t catching them. Monday we had some saugers in the 19″ – pushing 20″ range.
Nice Fish!! I wanted to get down there this weekend, but as normal, life got in the way. Keep the pics coming, keeps me sane!!