From what I can tell the walleye spawn on pool 4 has come to a close for this year. As James stated in his last report, we were seeing fair numbers of big post spawn female walleyes during trips in the early part of last week. That all changed for my boat on Wednesday of last week. It seemed the walleye bite took a turn for the worst on this day with those big mama eyes going in to hiding on me. Friends and other anglers staying at Everts Resort had nothing positive to say about the bite the later part of last week and on in to the weekend. I’m sure they are out there, and when found, they will bite! On the upper end of the pool we are experiencing that post spawn lull that I dread every April. The Bigger walleye are always on the move and fishing becomes very sporadic from one day to the next.
This past Sunday I was able to find a small school of post spawn eye’s. The quality of fish that I saw on Sundays outing was good but the numbers were just not there making for a long day on the water. As was the case in the early part of last week, firecracker and purple/chartreuse tail ring worms coupled with a black 3/16oz precision head did the trick for me this past weekend.
Early last week I shared my boat with Mike McCauley and his friend Joe. This day we chose to play the big fish game and look for quality over quantity…………my kind of trip! The action never turned fast and furious for the three of us but I knew we were on a spot that held quality fish so we played the waiting game on this day with some big fish making it to the boat by trips end. A Purple/chartreuse tail ringworm took Mike’s fish. Joe landed a big mama eye on a pearl blue s/p k-grub and mine came on a firecracker ring worm. Nice fish guys! It was good fishing with you two and I look forward to doing it again in the future.
Like I mentioned above, last Wednesday proved to be one of the toughest bites my boat has seen in quite sometime. I spent the day with Brian Smith and his friend Todd. We made a pack to stick to the big fish game for the day and things just didn’t pan out for us by trips end. Biggest walleye brought boat side was in the 7-8lb class that Brian hooked in to. Unfortunately this fish never made it in to the net……yes’ it was the one that got away! At least we had the pleasure of getting a glance at her.
A multitude of presentations will put fish in the upcoming weeks. Pitching jigs shallow with the high water is always a good bet along with long lining cranks and 3-way rigging with bait. The male walleye should start showing up in good numbers in the next week, these are win win presentations to put them in the boat. Then there’s handling. For those that are accomplished at this presentation know, it is a deadly post spawn fish catcher. The next 2 weeks are when the hand-liners prevail in most instances for numbers of fish along with quality of fish.
The white bass are starting to show up in good numbers in the eddies and current breaks of the dam area. For those of you that would like to give the eye’s a rest the white bass should cooperate for you. The average size has been good with most of the catch being those fat pre spawn females.
The river still has plenty of debris to watch out for, especially after the rains we had over the weekend. According to the River Watch Web Site the river is projected to stay right around 8.0 for stage. Don’t look for the river to be dropping anytime soon.
Pictures may be clicked on for larger view
See ya on the river! 
Another nice post spawn walleye
Youre looking a little red around the Oakleys Dude!
Wish I was there good bite or not…
Thanks for keeping us informed and love the pictures Dusty!
Great report Dustin. Sun screen works wonders
Ouch that sunburn has gotta sting a little.
Gotta admit though that its a great way to get a sunburn though. Wish I had that problem. lol. My fishing day last time was in the rain all day but sure felt great to be on the water.
Weekends are too far apart. But there is smaller size open water close by me so I do luck out that way. Thanks for the report Bud. 
Thanks, Bill
Dustin,
Thanks for the report, tough bite or not, it’s still gotta be great to be out on the water. Gotta love the reports, it gives me something to dream about.
dave
Hey guys, ths sunburn must look worse in the pictures than it feels cause I have not even started to peel yet
. Must just be the lighting in the pics 
Dustin, what depth would you be targeting for long-lining cranks this time of year? And how much do you mark fish this time of year with all the debris, or are you fishing areas from experience more than marking fish?
Thanks,
Terry
I don’t usually pay much attention to what kind of marks I am getting on my graph when trolling on the river. In most instances I’m in water less than 6′ deep so the fish get spooked out from under the boat.
I rely heavily on past productivity of an area. The fish do move around with the water levels but are usually in the general area. Exact area depends on where the current is making it most comfortable for them to hang out and feed.
CD5 wally divers and shad raps should be on fire in the next couple of weeks to boat a good number of post spawn eye’s
Nice Piggies Dustin!
caught a couple eyes on Sunday (4/17) trolling raps won’t be long
Dustin- u need to use sunscreen
OUCH!
That’s good to hear
. Were the fish you caught trolling males, or spawned out females? Also wondering what size of fish took the cranks?
Your right, it shouldn’t be long and the long lining crank bite will be very good.
I started sunday morning pitching plastics for a few hours
never mastered this approach to fishing. Later in the morning I ran into a guy i know aka Lonewolf he told me he was getting some action on cranks, so I went off to troll some favorite cuts that have worked in the past. some small males eyes were the result 
the largest measured 20 inches. 
until the fog lifted with only one small eye that fell off as I was bringing it in the boat
I then had to head in cuz I had water pump problems
Thanks for the info! Nothing worng with 20″ eye’s to pass the time
.
Did you see a predominant color on your cranks?
Going out tomorrow to try my luck again, i fished on 4-5, 4-12 near the dam , the wingdams,shallows with not too much luck. I managed a few fish between 18-24″ pitching ringworms,and even fuzzygrubs with half a ringworm in the 1/16 and 1/8 blue sparkle heads (homemade)and a variety of colors with the worms.
I’m gonna fish tomorrow morning early,launch at everts head south. Are the fish still in the timber/shallows? I’m always open to suggestion, i spoke to you last year early in april and you showed me a few rigs you had in your boat,i have tried lindy munchies this year but couldn’t find a colorthey liked..
I’m still learning the secrets of the miss. any help from the masters would be greatly appreciated!!!
It was Tom Gursky who showed me some of his rigs that he was using at the time, so many awesome guys that help the average angler with tips on what to use it’s easy to get confused with who told me ..
Dustin- the blue shad which is a favorite of mine
srs,
Yes, the big eyes are still shallow, at least the one’s I had today. I had 4 big fish today, with my best fish going just short of 10lbs on the digital scale at 9.8lbs
. This big post spawn mama was fooled in to eating a 5″ pearl blue S/P k-grub on a purple 1/4oz precision head.
I have been seeing my better fish come off of rock in the last week and a half but today I shifted gears and fished a few high water sand areas that I like. The pay off? Some dang nice eye’s. This fish was taken on a black 3/16oz precision head and a firecracker ringworm
.
This eye was taken on a firecracker ringworm as well today in about 2′ of water
Another shallow water walleye from today that was duped in to taking a shot at swallowing a firecracker ringworm
.
This was a large male walleye.
If you look closely you can see that he was very excited to have his picture taken 
.
That’s a biggest male walleye I ever saw.
Dustin,
I must say “You da Man”
Those are some super fine walleye.
dave
That is one of the biggest male walleye’s I have put in my boat Jeff.
Just think of the size of them females that male hangs with.
Just another quick update on the bite from today’s findings. The fishing for overall numbers is still slow
but some “big walleyes” can still be had 
.
Today I fished with Mike Westman and Dan Helwig. Mike started the day off in fine fashion boating our best fish of the day weighing in at 10.1lbs
Nice fish Mike! 
. This fish was caught on a firecracker ring worm and a black 3/16oz precision head.
Dan got himself a nice fish later in the morning that I will post below. Nice eye Dan! The below fish was caught on a chartreuse pepper ring worm.
The wind was brutal today making our jig casting next to impossible to do in an effective manner. The areas I wanted to spend large amounts of time in and wait for those big girls to bite pretty much had to take the back burner today
Once we had to put the pitching rods away the bigger fish played a disappearing act on us. The rest of the day was spent 3-way rigging leeches and crawlers once the wind put us in our place. We took some smaller fish and a nice 22″ fish on bait. We trolled cranks today as well with only a couple smallish sauger making it boat side.
All in all it was a tough bite but the company was good and we lucked in to a couple of good ones
.
Thanks for spending another day in my boat guys I enjoyed it
Here is Dan with his best eye of the day
Nice catch Dan!
Just wish we would have had a bunch more like this one boat side
Another shot of Mike’s 10lber
Way to tough out the big ones!!
Good show Dustin and friends
Nice work putting those guys on the big ones Dustin, even with the cold, rain, and wind! I’m starting to think you like those conditions better anyway. The 10lber looks like it has been eating and getting back in shape after the spawn. Still gettting them on the sand? Last friday when I was out the firecracker color caught most of my fish, too bad they weren’t all walleyes though. Good fishin!
Pat,
Can’t say as I like those conditions by any means. On days like this one my job consists more of boat control than actually fishing, as you well know from our trip this Spring.
The only advantage to those conditions is the other boats are far and few between giving my boat an ample opportunity to fish areas that other boats have not been on yet.
We treid rock yesterday but Dan caught his fish way off the rocks on sand in 13′ of water. The 2 best fish we had came off of deep sand in 13′ to 16′ of water. We are casting up shallow and drifting our plastics down in to the deeper water. Just so happens those fish were out deeper on this day.
That firecracker ringworm has been good to me the last couple of weeks
. Not sure how much longer it will last 
but as long a couple of those mama eye’s keep eating um………I’ll keep throwing them 
Thanks for the trip Dustin. Its good to fish with a guide that can even make a day of fishing a tough bite interisting. Catching that 10# eye helped make my day also. Thanks again Dustin.
Your welcome Mike, it was my pleasure
. A fish like that will turn any day in to an all right outing even when the numbers are on the low side.
Holy Cow!! Did Mike finally buy some rain gear??
Nice fish buddy!! 
Sure did. Thanks for noticeing. Lately it has seemed to be used more as wind gear than anything. Now I just need a new boat to go with it.