Mississippi River Upper Pool 4 Report 9-29-05

The water on the upper part of pool 4 has risen steadily over the past few weeks. I like higher water for the techniques I like to employ this time of year but with the higher water the clarity has suffered dramatically in the past couple of weeks. In return, the walleye bite has still been a tough go for good numbers of decent fish.

In the middle part of Sept I shared my boat with Jim Grimm and his good friend Steve Peterson. The walleye bite was a tough go for the bigger fish but we did see a fair number of eaters and shorts put in the boat trolling cranks and dragging jigs tipped with crawlers. Jim and Steve were both able to take away from the day more than just a nice meal of walleye. Neither one of them had ever experienced the jig dragging technique that was used to put most of our fish in the boat. Most guys are astounded at how easy and effective this presentation can be when applied in the right situations. Thanks again guys! I’m looking forward to showing you a heated plastics bite during our November trip.

The walleye bite is in limbo right now on the upper end and will remain so until we see water temps in to the upper 50’s…………..happens every year once those water temps plummet in to the mid 60 degree range on the upper end of the pool. Right now your best bet to get on some numbers of fish with the water levels is to 3-way live bait or troll your head off with cranks looking for active fish. Trolling cranks is a great way to cover lots of water an stick a big ol’ walleye.

In the coming weeks the fish will be on the move steadily from one day to the next. With the higher water levels that pool 4 is projected to see over the next couple of weeks do not over look shallow water eddies and current breaks along the rivers edge. Walleye like nothing better than to stop, rest and feed in areas like this during there daily migration up river. Casting cranks, pitching jigs/plastics along with hair jigs can be a dynamite approach to putting fish in the boat once an areas like this is found.

On a side note, the shad populations are more abundant right now in the river/upper lake Pepin than I can ever honestly remember physically seeing. We will have lot’s of competition out there with the forage base in the months to come. The negative side……..the fish will be a lot tougher to catch. There is a positive side to this though. The lack of numbers should be made up for in the caliber of the fish put in the boat. I’ll take quality over quantity any day!

My last couple of outings have been spent down on Lake Pepin chasing crappies. The crappies have been suicidal the last couple of weeks. Seeing 30 to 60 craps a day is not unrealistic. On Tuesday of this week I shared my boat with Everts Resort manager Dean Marshall. We took to the lake after some of those crappies with absolutely no problem on this day putting over 50 crappies in the boat in 4 hours of fishing. We did not see a lot of those big slab’s but a large majority of the catch was in the 8”-9” range. What worked for us you ask? We took fish on green or white hair jigs or on 3/32oz precision heads from B-Fishin Tackle tipped with about ¼ of a ringworm. I don’t own any smaller twister tails so this was how I improvised. I’m pretty sure the crappies didn‘t mind. Some of our bigger crappies came on the new paddle tails that B-Fishin Tackle released last fall. It’s amazing how big of a bait these fish will in-hale. I see a fair amount of magnum crappies on the 5” grubs in the later part of Oct on in to late November while casting jigs for ol’ marble eye’s.

The crappies were real active on my last couple of outing right up on the banks in 2’ to 4’ of water. This will not narrow down a location for anyone who spends much time on Lake Pepin but any where I found rip rap in the middle to upper sections of the lake held good numbers of crappies for me. I have not ventured South Lake City but would be willing to bet they are plenty of biters there as well.

That’s all for now………….see ya on the river!