Pool 4, 11/3 to 11/6

A bunch of buddies got together for the fall trek to Red Wing. There were 9 guys on this trip with 4 boats. The fishing was a bit slow but enough fish were caught to keep all of us ready to come back for more. Vertical jigging hair jigs tipped with fatheads was the most productive technique although pitching and vertical jigging plastics was also on the agenda. The first couple of days we directed our efforts at catching our limit of 16-20 inchers so we could go hunting for pigs. The majority of the fish we caught were saugers caught in 12-20 ft of water. The saugers were very fat and full of shad. This first picture is me with a couple of nice saugers.

Here’s a picture of our daily shore lunch. We would cook soup or hamburgers and the time to BS with the guys was a great time.

There were a number of “other” fish that we caught. Gary “Carp” Harper caught a really nice carp, and I had the pleasure of being led around by a 4 1/2 foot sturgeon for about 15 minutes. Did you know sturgeons jump like rainbows? I never would have believed it. We also had a newbie who caught five, yes five, eelpout on one day. Two of those were over 10 lbs with the biggest around 12. I couldn’t believe it. Here’s a nice walleye that Jim Nell nailed in Goose Lake area.

After spending a couple of days to fill out our limits, we decided to go in search of the “Big Girls” and although it took awhile we did find some dandies. Here is Mike with the big fish of the trip. Unfortunately, the picture did not do justice to this fish. She was 29.5 inches and I would guess close to 11 lbs. There were also four fish in the 8-9 lb range. I would like to thank all of those who attended this meeting on the river and remind all that the spring trip will be upon us soon.