Mississippi River Pool 4 Report 3-09-06

By dustin_stewart 0

The last couple of trips on the big river have proved to be challenging as far as narrowing down an effective presentation that will consistently put good numbers of fish in the boat throughout the whole day of fishing. The walleye and sauger have kept me on my toes forcing me to be versatile by switching up presentations to stay on active fish during my last couple of guide trips.

A mix of dragging, vertical jigging and casting very shallow sand have all been effective at putting fish in my boat. Only downfall is none of these presentations have been loading the boat up with great numbers of fish. Mixing all 3 presentations in to one day has been a good bet to turn a slower day in to a respectable day of walleye and sauger fishing on pool 4 if you have some confidence areas to concentrate on.

My days have been spent like this. Drag/jig troll up and down river in the morning hours. Once the dragging bite slows/becomes non-existent, vertical jig just to get some action then head off to cast some pre-spawn sand flats and hope to run in to some of those staging female walleyes. The vertical jigging bite was best for me on Wednesdays trip for numbers of sauger with 50% of the catch in the 12“-14“class. We also saw some nice sauger in the 15” to 18” class. Best vertical jig bait for my boat was a chartreuse pepper super-doo and firecracker ringworm. For you bait guys…….…I did see some boats doing well on just a plain ol’ jig and minnow. This was one of those days being in the right spot was more important than what bait to be using. Every boat I saw go thru the sweet spot we were targeting in 24’ to 28’ of water was seeing some action with most every boat using a different style of bait.

Once we had our fill of just getting bit, we took the rest of our day in search of some shallow walleyes. The walleye in the 19” to 22” class have been very shallow on my last couple of outings. Targeting less than 8’ of water has seen the best results. On Wednesday Tom Peterson shared my boat, Tom can be seen pictured here with a couple of the walleye we put in the boat casting shallow sand in the afternoon hours of our trip. Best bait for us on this day was casting 1/8oz or 3/16oz kelly green hair jigs tipped with a minnow. Once Tom and I figured out the most productive bait for this particular day, we proceeded to boat a nice catch of walleye casting to those shallower depths by trips end. See ya’ in May Tom!

The early morning ringworm dragging bite was really off for me on Wednesday. I attribute the slower dragging bite to the corps playing with the rollers in the early am hours. They really had the water coming thru the dam once they were done playing with the rollers. This time of year look for the sun to help the dragging bite tremendously. The fish we did put in the boat were fooled in to an oyster shell ringworm with pro-blue a close second.

Cross your fingers and hope for high “clean water” in the next 3 weeks so we can have a better than average spawn! DeZurik………you got that levy to reroute the dirty water dumping out of the MN river done yet ?

See ya on the river!

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dustin_stewart

When not at work I'm busy playing fishing guide on pools 3 and 4 of the Mississippi River.I will fish Lake Pepin but the bite has to be really good on the lake to get me off of moving water.

0 Comments

  1. Thanks for the report Dustin. It looks like you’ve been able to find a couple of those bigger mamas….I’m still looking for my first biggun of the spring. I’ll be back out chasing her down this weekend….see you on the water!

  2. With the recent snow and rain it should help with the higher water,and also for the water temps to go up.Sun and in the 50s tomorrow.I think it will be a good spring .Thanks for the great report Dustin .

  5. Great report and thanks for info. You mentioned playing with the gates. I fish mainly below Winona Dam(close to home). Opened different gates in the last week down here and it really changed the location of the fish. Not only up by the dam but downstream on the wing dams. I had to go downstream a couple more wing dams to get fish. I realize its the current,but the question I have is it the change in current or the time of year. Also I would like to ask if you pay any attention to water temps. this time of year. Thanks.

  6. Wow, fish like that and it was a tough day. Us down here in the lower states should have it so rough.
    Awesome report as always Dustin! I guess I’ll have to get up there some time other than summer and get in on some of those piggies!
    I’m glad to see so many reports from today. It was a dismall day down here, and seeing all those beautiful fish has really brightened my evening!

  8. Just stop now Dustin . Because, I know what is coming from you in the next 3-4 weeks. I don’t want to even see them…… Ok I lied I do wanna see the pics of those Fat Mamas getting bigger and bigger each week . Nice report and fish

  9. Art,

    It can pay off to pay close attetion to water temps as we get closer to spawn, all though, it does not alter my presentation or game plan most of the time. I am primarly looking for “shallow agressive” fish until they start to drop their eggs.

    I will notice on the first couple of real warm sunny days we will have a good afternoon bite in the shallower areas. Not sure why, other than the water is warmer making fish more active but sun really helps in the Spring time.

  11. BFD- I believe he just switched his handle name of “Big B”
    to his real name of Brian Lyons-
    My old handle was “lizardwizard” now it is “Luke Haugland”
    That help..?

  12. Quote:

    Who is Brian Lyons? What the heck happened to Big B? Are they any relation to each other? I’m so confused

    I believe the Mick formerly known as Big B has gone into hiding, sort of like Salman Rushdie or Jimmy Hoffa, possibly due to copious gambling debts, or falling out of favor with several Middle Eastern terror cells. I’m not sure if this Brian Lyons character is in any way related, but I’m pretty sure the CIA has bugged my phone, and all of yours to find out, so watch what you say, big brother’s listening!

  15. It took me a few days to put 1+1 together and equal 2 I am not the brightest bulb out there you know With all the name changes out there, I may have to change mine sometime too

  16. Dustin, did you say vertical jigging? I thought your arm wouldn’t let you do that. Hopefully the water rises soon and big girls start coming in. Looking forward to all the big fish reports.

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