The much anticipated and long awaited opening of the lock and dam area of pool 14 has finally arrived. Good numbers of saugers and a few walleyes can be found in the tailwaters, but to find fish like this, one has to move down river in search of current breaks. The piggies are on the prowl, read on to learn what took these fish.
I shared my boat with my brother on 3-17-06, and spent a good portion of the day working the tailwaters to find a pattern and chat with some old friends. The bite was on again, off again, but with a little fine tuning, we where able to pick up good numbers of saugers and some 14-18" walleyes. On this day, every fish we boated held in 14-16′ on dropoffs. Chartruese/pepper and Junebug SuperDos took the majority of our fish, but color did not seem to be as important as being in the right depth zone and presenting the plastic with very little movement. Drop slowly to bottom, lift a few inches and hold was the action the fish wanted this day. Pitching light H2O jigs tipped with ringworms near the rip rap in 8-10′ was also effective.
On 3-19, I shared my boat with fellow IDA staffer Tony Apisa. It was great to be back on the water with my old friend! We spent a little time at the dam, but found the bite to be slow and the fish to be smallish, so we headed downriver looking for some pre-spawn mammas! We found fish like the one pictured with Tony in short order!
We had a late start, and did not find any shallow fish, but the egg ladden piggies where holding in eddies and current breaks in 18-25′. The key for us keeping on these fish was to change up colors often. Several nice fish where holding in the areas we fished, but we did not take two on any one color. Matching jig weight to depth and current was also critical, allowing the plastic to have a very natural appearance. We landed fish on 1/4 to 3/8 oz. H2O jigs, with ringworms, paddle tails, and SuperDos. Look for deep water eddies and current breaks for these fish, with the use of electronics a key to finding the particular area of the eddie before wetting a line. It is a great time to find either numbers or quaility fish on pool 14, just remember to be flexible!
Another nice sauger.
Tony with a Firecracker ringworm pig.
Nice report. Nice fish..
Great report John
Keep it up and keep us posted. I’ll be up on 11 again this weekend.
Great pics John, thanks for the report!!
Thanks for the great report. Welcome home Tony!
Good job guys! I can’t wait to get out there some time real soon!
Joe
Nice looking fish John!
Looks like you guys had a great weekend of fishing!
JWB
Very Well Done John,just ordered some of those Doo’s last night,of course out of the 3 colors I ordered not 1 of them matched the colors that you named
.Looks like you guys had a great time. Sure feels good to get on the water. 
Great report John….Nice fish Tony!
Great report John! It was nice chatting with you on the water last Thursday. It looks like you had them dialed in pretty well on Saturday. Nice fish and great pics. I went up to Bellevue on Sunday and fished with the “dam” crowd for awhile with very limited success. A few nice saugers on ringworms and superdoo’s was all I could muster in 2 plus hours of fishing. Some fish were being caught but the bite was not fast and furious for anyone it seemed. I have only fished pool 13 a couple of times so I decided to head down river to do some scouting. I ended up finding a nice pod of walleye on some sand flats in 15-20 f.o.w. Ended up doing the C&R on 8-10 walleye in the 16-19″ range, but no big mama’s. I am planning on fishing Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Hope to see you on the water.
Thanks guys, we did have a couple great days on the water.
Rick, we did well on many different colors on these outings, so don’t be discouraged. What colors did you order? I’ve caught walleyes on nearly every color of plastic that BFT has, so you will be o.k.
John,I believe the colors were sour apple,brite craw and Ithink pink pearl.I hope to get my new Humminbird finder mounted this weekend,so I can get out next weekend.
Great fish John.
Have you heard much about pool 12 and 13? It looks like eyehunter has done well. About the same story. Lite bite in 20 ft of water. 
Lots of summer left 
I really hope we can hook up to go fishing this year!
Keep the reports coming
Mr Twister
Matt Harris
Rick, those are all good colors,especially for the deeper water bite. Good luck if you get out, I’ll be at work wishing I was fishing!
Matt, I’ve heard several reports from pool 13, most where not very positive for the dam area, but I am sure the bite is probably very similar to 14. Putting a pattern together can take some patience and time now, but as the water begins to warm a little more, the bite should only get better!
I hope to fish pool 13 in the next couple weeks, maybe we can get together there and give it a whirl!
John I will be fishing 13 this weekend and I do plan on staying down a few miles from the dam. I was just wondering where the water level is at high low in-between. Thanks for any advice and nice report and pics. Will try to post and hopefully have some picks of my own to post.
Remeber keep your lines in the water were all in this together!!!
I had a great time Sunday with John ( THE TRIGGER) Tucker
. Thanks for letting me share your boat with you. John has such a great understanding with pool 14. Again, thanks for a great day John. We have to do it again soon. 
Chazdotz, the river is a couple feet below “normal” stage for this date, but not really low. The flow is strong in relationship to the level and temp., so fish are holding in breaks and slower current areas with sand or rock.
Tony, I had a great time as well. It really was good to get out on the water with you again! As for the “Trigger”, I have it oiled and ready to pull on our next outing.
Nice report John! Glad to see you are out on the water and doing well!
Joel
Very Nice Post John!!!
It’s killing me not have been on the water since last fall. Did you venture downstream at all to near Albany lately? I’m trying to get out soon, and as usual, there’s plenty to keep me tied down, instead of of wearing down (goose) and tying on a lure!!
Cheers,
Andy
And as always, the weather… Look for more cloudy cool days through saturday, then sun sunday, rain Monday, the much warmer with scattered rain by thursday!
Great report John…use any of those St. Croix’s?
Got room for me soon..?
Andy, I generally put in at Albany, and fish a little down there, but it has been very slow in the immediate area. I must admit I don’t work it as hard as I will in the upcoming months, but with the relatively high flow, I have a run of several productive spots up river where I concentrate most of my time.
Luke, the St Croix rods have brought nearly every fish of late to my boat! Very nice rods! I’ll give you a shout when I can get out again. Hopefully we can get on the water before your work wraps you up for the season!!!
Just a quick update on the bite at the Lock and Dam 13. I fished there for about two hours on Friday evening. Pulled 6 nice fish on Chartruese/Pepper Dos and a couple more fat females down river a ways. One dragging a 1/4 H2O jig with Purple?Chart. tail ringie, the other vertical jigging 3/16 oz jig and Blue/Black Core ringie, both in 6-8′ of water out of the current on sand. Water temp was 40 Degrees, better get out and hit ’em before the spawn puts a damper on things! It is a blast pulling a 4 plus pound fish out of 8′ vertical jigging. Slam….zing goes the drag…. that’s what it’s all about!
What is the flood outlook for Pools 13 and 14.
Hit me.
Thanks for the report and pics John. Great seeing Tony back and on the water.
Nice fish guys. 
Thanks, Bill
John good to see you catching fish like always, thanks for the report and great pic’s.
FirstLight, I think we have some high, fast water coming soon, but I don’t believe there will be any real flooding unless there is a lot of rain north of here. The river will be rising very rapidly in the next week or two, with some very high flows as well, but should not reach flood stage.