Spring is here! Those big mama eyes are on the move looking for there next meal. Since my last report my boat has seen a series of ups and downs 
.
The walleye fishing has been a day to day ordeal. Last weekend the reports I had from anglers was it was tough go for a good number of fish, walleye or sauger. That held true for my boat on Sunday. I fished with a couple of good guys on Sunday, it was good fishin with you Pat and Chad! We had a very slow day, slowest day of fishing my boat has seen this Spring for number of walleye while pitching jigs all day. One of those days that you just dread as a fishing guide 
. It seemed we could do no right but we kept at it with high hopes of boating a walleye of a lifetime! We never took to the numbers game. The plan was to pitch jigs all day in to shallow water an tie in to a big fat mama. When the day was done we got our 
handed to us. A guy needs that once in a while to keep him on the straight and narrow 
As we have read, James had some very good walleye fishing in the beginning of this week. The bite for my boat on Wednesday was much better than it was for me on Sunday but not as good as it had been early in the week for James. I ran the same program as we did last Sunday targeting the same areas but with much better results on numbers and quality of fish.
Wednesdays fish were all taken out of 10’ of water and less. We took fish off both sand and rip rap on this day. I spent the day with Darwin Viker and his friend Mark. This day was no different than the past trips when Darwin and I hook up. We spent the day looking for quality not quantity. By days end we had some very nice eyes and one pig sauger. All of our fish on this day were fooled in to eating ringworms. In the morning hours purple/chartreuse tail, pro-blue and oystershell colors took top honors. Once mid morning rolled around chartreuse pepper was the only color that got bit mid day. I was using 3/16oz black precision heads. We could have easily got away with 1/8oz in most areas but that darn wind was a pain in the but to fish the lighter jigs in. We spent some time fishing hair jigs with limited success. Hair jigs only accounted for 2 of our fish by trips end. Good fishin’ with you again Darwin. See you in May!
The temps look to be very stable over the next week. With the stable temps we should see more favorable conditions for the angler instead of the fish 
. The rivers in very good shape right now. Water clarity is still right around 18” and we have some nice flow.
I have not heard any info on the sauger bite over the last couple of days. I did hear it was slow on Wednesday for some and good for others. 
Sounds like a typical fishing day to me on pool 4 
Maybe Dean from Everts Resort will be able to fill us in on what the sauger bite has been doing over the course of the week. I do know Dean had been very busy so he might not see this for a day or two.
That’s all for now! See ya on the river 
Here is a big skinny male that was coaxed in to snapping at a chartresue pepper ringworm on Wednesday. Must have been starved to death cause it hit like it hadn’t eatin in weeks……
Thanks Dustin
well kind of 
It’s your reports like this that keep some of us sane at work
dave
As always, great report with some great looking fish
How far below the dam (any dam) do you think a person can find good fish this time of year? I plan on doing some searching on pool 7 on Sunday and was wondering how far down would be too far.
Watts,
I would have to say the answer to that question would be down to the next dam. There has to be spawning areas in-between dams that will hold fish right now. The fish are starting to move around quite a bit now with the increasing water temps. Just look for some areas with reduced flow and cast away. Your next bite is only a cast away
Thanks Dustin
Looks like Sunday I have some searching to do 
Nice report Dustin. That is a fatty sauger. Way to go!
Made my day. You had a bad day casting? From the pics. wish I had that bad a day. Just thought I would give you guys a big thanks. You, James,and a lot others have made me a lot better at what I love to do when I have time. Just one question. All I hear about is ring worms now, I’m going to have a few days off and I kind of like the K tails. Too early or keep useing them. Again thanks.
Good report. Wednsday was tough for me also.I just about tried every thing in the boat except the leadcore,and caught only one decent fish,and a few smaller ones.It will only get better.
Art, the K tails are good too. I know some guys are picking up fish on them. You can’t go wrong with getting some B fisn N tackle ringworms though. Good colors to start with are cotton candy, firecracker, chartreuse pepper, and a couple darker ones like purple and electric blue. Good luck!
Now thats a Walleye smile…you Sauger lovers!
I’ll be around Mon thru Wed Dust…hope ot see ya!
Andy,thanks. All I fish is this time of year is BF plastics. Caught an amazing amout of fish on them. Question is, is there a time when you go to K tails instead of ring worms. Water temps. or what. Thanks
K-grubs were working on Monday and Tuesday for James. It is more of any activity level of the fish. It’s kind of like in the summer months when fishing cranks, someadys the jointed will out produce the normal shad raps. Just mix it up and see what gets bit the most
Art,
Glad I could make your day
.Can’t get um every day I guess 
.
All the pics are from Wednesdays trip, none of them from last Sunday. Wednesday was a decent day with 19 legal fish brought to the boat. A fair day but not a banner day by any means.
Sunday was a tough day with no picture worthy fish brought to the boat
.
Great report Dustin!
Will be up next Wed.-Fri. and look forward to talking with you! 
The sauger bite has been tough for numbers the past couple of days compared to earlier in the week.Attention to detail on bait presentation is critical to success.Verrrry slow is the key now to getting bit.Bucktails with minnows,cottoncandy bft paddletails,and superdoos are working the best this week on the vertical presentations.Pay attention to detail and you will be rewarded!Good fishing everone!
Roy shown here with dinner yesterday!
Dean: Nice report!! I am new to the site and would like to thank you all for the great fishing reports
Well,thankyou! It is getting tougher to get the time as of late,but will do what we can!
More importantly,welcome to IDA and enjoy the site!
I’m planning to head out this weekend and wanted to ask you guys a question. I tried fishing with ringworms for the first time last spring and had no success. Granted, I don’t think I gave them much of a fair trial as I would put on a minnow and catch fish almost immediately. Do you find the artificials actually outfish the minnows or is it a matter of preference? Also, do you fish them differently than you would a jig and minnow? I’ve fished minnow tipped jigs my whole life so changing has been difficult but I’m planning to devote the day to learning on Sat. Any tips on how to fish them would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks Guys!
The answer to your question about plastics out fishing minnows on a daily basis would be no. Minnows have a place and time just like every other bait does. I do beleive the plastic will out fish live bait 90% of the time in the cold water season, at least for me.I am like the guy who can’t catch fish on plastic except it’s the other way around. For the life of me I can not catch a fish over 20″ on a jig/minnow
. must be something I’m doing wrong 
I have minnows in the boat but they are far from a confidence bait for me only throwing them when I can’t get bit on plastic.
I usually fish a jig and minnow with less of a jigging action than I do a ringworm or grub. Just casting it out and letting it drift with the current and only reeling in slack line seem to produce best when I do get fish on minnows.Or 1/4cast a heavier jig down river and slowly drag it back to the boat. Reason I usually only fish the minnow this way is because I am not getting bit with the more agressive bait with more action. I am targeting neutral/negative fish.
That’s how I do it but like I said it usually will hardly ever be my best producer for the day but will get some extra fish in the boat at times.
I am a dysfunctional fisherman when it comes to minners
. I need to have Glen Marshall take me out and show me how it’s done with meat 
Thanks for the info. Question, so when you’re fishing the plastics, you cast downstream, let out some line until you hit bottom and then just slowly jig up and down on occasion? Or do you cast to spots and slowly retrieve?
I’m sure it’s some of both. I’m just having a hard time imagining fishing how several of the experts on this site have described. You cast down stream, troll slowly up stream and hit bottom with an 1/8 ounce jig? I believe it works, I just don’t get it. I think I need to spend some serious hours on the water these next few weeks to “tweak the method.” Either that or I’ll have to hire Dezurik to show me the ropes again. I swear that guy could pull 28″ walleyes out of puddle in the road. 
Best way for me to describe the way I fish a ringworm on a sand flat most of the time would the following. With the current flows we have now on pool 4, I will position the bow of the boat up river. Then set the trolling motor to a number that will allow me to slowly slip backwards. Once my boat control is good, I will cast off to the side of the boat, maybe slightly up river and let the jig sweep down river with the current until it gets towards the back of the boat an washes out up from the bottom.. This is where jig size comes in to play. Each jig size will give you a different speed on your jig sweep. This is something that has to be experimented on a daily basis but it’s hard to go wrong with an 1/8oz or 3/16oz.
Right now I am not doing a lot of the jig dragging that you described. That’s when we throw a jig behind the boat, you used an 1/8oz jig for example, and slowly pull up river. That bite is pretty much a low flow low water presentation for me. It will still work right now but with the flows we have I feel more comfortable casting.
Rather than post a report of “More of the same”…We found the K-Tail morning bite to be good for size. Walleye seemed to like the Cotton Candy BFT K-Tails. We pitched and dragged these tails for a good chunk of the morning.
I pulled and jigged FinTech Knuckleball jigs, while (The Other) Putz and Jami “Ritt14” pitched and pulled BFT Precision Jigs.
Besides Cotton Candy, Chart/Pepper Paddle Tails ABSOLUTELY rocked! Snap jigged on 1/2 ounce BFT jigs like Ritt and T.O. Putz ran, or 1/4 ounce Knuckleballs hovered by me, the results were the same! HUGE sauger!
T.O. Putz put on a clinic early snap jigging until we got wise!
We released easily 8 sauger that went well over the 3 pound mark. Probably closer to 3.5!
Thanks so much for the tips Dustin. I’ll put them to use tomorrow. Windor has the best of me right now, but it looks like the photos posted below your response were taken from that walleye sanctuary. Is that the case? I don’t understand that whole thing. Isn’t a walleye sanctuary a place where the fish should be protected? I’m a bit of a tree hugger on the catch and release policy especially in the spawning stage, but allowing people to fish in areas like that seems as though it would seriously hurt the population. Anyway, thanks for the tips. I’ll let you know how things go.b
The Sanctuary marker is very close to the dam. I doubt very much If Dustin is fishing that close to the dam. Besides there is some rip rap there but it is not as good a location as are sand flats downstream where the bigger fish will not have to fight the strong current.
I am under the asumption that that you are talking about Chris Tuckners photo’s? I assure you those fish are not from a the sanctuary. Or are they,
I see chris did catch one of them……. 
?. I can tell you where every photo was taken just by the back ground 
.
Good luck on the water today Wallace. Give us a report when you make it back
Ive only been there twice and can tell you those pics are nowhere near the dam.
I was a long way from the “Sanctuary.” I have no issue with people fishing in that area. (Around the dam, not the sanctuary.) There is nothing that points to the fishery being damaged. Besides, that is not the only place on the river that fish spawn.
You guy’s are making me jealous I need to get down there.
Had a great day on the water Sat. The first trip out, it’s always a small victory if everything works right so to catch fish is an added bonus. Fished from about 11am to dark and had all in all a pretty good day. Caught a lot of fish whenever we ventured near the crowds and a few nicer ones when we went looking for “fishy” spots on our own. Biggest of the day was 19″, so no trophies, but I did take a couple eaters home for a nice meal. I generally fish pool 2, so to be able to fillet a couple up was a nice change. My hats off to the crowd in pool 4 this past weekend.
Everyone was friendly as could be and we had a lot of good laughs. Two groups of people you can generally count on to be good sports, fisherman and Packer fans. 
See you out again this weekend.
Dustin good to see that great smile, it tells it all.
Being new to the river, I did see the signs on shore to stay away 300?? feet in March and April, but where is the “sanctuary”? Is it on the other side of the dam? I have no clue where it is, but want to make sure I am not where I shouldn’t be. We stayed at Evert’s and went past where the Vermillion comes in and then up to the wingdam areas. That’s all I know!!
There was a rumor going around the Northwest Sport Show that Mr. Stewart got a piggie today in the high water…
Not a rumor Tuck
. The fishing was on the slow side Sunday but we were able to put close to a 2 man limit of fish in the boat with a 9.9lb walleye…..oh so close to 10lbs 
She smoked a pro-blue paddle tail on an orange/chartresue precision jig in 13′ of water about 10:30 in the morning. The only other legal walleye I was able to pull off the same spot was a nice & fat 22″.
I will try to have a detailed report up Monday night with some pictures of the 9.9lb and 10.3lb eye that were put in the boat on this weeks trips