<!–IMG_MARK–> Last summer Fellow IDA Staffer Corey Waller (Wallerbass) was having difficulty catching bass on pool 3’s wing dams. I agreed to show him how I fish the dams on pool 4. With our schedules, and the water conditions it took till today to get the job done. Corey has since figured out how to catch some of pool 3’s winger bass, but we went ahead and did wing dams 101 on pool 4. We used a three pronged approach to the dams. We started paralleling the dams with Mimmic Minnows, top-water and swim jigs to catch the active fish. We would follow-up with tubes in the current breaks below the dams, and finally, Carolina rigs above and below the dam. Today was also Corey’s first use of a C-rig. The photo is Corey’s 2nd ever C-rig bass. Not a bad way to start.
As usual the student teaches the teacher something. Corey was using a Team Supreme craw tube in a sand color on his C-r rig and out-fished my french-fry worm by two-to-one. It turns out that the craw tubes were in the angler tackle packs at the St. Jude tournament this spring. As Corey said; If they hadn’t been in the hand out he would have never tried them. I’m sending in an order soon! The picture is the biggest fish of the day that came below a wing dam on the craw tube.
It’s not unusual to catch largemouth on wing dams, but today we had far more largies than smallies. The one I holding was the fourth fish of five casts, parallel to a wing dam with a Mimic Minnow.
Now is a good time of year to learn the dams. Each one needs to be explored with a variety of approaches. Most have there own characteristics and require a different approach than its neighbor. It comes down to time on the water.
Great Report John. I have also been catching largemouth on Wingdams.
Thanks.
although I have done some exploring on the wingies on pool 3 for bass on the past year the approaches that John used will definatly help me unlock the secrets of the summer wingdam bite on pool 3.
I want to give a big thanks to John for taking me out for the day and letting me pick his brains.At the landing John was concrened with the lack of flow and wondered if the fishing was going to be that good. Well let me tell you this we pulled up to the first wingie and there had to be 100 fish busting the surface now alot of them were whities but it was definatly a feeding frenzy even the gulls were whipped up and the fishing was GREAT.
If there is anyone out there looking for a GREAT captain for a guide trip on the river look John up he knows the river and will put you on fish.
look John up at http://www.riverfan.com
thanks again John
btw how did the lower unit turn out
Corey or John,
Did you guys catch many other species or mostly just largemouth and smallmouth? Were the walleyes active?
I fished Pool 3 Saturday morning and also found a lot of little minnows busting the surface on the wingdams and along the rip rap. At one rip rap section I anchored and tried chug bugs, Husky Jerks, hair jigs, split shot rigs with a minnow, a bobber with a minnow, and a DT rapala but still couldn’t catch a fish even though minnows were constantly being chased up against the rocks and jumping out of the water. This has happened to me many times in the past… I’ll see tons of little minnows busting the surface and a lot of swirls from the predator fish (species???) but I can’t seem to get them to bite. Once in a while I can catch a bunch of smallies on chug bugs when I see this type of activity but they are generally small (8″-12″).
I think I need some of that electro-fishing equipment that the DNR has so I can see what’s going on.
Thanks,
Boone
Boone,
We didn’t catch anything other than LM, SM and white bass (stripers). We maily fished the areas close to shore. From what I see frome the walleye guys is they fish the tips of the dams. We may have had a bite-off from a northern but that was it.
I aggree, it would be great to see what is doing all the chasing. My oppenion is the fish are so size sellective of the minnows they are chasing, that they ignore our baits. Somehow we have to figure how to match the hatch.
John