Mississippi River Pool 5 Report: 11/24-11/26

Cosmic forces aligned themselves to provide me with 3 days of angling opportunities over the recent holiday weekend. At times when my normal haunts in Pool 4 become just a bit too crowded, I often retreat to the relative sanctuary of Alma WI and Pool 5. This past weekend was no exception. I had the priviledge of spending this time plying the waters below Lock and Dam #4, and was rewarded with abundant walleyes, saugers, smallmouth, and even jumbo perch, all of which were tempted into taking ringworms and paddletails from B-Fish-N tackle. Here’s a beautifully-colored 20" sauger to start us off…read on to learn how the weekend went in my boat

On Friday I hit the water around 11:00 in the morning, and was greeted by high blue skies and bright sunshine. Not the greatest conditions under which to look for a shallow pitching bite, so I shifted my attention a little deeper. I spent most of the mid-day hours fishing water 14-18 feet deep, with my primary presentation being dragging. On this day, I was dragging firecracker/chartreuse tail and firecracker/blue tail ringworms on 3/16 plain (uncolored) precision heads, and concentrating on two distinct areas. One area was the edge of a shallow (12-14′) sand/rock flat that sits in front of a current-swept wingdam, and the second area was a deeper sand flat with significantly reduced current on the other side of this dam. I picked off smaller legal fish on the front of the dam and larger fish in the area of reduced current. During the course of the day, I identified one area where I wanted to devote my attention during the late day period…this was an area of shallow water (10-14 feet) what had some current moving over it and a rip-rapped shoreline. That recipe usually spells success, but I could only tempt one walleye here at dusk….a 7" yearling that pounded a purple/chartreuse tail ringie on a 1/8 oz precision head.

Saturday broke with broken skies and occasional cloud cover. Different sky conditions and slightly more wind means that my pattern needs adjusting. I decided to start the day by doing some dragging on the shallow sand between the wing dams that line the main channel. After 5 minutes I could tell that this would be a futile pursuit….just not enough current in these areas to draw large numbers of fish. I shifted my attention to the channel edge where I could see fish on my locator. Since I had a little more current to work with, I shifted gears and started vertical jigging, focusing on chartreuse/pepper paddletails and firecracker/chartreuse tail ringies rigged on 1/4 oz black precision heads. The first pass yielded 5 fish, 3 of which were spunky brown bass including the honest double shown above, featuring one bass that hit 17". A second pass yielded only more smallies. At this point, I realized that I had found a wintering hole from these bronze bombers, and I elected to move on and give these sleepy smallies a rest.

As the afternoon wore on, the clouds started to build, and my hopes of a decent shallow dragging bite were raised. Off I went to some current-swept shallow sand (6-12 fow), and a nice mix of legal eyes and chunky saugers started coming to the boat in short order. I was back to the firecracker ringies, but this time on 1/8 oz plain precision heads because I was working shallower water. After an hour or so, my bite slowed down, although the number of short strikes I was getting and an occasional fish sighting on my locator told me that fish were still about. So, I started sorting through patterns and eventually found a winner: electric blue/pearl tail. This is not the first time that this pattern has saved me at Alma! The balance of the day was spent successfully dragging the shallows with electric blue/pearl tail and firecracker/chart tail (my confidence pattern) ringies until hunger pulled me off the water just after dark.

Sunday morning broke with a solid cloud deck, light winds and drizzle. Perfect fishing conditions for late November, especially when you fold in 40+ degree air temps! My first stop on this day was a nice current seam I had found on Saturday, and my presentation of choice for this area was pitching chartreuse pepper ringies and paddletails on 1/8 or 3/16 precision heads. The first hour on this spot yielded 7 cookie-cutter 18" greenbacks, including the two shown here. Unfortunaltely, the second hour produced a big zero. The pattern had changed again, it was time to adapt!

While the overcast sky told me to keep fishing shallow, I couldn’t buy a bite by pitching or by dragging in less than 12 fow. So, while conventional wisdom would say to do otherwise on a cloudy day, I started to move deeper. I finally started to contact fish by dragging in 14-16 fow, and eventually found the magic depth of 17-20 feet. My fish were on a subtle edge, where a deeper sand flat with some gentle current was slowly dropping into the main channel. This area was about 400 feet long, and I had fish going all along it, as long as I stayed in this relatively narrow depth range. Over the course of the day, I had numerous spunky saugers, legal walleyes, and even two jumbo perch come to the boat from this area. My dragging baits of choice were chartreuse pepper paddletails and ringworms of various patterns (chart/pepper, firecracker/chart tail, chartreuse/green core, etc), all rigged on 1/8 oz heads.

Once I had my targets pinned down in a well-defined area, I turned the boat around and started vertical jigging…my thought was that I would get my baits to spend more time in the zone if I cruised through at the speed of the current (~ 0.4 mph GPS) rather than by dragging through the area at ~ 0.7 mph. Sounds like a reasonable approach, but it turned out to be totally WRONG. Vertical jigging with the same baits I was dragging, now rigged on 3/16 oz heads, produced only 2 dinks on the first two passes. Had the fish moved or quit? Well, I turned the boat around again, re-rigged with lighter heads and resumed the drag….FISH ON! FISH ON! FISH ON! These fish wanted baits moving horizontally across the bottom at a pace faster than the current. Perhaps the slow vertical presentation gave them too much of a chance to inspect and reject my artificial presentaion, while the dragging presentation at nearly twice the speed of the current forced a reaction bite. Whatever the reason, I don’t particularly care, because it worked!

This opportunity to spend an extended time on the water gave me the chance to really define and refine my patterns over the course of 3 days, and my catch rates responded in the way one would hope. On Friday, 5 hours of work put 18 fish into the boat. On Saturday, I started early and ended late, and 35 fish found the net. On Sunday, I had to leave before the dusk bonanza, so my day was cut short at 64 fish. To close, here’s a pic of that last fish, #117 for the weekend, coming to the net. My only wish is that I could have hit the water on that 4th day!

Remember that patterns can change day-to-day and hour-to-hour. Remaining flexible and open-minded, with regard to location, depth, presentation style, and bait (style, color, weight) WILL, WITHOUT A DOUBT, put more fish in your boat. That fact certainly was driven home for me (again ) this weekend. Arrive at the launch with a game plan, work through it and stick to it. Eventually, you’ll crack the code for that day/hour, and will be rewarded with that reverberating *THUNK* that winter walleye fisherman crave. Until next time, see you on the water!

P.S. Look for an upcoming IDA fishing article devoted to the ins-and-outs of dragging!