Mississippi River Pool 4 Fishing Report

With the warmer than average temperatures we have been having I decided to make the most of it and hit the river again this past weekend. We were rewarded with some GOOD to GREAT results. I also had the opportunity to spend some good quality time with family and friends.

I spent Saturday with a newcomer to the river and Brother-in-Law Josh. We decided to get out just before sunrise to try and catch the pitching bite while it lasted. We started out pitching some shallow rock shorelines with plastics. We were rewarded right off the bat with a healthy 25"er that I am pictured here with. Our main presentation was a 1/8oz black precision head with a fire cracker chartreuse tail pitched tight to shore and slowly worked back to the boat with a lift and hold pattern. Pictured next is Josh with his walleye that measured out at 23". This was one of the many fish he caught throughout the day. After his first fish on a plastic this is what he had to say, "Do these fish hit it that hard all the time? Man that was awesome." To say the least I think we now have another person who has converted to plastics.

After our pitching bite died off at about 9:00am we decided to try and keep the action going by switching up and going vertical for some saugers. Good choice that was. We kept the action going steady for most of the day. Many 16"-19" saugers came to the boat, with a few "dinks" mixed in the bag. Best depths were 22 to 28′. We seemed to catch the bigger saugers on the shallow end of that and the deeper we went the smaller they got. We were using chartreuse pepper super doo’s and fire cracker chartreuse tail ringworms rigged on a 5/16oz black precision head.

Sunday was spent with long time friend and fishing partner Jim Beaulieu. The morning pitching bite didn’t quite work out the way we had it planned. There was a steady wind from the northwest at about 15mph that put a damper on that bite. After realizing we weren’t going to be able to cast we decided to go vertical for some saugers again. We started out in the 22-28′ range like yesterday and just couldn’t get much going. We decided to try a little shallower and then we found them. The depths that were the best today were 16-20′. I contribute this change in depths due to the fact we had thick cloud cover all day.

At about 2:00 we decided that maybe we should go try and cast for some walleyes seeming as how the saugers had been shallower, maybe the walleyes would be also. We anchored up on a 14-16′ sand flat that dropped off to 19-20′ and did what we do best, cast blade baits. The bite was slow to start with, with most of our fish coming from the bottom of the drop-off. The farther the sun went down the shallower the fish moved, and the better the bite got. Our best bite was just after the sun had disappeared and it started to get dark. At this time we were rewarded with a BEAUTIFUL 29 1/2" walleye that Jim is pictured with and a 24" that I am pictured with. The picture of Jim’s fish doesn’t do this fish justice. It didn’t have the big saggy belly like you would think it would have but it sure was long and thick. Our best blade color today was by far (4 fish to 1) a new color that we were field-testing for B-Fish-N tackle. It is a gold colored blade. It is due to come out on Wednesday December 20th. I have my order placed already to stock up on these babies. Gold has been one of my best colors most of the fall and just before the spawn in the spring.

Just a side note here, Just as we were heading back in at dark we noticed a ton of boils coming to the surface. We decided to shine the flashlight on them to see what it was. When we turned the light on we were amazed to see at least 1,000 shad breaking the surface. Shined the light around only to see a thick layer of shad as far as we could see. There is a ton of baitfish out there right now so I would look for the bite to continue to get better as the shad start to die off with the colder temps that are to come.

Until next time