Mississippi River Pool 4 fishing Report 3-15-07

By dustin_stewart 0

Anglers that visited pool 4 in the previous weeks have a surprise waiting for them on their next pool 4 outing……….a very nice surprise if you ask me ! The river is a whole different animal than it was three days ago. With the very warm temps over the past few days, run off from the tributaries has been abundant causing pool 4 to become a river again with plenty of moving water . The water is finally stained, the 6‘-8’ of visibility we had 4 days ago is long gone. Water clarity is very dependant on your location right now. Fishing directly below one of the tribs is not something I would recommend until we start to see cleaner water. The water clarity is very poor right now but the fish have not responded as negatively as I thought they would.

Yesterday was the start of my 2007 Spring trips . I shared my boat with Tom Peterson and his friend Rod. We had scheduled an early start time looking to get in on some early morning action (we would have if the water clarity had not changed over night) but instead of fishing, I was forced to motor around looking for an area I could actually wet a line. Lot’s and lot’s of debris in the morning hours, not a lot of big stuff to ruin a rig but small stuff like grass and leaves were horrible .

Since the river had changed so much, in so little time, I was skeptical about how the day was going to go. I proceeded to go thru the motions of trying to pattern a walleye bite. I tried to maintain a high degree of confidence that I would be able to put the puzzle together. First of all, we did what I have confidence in day in and day out for nice eyes and that’s cast jigs to small eddies and current edges. We did get some eater size fish with this approach but I could tell it wasn’t going to be a magical day if we continued to fish this way. Next step was to vertical jig the some of the slower moving water and deeper current edges. We did take one 17”walleye vertical jigging on a catalpa orange paddle tail in 14’ of water, that was it for the vertical bite. Next step we took was to drag jigs, the good old jig/minnow on one rod, ringworms on another. Our first pass dragging jigs produced the best fish of the day, Tom is pictured here with that fish. This 23” walleye was taken on a firecracker/chartreuse ringworm. Soon after Tom caught that fish, another decent walleye made it’s way to the boat on a cotton candy ringworm. It wasn’t long and we upped our odds by retiring the jig and minnow and focused on other colors of ringworms. Once I had some sort of a pattern put together we were able to work other areas with the same application and saw some positive results on walleye with some saugers in the mix.

In the mid afternoon we all decided that we had seen enough action so went looking for a school of fat pre-spawn walleyes. We hit a few spots that put out bigger walleye for me this time of year when the flow is higher, unfortunately we came up empty handed . We went back and cast jigs in some of the areas that we had taken fish dragging jigs to no avail. It was a pleasure to share my boat with you and Rod again Tom, I’ll see you in two weeks

Our best action was in water anywhere from 6’ to 16’. Finding the slower moving water was key. Depending on what area you were in, the best overall depth varied. Best ringworm colors were firecracker/chartreuse tail, cotton candy, purple chartreuse tail. The one thing all these ringworm colors had in common was the color of jig heads we were using. I am not always a firm believer in jig head color when plastic fishing but some days it makes a huge difference. Wednesday was one of those day for my boat, sour apple precision heads did the damage. This was a great head color for me last spring as well

I look for the fishing to be decent the rest of the month. Only obstacle we might have to overcome that will set back the fishing is muddy water. I do not look for this to happen since a most of the run off is about done, just cross your fingers and pray we don’t get a bunch of rain all at once. Instead, hope for a steady light rain up North so the waters continue to rise

The river does have some floating debris that could be a hazard, keep your eye’s peeled an go it slow and you will be ok.

See ya on the river!

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dustin_stewart

When not at work I'm busy playing fishing guide on pools 3 and 4 of the Mississippi River.I will fish Lake Pepin but the bite has to be really good on the lake to get me off of moving water.

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  1. And now its spring! It just didn’t feel right going this far into March without a fishing report or two from you so this one is a VERY welcome read. I heard from Dean that you knocked them around pretty good in the afternoon…. call me a little jealous.

  6. Dustin Nice report…man I am alot jealous…no days off this week Hurry up weekend…I think this is the longest week of my life

  9. That one catch looks like some great cut bait to me!

    I’ll see you in the morn Dean!!!!!!!
    Took the day off after the crappy day I had today.

  11. Been doing very good lately with 1/8th ounce Knuckle Ball jigs, and Cotton Candy K-Tails, and Firecracker Ringies! About 20-25 per afternoon. Nothing over 23″ yet. Those Knuckle Balls are a draggers dream!
    Orange and black have been the best for me lately.
    Tonight we caught:
    Sheepshead
    Carp
    Shad
    Mooneye
    Walleye
    Sauger
    Channel Cat
    Quite a mixed bag! Then it snowed. HARD!

  12. Tuck,
    Are you guys still seeing a strong predominantly late bite? Would think the day bite should be rapidly improving considering the reports of stained water lately. Hoping to make it down soon and see for myself!
    Thanks, Chris

  15. Quote:

    Tuck,
    Are you guys still seeing a strong predominantly late bite? Would think the day bite should be rapidly improving considering the reports of stained water lately. Hoping to make it down soon and see for myself!
    Thanks, Chris

    The daytime bite has been improving dramatically!

  19. My brother and I willing be heading to Pool 4 for our first time on Wednesday. We are launching from Everts and plan on talking with Dean, but is there any advice you guys can give us of where we should start and what we should do to put some fish in the boat? We are lake walleye fisherman that want to figure out the river methods for walleyes. We already spooled up our rods with Suffix Elite in Hi-Viz yellow from many of your suggestions. We are spending a day with James Holst early in April, but we are on spring break this coming week and decided to head up and try to put some walleye/sauger in the boat early this year.
    Nate

  20. Quote:

    is there any advice you guys can give us of where we should start and what we should do to put some fish in the boat?

    Best advice I can give you is to do what you said you were going to, check with Dean. The river is going to be ever changing from now until then. Any advice I could offer will no longer be of use by the time you reach the river

  22. Quote:

    Were the dams opened yet?

    If you mean “were the rollers pulled” the answer is no. The river isn’t anywhere near that point. We’re seeing 15,000 cfs right now and the rollers often are pulled when the volume is 50,000+ cfs. Basically we got just enough water to make it look like a river again.

  24. Thanks James and yes that’s what I meant. I have your show set to record tomorrow

    Sounds like she’s coming up fast – bout time

  26. Last year the fishing really started to get rolling that first week in april when the water volume was around 35,000 cfs. It went nuts about a week later when we surpassed 50,000 cfs.

    Nuttin’ like catching multiple 8+ lb fish a day, per guy, for a week!

  27. I have been finding the bite to be OK during the afternoon. Not big numbers, but nice fish. We have been finding them a little deeper off the breaks than we would in stained water. DO NOT FORGET to work your ringie and/or K-Tail/Blade right up to the boat! On the bottom. We found many bites taking place deeper to almost vertical! I always make a few good jigs at boatside to see if fish are below the boat as opposed to shoreline. It has worked a lot for us lately. We are seeing white bass stage up in good numbers too in spots. Big buggers too!

  28. Next week can’t get here soon enough…I’m starting to get that same uncontrolable/shaking with excitement feeling the dog gets in the carrier just before it’s let out to chase roosters

    Thanks for the great report!

    Jim

    ><(((>

  29. My buddy and I will be in RW tomorrow to give it a shot. I can’t wait! Thanks for the 411 fellas

  35. great report; that gets the heart pumping. i’ll be up more this year ,so we can plan a time when your not changing(diapers) hope every thing is fine on the home front. can’t remember the time,has to be soon.looking forward to another guided trip.

  36. Hi Wayne Good to hear from you. I’ll see you at the river soon .

    The fishing was very slow today and was on Saturday as well from the reports I received.

    Today I shared my boat with Chad Nissen. Chad and I took the day to look for some nicer fish. By days end we had some very nice walleyes but the numbers were on the low side. Best 2 walleyes of the day came on a 1/4oz chartreuse/orange precision head tipped with a minnow. The plastic bite was very slow for my boat today. Chad had one nice fish on a firecracker chartreuse tail ringworm and that was it for the plastics . The few fish we did catch were caught casting in to 8′-14′ of water.

    It was great to fish with you again Chad. Good luck on the rest of your spring/early summer fishing on pool 4

    I am pictured here with our best fish of the day weighing in at 9.7lbs.

  40. Nice fish Meat man, I mean Dustin ! The old jig n minnow strikes again! Kinda suprised you didn’t have a picture of Chad sleeping in the boat after all of his late night partying. If you are only going to catch a few fish at least you found the right sized ones.

  41. I was out Saturday and we had similar luck with the sauger/walleye but we happened to land this bad boy…Thanks to Don for takin me out great day on the water. Action seemed mixed between hair w/ minnows and Ringers “firecracker” jigheads seemed better if they were brighter. See you on the water

  43. I’m hoping someone will respond to a stupid question…but what exactly do some of you mean when you say your dragging jigs? I think your just using a heavier jig…maybe 1/2 oz and dragging it behind the boat. Is it that simple? Do you need a bigger jig…are you moving slow? Thanks!

  44. You are dragging the jig at about a 45 degree angle from the boat moving in and out of current seams. Weight of the jig depends on current, depth, speed and lure choice being a ringie or K-Tail. You want to barely make headway into the current, and side stepping it too.

  45. Thanks for the reply…that’s why I love this site…a bunch of good guys/gals not afraid to give us rookies some advice.

  47. Hey Dustin,

    This spring fishing has me puzzled right now. I went out on Pool 4 yesterday for 6 hours (granted it was mid-day) and never caught a fish. I’m sorry for posing quesions on the fishing report section but I don’t know where else to post it. How do you fish ringworms, super doos, etc. I’ve never really tried it and always fish fire ball jig and minnow combos. Do you have any advice for me (area to fish, presentations, anything at all). Any response will be greatly appreciated. Thanks

  48. No problem on posting questions in the reports forum, that’s what it is here for .

    I will be honest with you………I am very puzzled right now myself . The fishing has been very tough for my boat . I hate to admit it, but today was the first guide trip I have had in 5 years and been totally skunked . I fished with 3 other guys and targeted bigger fish in the am hours. Once late morning rolled around, I went in to desperation mode. We went 3-waying bait and plastics trying to get a sauger bite going. No go! Tried vertical jigging and the wind beat us up pretty bad. Then went back to pitching jigs in some areas with less wind. No go .

    The water is still dirty and has plenty of debris to steer clear of. The Fishing has to break loose soon. Our biggest enemy is the water clarity right now. Anglers that are getting saugers are telling me when they clean them there is nothing in them. Those fish have to eat sometime!

    The best advice I can give you right now is to fish the plastics the same way you fish the livebait. Just put them on the bottom, lift a couple of inches off the bottom and hold for a few seconds, repeat.

  49. Darn Dustin,
    Sounds like a very humbling tough day. Sorry to hear it..
    I know the water is about zero visibility..
    do blades work in dirty water, how about snap jigging?? or are those better with better vis???
    thanks.
    Jack..

  50. Jack;
    Nothing is working right now.
    Spent half a day on the river yesterday. Already knowing the walleyes shut down, we went searching for other species. In the process, we saw one sauger caught all day. I did hear dock talk about some guys who boated 25 fish, but the person who told me didn’t know the quality/size of the fish either.

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