Mississippi River Pool 4 Fishing Report 3-30-07

The fishing on pool 4 has finally turned the corner . Over the past week I was fortunate enough to spend 6 straight days on the river. Over the course of those 6 days, I had four days of the slowest fishing I have ever experienced on pool 4. The water was on the rise keeping the fish on the move, water temps dropped, and the water clarity was horrid. The biggest factor I had to face was the water clarity. Pool 4 of the mighty Miss was chocolate milk for 8 days in a row causing the fish to shutdown . Muddy water is a walleye/sauger fisherman’s worst enemy. All areas I was targeting were full of fish just waiting for the rivers water to get cleaner, foul hooking fish in many areas was not a problem when the water was dirty.:(

Tuesday of this week the water finally started to clean up and the fish showed signs of a more positive feeding mood . The past couple of days, Wednesday and Thursday, have been great for numbers of sauger in the shoreline eddies. Slower moving water in the 3’-16’ depths are holding good numbers of fish right now. My best presentation has been casting ringworms and paddle tails with 3/16oz to 3/8oz precision heads and slowly working them back to the boat. My #1 jig head color has been Sour apple hands down while fishing the more natural colors like pro-blue, cotton candy, and firecracker. The chartreuse/orange head has worked well with the brighter colors in the chartreuse patterns. My two best colors of ringworms and paddle tails over the past couple of days has been firecracker/chartreuse tail and chartreuse green core with the chartreuse green core winning the overall!

On Sunday March 25th I shared my boat with Josh Johnholtz, his father and father in-law. We started our day casting to some prime areas for walleye in areas that they stacked up in prior to very high water without success. With the water clarity as muddy as it was on this day I decided to pull 3-way rigs slowly up river with high hopes that the walleye or sauger would latch on to this slower moving presentation. After’ a couple of hours of pulling 3-way rigs we were still waiting for that first fish to come to the boat . Off we went to cast some more high water areas in hopes of at least one good bite. Well, things never came together for us on this day. With such muddy water the fish won ! Josh, even though the fishing was terrible, I hope you guys were still able to take something away from the trip and use it to your advantage on future outings. I would like to thank you and your family again for spending a day in my boat

Tuesday I shared my boat with good customer Tom Peterson. Tom and I spent the morning catching a few nice saugers dragging, casting and vertical jigging plastics. After some sauger action was had we were off to look for that walleye of a lifetime. Even though the sauger bite was showing signs of improvement, the walleye bite was still negative for my boat on this day. I did notice throughout the day the water was getting much cleaner. Tom and I ended our day around 3:00. Thanks for spending a day in my boat Tom!

Once Tom had jumped ship, I headed back out to do some scouting for Wednesdays outing with positive results on some sauger action. Casting paddle tails and ringworms for about 30 minutes had my confidence level up for my trip on Wednesday.

I shared my boat with Jeff France and his co-workers Tim and Jack on Wednesday. The bite was just starting to see an upswing in fish activity on Tuesday. Instead of targeting the slower, but more rewarding high water walleyes bite, I decided to pursue the saugers in hopes of an action packed day. The morning started out slow but once things fell in to place we were able to put the hurt on good numbers of saugers by days end. The wind made casting tough to do in the area we were targeting. Upsizing to 5/16oz and 3/8oz jigs from the 3/16oz and 1/4oz that I was using the day prior was what was need to fight the wind and put fish in the boat. It was a pleasure fishing with the three of you and I am looking forward to our next trip together

Yesterday I fished with my good friend Rob Stevens. The plan Rob and I had was to work over the sauger in the morning hours then head off to pitch some high water areas for some big mama walleye’s. Well, the sauger bite was good enough in the morning hours to keep us in our spot until mid afternoon After 4 straight days of horrible fishing earlier in the week, it was fun just to get bit on a steady basis . Rob and I spent about 20 minutes casting a spot for some high water walleye before calling it a day. On the way back to the boat ramp I spoke to an on the water acquaintance who started pitching plastics to some good high water areas around 1:30pm and had already boated a 6lb and two 8lb walleye in short order .

That would tell me that the big walleye’s are on the chew now as well right along with the sauger’s I really regret not pulling off the sauger bite to cast for some high water walleye The Spring bite on pool 4 is heating up

The water clarity is finally in good shape. Debris should still be a concern when running up and down the river. Keep your eye’s open at all times and pay attention and you will be fine.

I will be working the BfishN Tackle booth at the North West Sports Show until 9:00pm today. Stop in a say Hi!

If I don’t see you at the show……….I’ll see you on the river!