This is the time of year I always look forward to, well I guess anytime I’m in my boat I have something to look forward to. Right now the cranking bite is getting ready to go full swing, I was on the move for most of the morning and afternoon then finally about 2:00 P.M. I was able to lock down a solid speed, depth and Trolling pattern. I just hooked into about an 18 inch eye and was in the process of netting the fish, I looked over my right shoulder and my rod was buckled and it wasn’t moving. When I picked up my second rod I felt the slow thump and the fight was on, when she finally surfaced I had a beauty P3 28" walleye that hit the scales at 8.2 lbs. I was fishing solo this afternoon so I had to drive to a boat harbor and ask a nice lady to please take my picture so this big mama could swim another day.
I spent the morning fishing pool 4, I fished around Roshen Park and found the best bite to be in Dairy Queen Bay. Size 7 Fire Tiger jointed raps and white glass shads pulled anywhere from 2.5 to 3 MPH in 14-18 ft. of water was putting fish in the boat. After 10 A.M. this morning the bite got kind of tough but with some patience and persistance you could put together a few nice fish. When the bite got tough I deciced to troll in a real irradic zig zag pattern which causes your baits to speed up and slow down hopefully causing a reaction strike. The nice thing about the river is you never know what kind of fish is going to react like this nice smallie.
I would say from what I was seeing pool 4 trolling season is off to a good start. I was able to have better luck in pool 3 this afternoon but either place would be a good choice. I was running 2 rods today, one with lead core and one with braid. I was getting bigger fish on lead and but the numbers were about the same depending on location. I try to always keep my lead line on the deep side of the boat when I am running two rods. We can expect some great fishing in the next couple of weeks on P4&P4, get out and put some time on the water and have a safe holiday weekend.
I had one of the trebles break off of my crankbaits on 4 different plugs today while reeling in fish, they litterally sheared right off. Immediately after netting the 28" that had both hooks in the mouth my plug came flying out, when I looked at my plug both the front and back hooks were missing one of the trebles. I noticed this was a factor on my Canadian Colors and Sheels eclusives. Did Rapala change hooks, or did I just get lucky and have 4 plugs with bad hooks?
Tight Lines,
Joey
Thanks for the report and pics Joey. Great to see the crankbait bite is still going strong and it should get only better. The Mississippi River is a great fishery and your report is another proof of that.
Thanks, Bill
Great report Joe!
Hey it was good fishing by ya yesterday long time no see
I was hoping you would get into them I got into them big time for that 2 hour stretch then I decided to hit a few more spots to check out ended up boating 34 fishing yesterday anywhere from 11 inches to 24 for the biggest all on leadcore. I kept saying wow no sheephead except one right away…well today I ate my words 
only boated a few fish with the biggest coming in just shy of 24 inches. And a TON of sheephead. Nice seeing ya on the water keep in touch 
I had the same thing happen on a crawdad color shad rap yesterday, the hook shattered???
Was this on a newer plug? I will post a picture tonight, but I am wondring if the hooks were not heat treated properly because they all break off where the 3 trebles come together and are supposed to be fused. Since the hook has no give and simply snaps off, I figure when you catch a fish and have to use a needle nose, the next time you hook up that is the hook that will break.
I had the same thing happen and yes it is right where all 3 hooks meet up. One of them just snapped clean off. I thought it was probably a fluke deal but maybe not now ? ?