I was able to break away from the every day grind for most of last week spending my free time on the upper end of pool 4 chasing those big mama walleyes with some great results 
. Not much has changed for me since my last report, dragging light jigs tipped with bait prevailed for me as the most effective presentation for the bigger walleye. I did take fish on cranks and casting some smaller current breaks and rock shorelines with positive results as well but on most days dragging jigs was my best presentation.
The biggest factor in last weeks success was the very warm and stable weather patterns we were experiencing. Hot stable weather =good fishing this time of year on the mighty river. I took some dandy walleyes in an array of water depths last week, anywhere from 2’ to 22’ of water. Early in the week I found the fish to be more wide spread but as the water temps increased throughout the week in to the very upper 70’s by weeks end, the fish were found in bigger groups. I attribute this to the walleyes dropping in to the areas with a bit more flow. When the water temps get to be this warm, the fish tend to seek areas with a bit more flow rather than hiding out and tucking in to real dead slack water like they will in the cooler months of the year. When the walleye react in this manner it gives us walleye anglers an upper hand because it eliminates that much more water in a day. 
I shared my boat with a couple of groups throughout last week. One day was spent with Greg Feuerhelm and his son Jeff. The day was spent casting jigs, dragging jigs and trolling cranks. All presentations took some nice walleye for us on this day. By trips end our numbers were on the low side with only 12 legal walleye but the quality of the catch made up for it with only 5 fish under the 20” mark. We took walleye pitching jigs, dragging jigs and trolling cranks on this day. We were able to boat a few fish on each presentation. I will post pictures of Jeff with a couple of our bigger fish at the bottom of the report. Thanks again for sharing a boat with me for the day Greg and Jeff. I hope you had as much fun as I did and I am looking forward to another outing 
My best day on the water last week for size and numbers was Saturday. Those of you that saw the Port Of Call Tourney weights already know the big walleye were chompin on this day. I spent Saturday fishing with my Dad on our annual fathers day outing. Our program was to drag jigs in an area that I had taken several big walleye throughout the week. It took some time to locate the fish but once they turned on, it was all up hill from there 
. Dad is pictured in this report with four of the big walleyes we had on this Saturday. We were lucky enough to boat two 25”, a 26”, a 27” and our best walleye taped out at 29”. We also had a couple of 24” fish and several 21“-22”that topped of our day together on the mighty river in style . Dad said it was a great fathers day gift 
The great big fish bite we saw on Saturday did not continue for me on in to Sunday. On Sunday I shared my boat with Pete, “F_W_A” here on IDA and his brother John. Our day started dragging jigs looking for more of those big walleye that I saw on Saturday but we were not as fortunate on this day on the bigger fish. Our best fish was a 25 1/2 walleye that we took on the first pass thru the area I was working. We gave this area a good 3 hours with an eater and a 23” fish to show for our efforts and that was it. Since the bigger fish were not cooperating for me on this day we headed off to some of the areas I see good success in when the water temps are in the upper 70 and low 80’s. We targeted shallow water cuts that had a higher flow of water thru them. It was a good decision on my part, the 17-19” walleye were waiting and willing to bite. We were able to get a nice two man limit of eater fish in a couple of hours then headed back off on a big fish hunt. We were unsuccessful in our quest for another bigger walleye on this day 
It was great fishing with the two of you. I look forward to fishing with you again sometime. Maybe a fall plastics trip 
. Tell John to enjoy that orange jig 
The river is in good shape right now. Get out and get fishing!
I’ll see you on the river 
Here’s dad with another one of our fish. Of course I did catch some of these walleyes but I am much better at running the camera than I am on the other side
Here is Jeff Feuerhelm with our best fish of the day going 28″ caught casting a black jig/crawler.
Nice pose Jeff
Here’s Jeff again with a nice walleye caught trolling cranks
Those are some nice mama eyes Dustin. I bet your Dad is bragging to his buddies right now about his Fathers Day fishing trip. Friday can’t come soon enough for this ole boy! I’m ready for another walleye fix even though I fished two out of the last four days. Thanks for the great report, it gave me an idea where to start on Friday.
Jeff again with another nice eye we snagged trolling cranks
. Yup, it was foul hooked and doesn’t really count, but we took a picture anyway 
.
I was able to get a few pictures of some nice fish I caught last week as well. Here is a skinny 29″ eye that took a jointed #5 red-craw shad rap.
Another nice walleye caught dragging jig/leech.
Very nice fish Dusty. Great to see Jeff is home from college and back out fishing. Thanks for the report and pics. Looks like Dad was a happy fisherman.
Thanks, Bill
Another blue jig/leech fish
I caught this fish pitching a jig and crawler to the base of some deep rip rap
dd
Great report Dust. Good seeing ya fishing again. Will see ya Friday when I get there.
Great report Dustin! I hope the fish will cooperate this weekend at the GTG. Looks like a blast.
Dustin,
Great report and fish..
Jack.
Those are some Dandys!!!
Great Job Dustin..
It was good seeing you out and about this week.
Boy all I can say is it is a good thing for the fish you didn’t have your boat.
Hope to see you this weekend.
WOW!! Nice fish Dustin. I hope you had a great first Fathers day, I sure did.
It is kind of cool to be under cover out there
. For some reason boats just don’t seem to spend as much time in the area if they don’t know the other boats 
. Especially if the boat you are in has IA tags 
Congrtas to you and Mike again on your finish Saturday it was fun sharing some water with you
Great pics Dustin! Looks like pool 4 is as hot as mille lacs right now for big fish and numbers. Keep up the good work.
Seeing this report is going to make the next 3 days at work long ones.
I’ll be up there Thur. night. Hope someone will let me tag along on Saturday to have a shot at some fish like those!
Yup, nobody follows my Iowa tags either, but I’m thinking that has something to do with all the time I spend in the sand. See you Thursday night, wait up this time, we should be there early!
Thanks again for the trip on Sunday. We both had a great time and learned a ton!! I was definitely happy to move out of spot #1 which was like an oven, all heat and sun and no breeze at all. I thought you were kinda nuts for letting us all bake for so long…
I missed a few spots on my arms with the ol’ sunblock and it really showed when we got home later.
Anyways, I didn’t mind not landing any hogs. Like you said, maybe in the fall. I still need to learn how to pitch jigs. That way I can waste your jigs and plastics and not so much livebait. 
Good thing I wasn’t paying attention to how to hook a crawler and started using those tails.:p I’m was glad to finally get on the scoreboard and land some keepers. I’m certain the limit we took home was twice as heavy as the one we had on our Croix trip last fall. Thank you Pool 4! 
My wife and my mom were very happy, too. Thank you Dustin! 
Like we all know, when the wife and mom are happy, life is good!!!
BTW, if I book for fall, will you clean my fish???
Hey Dusty;
Good thing I kept the blue jar
Is Dad comming this weekend?
Those are some really nice fish Dustin.
Of course I will
……if we catch any that is 
.
Nope, they are not going to make it last I new
.
Dustin, could you shed a little light on how to go about dragging jigs. I have the video from you and James on fishing with plastics that i will say was excellent.Have had some sucess with that but seem to catch as many bass as eyes, but their fun too. Was wondering what type of areas a guy should target here on P10 and 11.Are you trolling the jigs or casting and dragging them back? If anyone else out there can help please feel free. Thanks for the help, Rogan
Read the article by Jason Halfen on “the art and science of jig dragging” in the in-depth fishing article forum. Good stuff!!
I don’t know how to post links or I would.
nice looking fish pics.
Jason has a great article here on the site that suckerslayer has already put you on. Right now I would look for shallow side channels that have more flow than the main river. By shallow I am talking 1.5ft to 6′ of water. If you find a cut that is deeper and it has good flow there will be fish there as well.
I just make a long cast away from the boat and let the jig drag bottom until I get bit.
. I will float the same speed as the current on some occasions but if you have an upriver wind you will need to use your trolling motor to pull the boat down river.