Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
Well where to start I have been on the water the last six days. Mike came down from Duluth on Saturday. We spent the afternoon on the water the vertical bite is awesome right now. We did not find any big fish but some very nice 18 & 19 inch saugers.
Pool 4 had a lot of fisherman on Saturday with most boats banging fish, most all presentations were catching fish. Wow is this ever a great fishery.
Sunday we teamed up with John Stears and dropped down and fished Pool 5. We started out vertical jigging 22 feet of water with ring worms, paddle tails and doo’s. We were met with instant results, these saugers are very aggressive, the size were a little on the small side. John suggested moving and dragging some plastics on some sand flats Bingo. The fish were bigger and by days end we had very close to a hundred fish to the boat. Pictured here is John with a bonus Northern that smacked a K-grub.
Monday we opted back to Pool 4. Mike and I pitched some current seams and drug jigs on some sand flats, with fair results. We then went back to vertical and proceeded to put fish in the boat. Our best was jig and plastics. We were using 3/8 oz jigs and ringworms, paddle tails and super doo’s. Our best colors were purple chartreuse tail, pro blue, firecracker chartreuse tail, and electric blue white tail. One thing I would like to say here is to not get stuck on any one color. Our fish were coming in 18 to 22 feet of water. We hung out for the night bite and boy is it starting to get cold. Here is a picture of a walleye that simply crushed a k-grub pitched to her.
Tuesday we were accompanied by Jerrie Eckholdt for a fun day on Pool 4. We stopped at our first spot and had three walleyes in the boat faster than you could say Jack Robinson. Then I decided to leave fish to find fish, however on this day we found fish every where we went. Our big fish of this day went to Jerrie with a nice sauger over four pounds. We were vertical jigging again and some dragging on sand edges we were finding some fish in 14 feet of water.
On Sunday I had a bass guy catching Northerns, and on this day I had another guy bringing those green grass carp to the boat. Here is Jerrie with a pool 4 green one.
Thanksgiving morning found us again on Pool 5 we wanted to fish a few hours and head home early. Well the weather was overcast with a nice Northwest breeze air temps at 28 degrees this will really open your sinuses.
Mike and I started on the sand dragging k-grubs, however on this day we would need to change our presentations. So we moved and went vertical 22 feet of water and wow.
They were not huge but we only wanted a couple of limits and we were going home.
We were on the water at 9:30am and heading home at 2:00pm. It was really fun getting our string stretched. Mike and I tried to keep 12 male saugers and we missed once the knife was done we had 2 females by mistake.
I hope everyone has a great Happy Thanksgiving.
Hope to see you on the water.
1st photo Whats on your bow deck??
2nd photo Nice sauger Jerrie
3rd photo Blade baits
4th photo 11-11-07 Twins
5th photo Bass man
6th photo Mikes sauger
7th photo Bubble gum anyone
Oh yea we were snowed on three times this week so you hard water guys should be getting ready.
Here is a photo of some of the weapons that we used this week.
B fish N tackle has some new glow eye jigs and they worked for me all week long with the very cloudy conditions.
Thanks Dave nice job on the new jig.
Greg,
Great report and it was a ball fishing with you and Mike again. We need to talk about those smallies.
Great report Greg!
Nice job Vandy, Keep up the good work
Wallster ><((((>
Very Nice report! Love those cold-water smallies!!
Greg,
Great week on the river.
and Great report…
thanks,
Jack.
Great report Greg
I’m glad I am not the only one who has a bow deck that looks like yours
Nice report Greg!
Loved that bow deck shot also.
Two out of twelve fish kept turning out to be females on the cleaning table is a pretty darn good average. This time of year, trying to determine which of those big fatties are females can actually be pretty difficult.
Boog
Well we were going to fish today. However with a wake up temp of 17 degrees I pulled the plug on that idea.
All you hard water guys first ice on the Wabasha harbors.
Three brave duck hunting rigs broke through to chase birds, but the ice reclaimed the water before they got to there blinds. Here are a couple pics of the harbor this am.
The ice is so clear and about 1/2 inch thick it is hard to tell from the photos but there is no open water until the harbor mouth.
Yes John we will talk.
Mike we got ice.
Thanks Wallster Hope you been wetting a line.
Luke and Jack the smallies that I have been getting have been bellied and nice. Just not my target fish. Kinda the blind squirrel theme.
Jeff the snow has been in the boat three times this year already last year that did not happen until January.
Joel those were some huge saugers you guys got into over your way. This time of year is great.
When I am looking for fish for the freezer I like to try and make an effort to take males only. The DNR says that you cannot hurt this fishery from fishing pressure. But in my mind I like to let most all the females go. We are lucky here on this pool because you can catch 30 to 50 fish in short periods and pick the ones you want to keep.
Good luck on the hard water.
Thanks for report. Really helps to know what to start with. I mainly fish pool 6. Been down last 2 weekends and the bite has been really good. Hope to get out again tomorrow. Don’t get out as much as I would like and your reports really help. Again, thanks.
Nice Fish guys
Greg – I was out on P4 Thanksgiving morning… Dean was jolly but a little blurry eyed when I showed up at 6:30 on Turkey Day. He was hoping to head out to the back 40 later in the afternoon to pop a deer… hope he got one! First thing, I headed up to the 1st wingdam to pitch ring worms… struck out. Moved to the corner… struck out. Moved to the WI corner… struck out. Not one single hit while pitching. Finally at 8:30, I drifted the WI clam beds (very little current) using a gold blade bait. I picked-up 10 or eleven small walleye/sauger (<14″). I moved over to the MN side a drifted from the riprap to the 1st wingdam with the other 4 or 5 boats and continued to catch the small fish. Finally at 9:30, I pulled out the 3-ways and trolled up the current seam towards the dam from the 1st wingdam with a 3 oz weight and gold Rap. That was the ticket as I had hits on every pass. I was off the river by 10:45 with a limit of 6 saugers. Four nice eaters with the other two @ 14″. I caught 5+ walleyes, however, they were all under 15″. Went to the in-laws in Red Wing and made the dressing & deepfat fried a 12# turkey for dinner. I hope every one had a good and relaxing Thanksgiving! MIKE
Great report Vandy!
Jarrad had deer hunters to guide so I missed the annual P-4 Black Friday PIGGIE hunt with him…
I almost gave you a call but it was “LAST MINUTE”…
I guess I will reluctantly put the long rods away until March 24th 2008…
I do love that River!) 
Thanks for the report and tips on color/jig choices. Being relatively new to this whole walleye/sauger thing this is much appreciated!
I have fished P 4 the last Sat 11/17 & prior Sun 11/11 pulling 3 ways & it was chaos at its finest!Fished 2 hours on Sun afternoon 2:30-4:30 with a friend we caught 35- 40 fish.Bigger fish 17″-20″ Sauger coming on # 11 Rap.floaters in bright colors & more #’s coming on 9’s& 7’s.Went the following Sat.A.M. alone & caught 40-50 fish in 3 hours 8:30 – 11:30.Not as big of fish as prior Sun.,although 20 fish being 15″-18″.When you swing through a group of fish its almost impossible not to hook up,as they seem stacked in areas.They don’t seem super aggresive most the time so moving slowly forward & sliding sideways along the back & face of the wingdams in 18′-24′ seemed to be key depth for me.Hand held rod out fish dead stick probably 5-1 as they bump at it & I was dropping it back to let them have it.A modified 3-way set up (2 barrel swivels) seems to be the calling as you can let them have it a bit better,as they are barely hooked on a regular 3- way setup.Like to run heavier 3 oz weights to keep as vertical as possible.I havent fish this part of the river since spring & I sure missed it!
Great report Greg. I see both Mike and John are teaming up on you to get you catchin smallies.
But who got you started on two at a time ”shad” fishin??? 
Thanks, Bill