Pool 4 Sat. 11/24/07

A few weeks ago, friend Jamie Revermann and I arranged to partner up and fish the Turkey Combo Event held out of Evert’s this weekend. The weather was promising mild temps in the morning, and clearing skies in the afternoon.

Nate Caldwell did a great job putting on the tournament, and it was fished by 20 teams. See the post below this one to see the Link to Nate’s final Tournament Results. Congratulations to Kerry Harvey and Brett King for their First Place finish with 17.44 pounds.

I thought I’d make a report on what was working for Jamie and I.

With the cooler and clearer water we started out vertical jigging the main channel in 22 to 28 feet. It is very important to be vertical while jigging, and also allows you to use lighter jigs and still stay in contact with the bottom. Plastics that worked for us were Super-Doos and Paddletails. Colors were mainly char/pep, catulpa, and firecraker. Jamie mainly used a three-way rig with a heavier jig and plastic on the bottom, with a floater and minnow off the main line. The fishing was pretty steady with quite a few Saugers caught. Mostly 16 to 17 inch fish, with at least five that went 18 to 19 1/2 inches.

I caught our 3 tournament 19 inch Saugers, and Jamie caught our Walleyes. Jamie had quite a few Walleyes that were just under the 15 inch limit and were released. Early afternoon we were pitching some shallow shoreline with Kalin tails when this Walleye hit Jamie’s offering. This Walleye (in the first photo) was the biggest of the Tournament, and went 25 inches, and 5.90 pounds, which won for us an additional $100. After I netted this Walleye, I told Jamie, he just put us in the top five (I was hoping). We only caught 2 fish shallow casting, so we went back to vertical jigging to try and catch our remaining Walleye for our tounament limit of 3 Walleyes and 3 Saugers. We were not able to get that last fish, and ended up weighing only 5 fish that went 14.78 pounds, and was good enough for a 4th Place finish.

Jamie drove down from the St Joesph area with 2 friends, Brady Hedlund and Jesse Stocker, who have never fished Pool 4 before. They were both very excited to finally get to fish here, and did quite well, especially for first timers on the river. They finished in 10th Place out of 20 boats and Brady caught this 5.16 pound Sauger that measured 22.75 inches (he also won $100 for Tourney Biggest Sauger). This is the biggest Sauger I’ve seen in quite a while. Congrats Brady on your great fish.

Overall it was a great day to be on the water, and thanks Jamie for partnering up this weekend. The river is in great shape, water clarity is good, and the fish are biting. The Evert’s ramps are in perfect condition. Get on down to the river and enjoy a day on the water.

Jack..

CLICK ON PICTURES FOR ENLARGE..