Mississippi River Pool 4 1/12/2008

Well another trip down to pool 4 is in the books. The weather was decent and the fish were willing to cooperate. I had the pleasure to share my boat with a buddy and fellow tournament fisherman Cory B. (Sorry Cory I’m not going to attempt to spell your last name.) Cory arrived at Evert’s early in the afternoon and we formulated a game plan. Our plan for the day, pitch blades to some sand flats and also some deeper rock shelves, and towards evening we were planning on dragging ringworms on shallow sand flats and rocky shorelines. Our plan proved to be a good one and rewarded us with plenty of eaters.

Our mid day blade bite was a little on the slow side. We did however manage a half a dozen fish, just enough to keep our focus. Our best blade color was Black in the 1/4oz size. The location that seem to hold the most fish was a sand flat that topped out at 12 feet and had just a little current running over it.

As for the dragging, that was a differnt game. The fish were much more interested in our dragging presentation. I believe the dragging presentation proved better because of two things. One being most fish are holding just off bottom and cruising. The other being that since the water is clear they are having no troble seeing the plastic traveling up river. Our best colors for the afternoon would have to be Firecracker Chart. Tail, and Purple Chart. Tail. I also got word from a couple of other boats that Chart. Orange Core and Chart. Pepper were doing well for them.

The third picture is one that I took of my graph while pitching blades on a sand flat. Notice I said we didn’t do the greatest pitching blades but we caught fish. The fish were there but just did not like our presentation for some reason, so we switched to dragging ringworms and that answered my questions. So if you are marking fish, just stick with them, wait them out and change colors and presentations often until the fish tell you what they want.

I did get the chance to fish with Dean on Sunday afternoon. As soon as I went and picked him up we headed towards the dam to start dragging. Like yesterday as soon as we got there the fish started snapping. We did good on our first few passes and we had a little lull until the sun finally hid itself behind the trees. From there on out we were catching a good amount of fish each pass. We made a couple more passes and decided we have had enough. We were both getting cold, that little wind that was out there was nasty coming right down the river. Once again Dean it was a pleasure fishing with you and next time we will get out longer when you have some more time. By the way thanks for the warm cabin this weekend.

Just a little side note here. I mentioned I got cold sunday afternoon. Well I HAD to let Dean use his OWN SnoSuit and I dont have mine yet. Like I have mentioned before the two weekends before this one I was using Dean’s suit. I would wear long underwear bottoms with a pair of jeans, and a t-shirt, sweatshirt, and light flannel. I stayed comfortable both weekends and never got a chill. Now on sunday knowing that I wasnt going to be able to wear the suit, I put on what I had wore before and added a pair of sweatpants and a long underware top. Instead of the SnoSuit I layered up. I thought with the extra layers on and my rain gear to break the wind I would be ok. Well I was wrong. Take that as you wish, but that has been my experiences with it and I am now a very firm believer.

Until next time……….