Mississippi River, MN Upper Pool 4 Report

Well it has finally started to happen, the cooler weather has set in and fall is right around the corner. Last week before the on-set of the cooler weather, I was still seeing close to a 3man limit of walleye make it to the boat on guide trips. With the 16” to 18” fish being plentiful, I spent a few days late last week and this weekend looking for some of the bigger eye’s. On Thursday of last week I spent the day with Dave Koonce looking for one big bite, it paid off for us with this first fish pictured here. This fish was taken on the upper end of the lake casting cranks to the shoreline rocks in about 3’- 4’ of water. I would like to thank Dave for snapping this picture, you do good work!

I spent some more time this Sunday with a couple good guys trying to find some more of those “big uns” and it never happened for us. We ended the day with some eaters to show for our efforts but not in big numbers. The colder weather has brought on typical fishing for this time of year, happens every year when the first bit of cooler weather makes its way in to the area, the catching slows for big numbers of fish. The fish are still there and patience has it’s rewards.

What’s working? Well, the best presentation for me to put fish in the boat has still been just drifting with light jigs and crawlers, leeches have not been productive for my boat unless it is catfish and sheephead your after. No one depth has been better than another. Key things to look for right now that are holding good numbers of fish are main channel edges, throw in some small rock, wood or calms, all the better. The depth that will be most productive in the areas you target depends on what depth that channel edge is on, play close attention to your electronics just to make sure you keep the boat on that edge to increase your chances.

This next picture is of 10yr old Pete Borgman, his dad Don looked me up for the day to chase down some of them walleye for Pete‘s birthday present. Well this kid was a natural catching most of the 17 legal walleye we boated for the day including the walleye he is picture here with, we took a quick photo and let her go. That is a good walleye in anyone’s book Pete, job well done! His dad and I tried to get the secrets out of him on what he was doing to get all those fish hooked up but he wouldn’t talk. All of our fish on this day came on light black jigs/crawlers in 2’ to 3’ of water. Hope to see you guys again next year for another birthday trip, thanks guys!

Late last week, myself, Dave Koonce and Jarrad Fluekiger spent the day doing a big group trip courtesy of John Boitman. After a few complications with boat problems and being short one guide, we got things ironed out and made the best of it. We caught some fish as well! This last picture is the Boitman group with the walleye’s we rounded up between the 3 boats in the 5 hours we spent on the water. Any day I make it out in mid Sept, after a miserable cold front and get the fish we had in 5 hours is a decent day in my book. Thanks guys and I am looking forward to next years trip already.

This weekend while fishing some of the side channels full of wood, I ran in to some really nice crappies on jigs/crawlers. I am sure if a guy leaned towards lighter pan fish gear and some different bait a guy could really put a nice bunch of those craps in the boat.

The river was exceptionally dirty for this time of year this past weekend due to the recent rains we have had. I don’t look for this to be an issue for a long period of time, the water clarity will only get better as run off dissipates the big cruisers start to go away for the winter.

That’s all for now. I’ll see ya’on the river!