Mississippi River Pool 3

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The old muddy is finally coming down and the search for the bigger fish has begun, and as you can see from the first picture, they are cooperating! With the flow coming down to almost normal levels, I’ve been spending my time pitching cranks and jigs tipped with crawlers and leeches to wing dams.

With there still being some decent flow on the river, my quest to find fish consists of finding the dams with the least amount of flow. The easiest way I’ve found to do this is to look at the cans (marker buoys) and look at the wake coming off of the back side of them. If the buoy is still dancing and there is a good wake behind it, I’ll move down a couple of wingies and check the next can.

Once I’ve found a dam that looks good, its time to get the business end out. Right now with the current conditions, before I toss out the anchor I’m looking at the flow on the wing dam to determine where I’m going to start fishing.

I grab the water spike anchor, toss it off the front and let enough line out so I can reach the top of the dam with my cranks, after a couple of casts, I may need to readjust and let more line out, or take line in to get the proper boat position for cranking. For pitching jigs, you want to be closer to the wingie than you are when pitching cranks. You can’t toss a 1/8 or a 1/4 oz jig nearly as far as a crank.

Equipment: For cranks I’m using the same setup as last year ES66MF St. Croix Legend Elites strung with 20 lb power pro and a cross lock snap, lures my personal preferences are bomber models a’s and rapala dt 6’s. For jigs St. Croix Legend Elites ES68MXF with 8 pound Mustad mono and or 12 lb fire line and b fish n jigs. If you’re looking to add to your river equipment, call/see/pm Dean @ Everts Resort, he has the best selection and advice.

I hope I’ve answered all the questions that have been pm’d to me, if I haven’t feel free to post it here, or in a pm and I’ll answer it to the best of my ability.

I hope everyone has a safe and enjoyable 4th of July holiday,

Until next time,

Jami

0 Comments

  1. Couple more pictures of buddies with some nice eater box fish and a some of the “other” fish that also enjoy a crawler.

  3. That is one good report Jami!!!! I have been waiting for Pool 3 to get back to normal and now that it has I am leaving for South Dakota. Don’t wear them all out before I get back It was good chatting with you the other night at Evert’s. I’ll be seeing you on the river soon!

  8. Nice report sir! Makes me want to take out a loan and gas up the truck and the boat. Pool 2 wingies should be kicking them out again now too. Gonna check out some places friday and see what is happening.

    dd

  9. Very Nice Walleye Jami!
    The river sure came down fast, I hope to get out sometime over the weekend. Thanks for the report.

  10. Nice eyes and even better tips Jamie

    Reading the cans for flow takes alot of the guess work out of it resulting in more fish time…..nice report!

  13. Hey Jami on the 29! They are out there but much harder to find this time of year…well…harder to find for most of us!

    Question:

    Quote:

    I grab the water spike anchor, toss it off the front and let enough line out so I can reach the top of the dam with my cranks, after a couple of casts, I may need to readjust and let more line out, or take line in to get the proper boat position for cranking.

    This question could be a whole nother thread…but here goes.

    When fishing cranks, do you fish them the same way as you would a jig as far as presentation to the wing dam? Letting the crank swing in front of a portion of the wing dam…or are you fishing the top of the dam?

  14. Quote:

    When fishing cranks, do you fish them the same way as you would a jig as far as presentation to the wing dam? Letting the crank swing in front of a portion of the wing dam…or are you fishing the top of the dam?

    Yes Brian, this could be a whole another thread. But here is the quick and easy, well at least the way I do it.

    With the water still moving pretty quickly, I target a specific section of the dam. So I am casting to the top of the dam and running it down the face of it. As the flow decreases you have to follow the fish and the angles may/will change depedning on where the fish are located on the dam.

    Jami

  16. Fished pool 3 on Friday and Saturday morning and did ok.A few for the pan and a few piggies that were released.(Sorry,no pics)Many silvers and a couple of smallies as a bonus. The gas prices seem to be slowing the big boats down some…but not the number of them.

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