John and Tyler of the Red Wing area picked a perfect night to fish Pool 4 of the ol’ ‘sippi for channel cats and the elusive Shovelnose Sturgeon.
The evening started out slow. We had 5 rods out with cut sucker, shad and a live sucker. Just missing worms and stink bait I guess. After about a hour of nothing, I figured it was time to move, but told the guys we might be back to this spot. We were fishing the back side of the scour hole by the dam.
We anchored in 13 feet of water next to a ledge that drop in to about 30 -35 feet on the front side of the scour hole. The action started very quickly and there wasn’t much of a wait between SOMETHING biting! John was pretty happy with his personal best 19 pound channel cat. She was a pig!
Tyler on the other hand was working on the shovelnose. By the end of the night we had three boated. The last one was a double with another fish I talk about later.
Team Catfish 3/0 double action hooks, a 2 ounce sinker on a Team Catfish sneekATTACK slider, 80 pound PowerPro and Dean from Everts Fishing Resorts favorite Sturgeon rod, the St Croix Triumph was the gear of the evening.
John hooked into a smaller 10 pound channel earlier tonight. It seemed like cut sucker fillets were producing over smashed sucker heads or shad and the deeper water was making the line twitch more than the shallower water.
I had the person in the front of the boat hold on to a rod. That seemed to work well as a number of fish came in on that rod.
About the last fish of the evening came on the rod that was held by Tyler. He said something like "It feels solid!" which translated means…pull up the back anchor and clear any line that might be in the way!
The fish came out of the depths in a flash and came half way out of the water. Although I didn’t see it I did hear the splash and the tell tale "holy xxxx!" afterwards. I was on the net and John was on the spotlight. Tyler wasn’t ready for the strength of the fish as whatever Tyler gained on the fish…the fish took back and then more. Sally, I mean Tyler was talking about his arm starting to hurt. 
John and I were about ready to start our second game of checkers when Tyler said she was coming by the boat. He brought it into the net like a pro. Fifty inches and about 35 pounds of Lake Sturgeon lie before him.
A couple quick pictures and back into the net and water she went to get her friskiness back before we let her go.
While we were kicking back watching Tyler, I had John reel in a line that might be in the way…and he ended up with the third Shovelnose of the evening..nice double!
The bite was steady all evening and with three personal bests out of Pool 4 it was time to call it a night and I’m glad we did. Started to rain pretty good about midnight.
Thanks John and Tyler…we’ll have to do it again!
Good report BK,19lb channel is a dandy for these parts.
Good report Brian. A 19 pound channel is a heck of a fish for Pool 4. Won’t be long now and that area you were fishing wil be sauger central. Tell the truth–you were really up there pre-fishing for Saugerama, weren’t you
You must have spotted the pak of Bk Semi Pro Blue Lizards on my console.
No Redneck…my fishing partner for the saugerama dumped me this year….even though if it weren’t for me, he wouldn’t have made it on the board last year. I’m just taken for granted.
The big channel was all head and muscle. Very short I thought.
Who are you kidding Brian, I heard you were begging Dean for a pack of Redneckcrackers. Everyone knows they will outfish BK pro blue
Nice report Brian, and some real nice looking channels. Was this the flathead bite you mentioned you were on? if so a bit off, but you got into some fish and that is what counts.
Way cool read and awesome fish Brian and company
If a guy were going to chase shovelnose exclusively on P4, what depth and bait might you recommend? Mainstream current, or slackwater?
PS Awesome fish guys!
hey brain i thought we where on our third game of checkers last night
i think tylers arm might still be hurting him a bit thanks agin brian it was a blast and a really nice night hope to get out agin sometime thanks agin 
Tyler, the guys that fish them frequently fish around sand.
Last night they were coming from 30-35 fow and not really close to any sand that I’m aware of. Just fishing my ol’ channel cat spots.
Hey guys, Nice cats, but I’m enclosing a picture I took of my friend “Polish Joe” with a cat caught pool #4 April 15th 2007.This fish was caught on 4# Stren (gold mono) I know this because I spooled the reel for him. It took 1/2 hr. to land this fish and yes we did some chasing. This cat weighed 60# it was well over 49″ long HERE “KITTY” “KITTY”.. “hairjig”