With 2008 coming to an end, I took the opportunity to spend a couple of "between the holidays" days fishing at the upper end of Pool 4 out of Everts Resort. If you’re a year-round open water angler (like me), then Everts is the only game in town. Not only are the ramps in tip-top shape (Yes, the ramps are OPEN), but the coffee is hot and Dean’s fishing information is not only up-to-date, it is up-to-the-minute.
During the past couple of days, I dedicated the daytime hours to giving a bunch of new baits a thorough workout. These included the Everts Resort line of 225 paddletails and the new Goldcracker paddletail from B-Fish-N tackle company. I was more than impressed with how these baits performed in the cold, clear December waters of upper Pool 4…and I think you will be as well.
The predominant daytime pattern on Pool 4 right now is vertical jigging. While this is primarily a sauger pattern, there are some walleyes in the mix (including some quality fish), as well as sturgeon, cats, and even some redhorse (which I seem to encounter on every trip this fall). When setting up a vertical jigging pass, point the bow of your boat into the wind and use your bowmount trolling motor to keep your boat speed equal to the drift speed of your bait. Remaining directly on top of your baits is the only way to keep those baits in the strike zone. Where is the strike zone, you ask? Well, its just a few inches off the bottom. The basic paddletail presentation is to (1) lower your bait to the bottom, (2) lift up 3-6", (3) give the bait a sharp upward snap or two, (4) allow your bait to return to its position 3-6" above the bottom, and then, most importantly, (5) hooooooooooooooold steady for as long as you can stand it. 80% of your bites will come during the hold period. The rest will come when you drop the bait back down to to re-establish that key 3-6" distance from the bottom of the river. Hold on to that rod, because your bites will not be subtle!
As I mentioned above, I spent my time working goldcracker paddletails and 225 paddletails. These baits were effective during different periods of the day. When fish were a bit lethargic, the 225 paddletails really rose to the top. The smaller profile of these baits are a good match to the size of the remaining shad in the system, and were able to produce fish for us when larger profile baits were ignored.
When fish were on the chew, the goldcracker paddletail was dynamite. This bait offers a larger profile and more significant action from its tail, which matched the aggressive mood of the fish when the dinner bell was ringing. When we would switch from 1-2 fish per pass up to 5-6 fish per pass, I would drop my 225 paddletail rod and fish a pair of goldcracker paddletails…with excellent results.
The holidays bring families together from all over the country, and this was certainly the case for our family. On Saturday, I had the opportunity to host my father-in-law Tim Moore, and his brother-in-law Bill Mason from Storm Lake, Iowa. Bill is a long time IDO fan, but this was his first trip to Pool 4. Bill, Tim and I spent our short day together working 225 paddletails and goldcracker paddletails between Everts and LD#3, and I think our results will have Bill coming back to P4 again, hopefully soon! We harvested a few fish for a New Years day dinner and let the rest swim away. Bill and Tim, thanks for joining me on a brisk December day at Everts resort…I look forward to our next trip together.
The early part of next week’s weather looks favorable for open-water angling. If you’re a bit concerned about how the recent warmth and rains have impacted your ice-fishing locations, pull the boat down to Everts and enjoy a productive day on soft water. Grab some 225 paddletails and goldcracker paddletails from Dean, and stick your first walleyes for 2009.
A bit more about equipment. You may have read here on IDO that Dean is carrying a new hi-vis jigging line from Cortland, and that our results so far have been very favorable. Shown in this photo are 4 different 8 lb test lines that I currently have rigged. On the top is the venerable Trilene Sensation Solar. Below that is Sufix Elite hi-vis yellow. Next is Sufix Siege tangerine. At the bottom is the new Cortland line. There are several things I like about the Cortland line. First is the color, which I think is a nice blend of tangerine and yellow. Yellow seems to disappear pretty quickly for me when the sun is getting low, but the orange tint of the cortland line makes it very easy to see in low-light pitching and dragging applications. Second, I like the limpness of the Cortland line for tying knots. Even in the cold air temps of the past couple of mornings, the line developed very little memory which made tying knots very easy. Do yourself a favor….spool up a reel with the new Cortland line and compare it side-by-side with the line you’re currently using. I think you’ll be impressed.
Now, on to the baits. First are the 225 paddletails that we had success with. Probably the most productive in my boat was the kings ale/TNT tail (lower left), followed by Chapstick (upper right). We also caught fish on metallic TNT (upper lerft) and Shrek’s pinky purple (lower right). All of these were rigged on 3/8 oz Everts Resort custom jigs. Silver glitter (lower left) was a clear sauger favorite, followed closely by solid orange.
The second photo fetures two larger profile baits that were productive during hot-bite periods. These included the Goldcracker paddletail and an Everts Custom shadcracker ringie. Again, 3/8 oz heads are what we were using for this vertical work.
The last photo features a pair of ringies that I was using for low-light dragging. During your next trip…stay until dusk and enjoy some FAST dragging action in the shallows. Dean Marshall and I popped 15 fish in about 45 minutes dragging ringies and ringers along shallow rip-rap shorelines. Pictured here is the pair of ringies I typically start the evening with….chartreuse pepper and some sort of purple (purple/pearl tail in this instance). Both of these are rigged on 3/32 oz Everts custom heads (green/chartreuse on top, voodoo on the bottom). Dean and I had good success with 3/32 and 1/16 oz heads up in the shallows.
Well the information does not get any better than that! great report Jason.
Thanks for the detail’s. I’ve gone to see dean a couple of times and picked up some nice plastics. I have also spooled two of my reels with cortland and i am very happy.I can’t wait to get back to pool 4.
Jason, WOW…what a boatload of great information you shared with us..thanks for taking time to make this long post. Looks like I’ll have to invest in some more plastics…every time I think I’m about set with every imagineable color, Dean comes up with some new and even BETTER colors, and sizes. These look awesome…Thanks again for the post.
LG
You make it real simple for guys to know what to do!
The only thing they have to know now is location. And you can’t tell them everything. What fun would that be? 
Jason,I sure want to thank you for letting me tag along to catch a few fish the other evening. As you commented,it was pretty nice to be catching that many fish and not having virtually any other boats to contend with!
Also,a big thankyou to yourself and many of the other pool #4 anglers who have taken their valuable fishing time to help field test all of the new products we have been working with this past year.It is always a challenge sorting out the products that look good,or has the most advertising behind it versus what actually works good!
Jason, thanks for the great pictures of the baits, we are heading down there next weekend and will now no what to buy from Dean. Are you going upstream against the current when dragging?
I think that we caught equal numbers upstream as we did downstream. Does that sound about right, Dean?
I tend to drag downstream as a general rule, although I do have a few favorite shallow spots where dragging upstream is just as effective if the current is right.
Daytime dragging upstream in deeper water with heavier heads, say 1/4-5/16, will put fish in the boat as well.
Yes,on that evening upstream vs downstream was very close. I have had several outings that one is much more productive than another.Flow,depth of water,jig weight,plastic profile & boat speed are all pieces of the puzzle that factor in to your success or lack there of!
Very impressive report Jason!
Not that I don’t like the ice fishing reports, but it sure is nice to see a great open water sauger/walleye fishing report this time of the year.
A bunch of great information as well. Thanks for taking the time to do such a detailed fishing report!
Jason. Sounds like you had a great weekend of fishing. I’m looking forward to a trip with you real soon. Hope you have a great new years. I also wish everyone at IDO a great New Years from Dan and Dave at the Skeeter Boat Center.
Dean. Just to let you know, it’s safe to spill coffee in Erik’s boat. Saturday I installed to cans of scotch guard(heavy on the passenger side.) Also, it has a new slide seat for long legged guy like us. Look forward to seeing you soon.
I need to time my next outing so I can fish the sunset hours. We did not successfully put the daytime dragging bite together during our weekend outings but the vertical bite was going very well for us.
Nice report Jason and Dean.
See you later this week on the water
I failed to spill a drop in Jasons boat….I will try harder next time!
It wasn’t the coffee spills I was most worried about.
Excellent report Jason
and congrats to everyone on a successful Pool 4 trip! 
Dean spilling coffee in someone’s boat really isn’t any different than Gus “leaving his mark”.
Jason,
Great report and I can add some comments from Sunday. The word from Dean was slow in the middle of the day and that comment was prophetic. Sunday was sunny with light winds. I’ve had some of my best shallow-water days at Red Wing with bright sun overhead so I figured I could figure out something. Well Sunday the fish won, till about 4:00 PM. That the feeding light went on and the bite was great. I had about 25 fish in the last hour of daylight. I was setup to fish after dark so I probably missed the best bite. Most of my fish came vertical on oyster shell paddletails in 22-26 FOW. Your description of the presentation is dead on. Being a bass guy we think walleyes are wimps. However, I have to give them A’s for the strike. You lift the jig, hold it steady and whap!
What a hoot! I have to give the I did manage a couple walleye casting wing dams at dusk. Guy’s you have to get up there and enjoy the action. I added a picture of a hump-back sauger that is typical of the size to expect.
John
What a report! Thanks for all the information.
Geez Jason, Those Silver, Purple, and Gold glitter heads look familiar.
Great report as usual. 
“Hairjig”