Our trips this week lead us to pool 4 again. We Guided out of Evert’s Resort again and the fishing was fantastic. My Father(Lee)and I both had trips and both used different techniques to produce some nice quality walleyes.
My day started out up near the dam looking for some numbers right off the bat. I found that the sauger bite had slowed for us this day. However the saugers that we caught were some good ones. My best presentation was suspending a Catalpa Orange Super Doo about 8-12 inches off the bottom again. Some fish hit it while it was suspended, but most of them hit it on the way back up from dropping it to the bottom. Best depths for us were 16-19 feet and away from the crowd. After spending a couple hours at the dam we headed down river to pitch some rip rap shorelines and to vertical jig some steep ledges. All the fish in this area were all walleyes and of good quality. All the walleyes ranged from 18-22 inches. Three presentations worked for us in this area. One, vertical jigging a super doo again. Why Super Doo? I was to lazy to switch to anything else at that given time. lol. Best depth we produced there was 14-16 foot break. Second, casting hair jigs seemed to be the best presentation for my father. He is not a big plastic believer yet, but I am working on him. For to many years he had me convinced hair was IT. My father was casting 1/4 oz FisherFlick jigs with a minnow and produced 2- 22 inchers in the same area. The other presentation for that area this day was throwing Mister Twister tails in the chartreuse color. This first picture is Dan and David Anderson with their stringer of fish we caught this day.
Winding out the day we both took our clients back up to the dam to work some of the same type of rip rap. Again we found the most of the same presentations working. Except I changed up to my favortie purple with white tail ringworm held by a H20 precision jig in the 3/16 oz. Deep and steep rip rap seemed to being holding the most walleyes for us on this day. This rip rap is so steep that from the front to the back of the boat the depth changed by 18 feet. This second picture is John Ferring of Chaska, Mn. and Lee with their stinger of walleyes.
As far as pool 5. Since I have been guiding on pool 4 this last week most of my information on pool 5 is coming from people that I have talked to at the landing or stopped in at the MAIN CHANNEL bait store. Right now the dam bite is slow. However they are still pulling some descent walleye ocassionaly by trolling the face of some of the wingdams up in that area. The best area right now has been down below the power plant in the deeper water. Most people have been getting their limit of 14" saugers. One guy that I talk to quite frequently said the wingdams down below West Newton are still kicking out some descent fish. The deeper wingdams with current are going to be you best. If you can find some old rip rap down that way you will also find some descent fish. There is a lot of new rip rap down that way, but never really find a good concentration of any walleyes on them. As soon as a good concentration of walleyes show up at the dam I will holler.
Until next week good luck.
Was on pool 6 this afternoon with a friend,started pitching hair and plastic on riprap couldn`t get hit. So we went up by the dam found some better saugers there ended up with 12 of them. They ran from 14-16 1/2″. We found the better fish to be in 22-27 feet of water. We got them on black or purple fireflick jigs, and some on black sonars. The bite was very good midafternoon had lots of fish. javascript:void(0)
Hey Jarrad !! Awsome report !! I have a question for ya??? When you say trolling the face of the wing dam what is the presentation ?
thanks in advance,
Dave
There are two way we have been trolling the face of these wingdams. One way would be longlining. Long lining a Wally Diver or any deep diving crankbait along the face from shallow to deep. This wingdam is very long and so long lining does pay off. Most people don’t even know this wingdam exists. Second, would be using a stick bait, #9 or #11 Suspending Rogue or Rapala, on a 3 oz. bottom Bouncer A small wally diver has worked for us but the you have to run the leader back about 8′. This wingdam has eat a lot of my cranks, that is why the bottom bouncer is so critical for me. I hope that helps.
Thanks a lot buddy !!
How late in the year(water temps) do you run crank baits ?
Jarrad,
thanks for the info. Met your dad Thursday AM in Alma and its nice to see the town has a good bait shop.
During my day and 1/2 in the area I fished Pools 5, 5A and 6. I wish I could brag about the trip but frankly it was pretty slow and aside from one nice Walleye all the decent Sauger I caught, excepting one, were filled with spawn so I released them.
Your dad was helpful and informative, and I would highly recommend the Main Channel.
Perhaps we can get together next year, I need to learn more about Pool 5.
Great report Jarrad.
Gatro Hunter
I fish from shore and wanted to know if you had any information on fishing from shore at the Alma dam.
Sincerely, Fish4ever
The only two places that are good from shore, that I fish, would be the area directly below the dam along the rip rap. Fish the wall with the fence on it. The other one would be the point just north of the landing by the power plant. Using small jig heads with hair or plastics will be your best presentation. I hope that helps.