Mississippi River Fishing Report Pool 4 Walleye

This past week has been a great example of on and off again fishing on Pool 4 near Red Wing. One day we’re pounding the fish, the very next we’re working our tails off to scrape up 15 – 20 decent fish. In this first photo we have Dave Klamfoth and son Ed with 3 nice fish from 22 – 25 inches that we caught fishing 5 inch k-grubs early in the AM right below the dam off rip rap and natural rock. We snuck these fish out from amongst a number of boats in the area and dropped downstream for pics after which all of these fish were released.

Our average wallye is running about 18 – 19 inches most days and about every other day we seem to be able to work out a number of the 22 – 25 inch fish shown here and they come to the boat fairly easy and fast. On the bright, clear days we’re just not able to get these larger fish to go regardless of what we do although we are still able to put a mess of the under 20’s in the boat.

The hot color(s) for the AM were Chartreuse Pearl and Firecracker with a few fish coming to the boat on Pearl Blue S and P and Smoke. You can see from this photo that the day was very overcast… having some cloud cover has been one of the keys to an all-day bite of late. On days when we have clear skies and a bright sun, like the last 3 days, the bite is MUCH slower with action concentrated early and late in the day.

On this day Dave and ED enjoyed steady action throughout the day but we did have to change techniques AND locations to stay with the fish. Early in the day we hit the dam area and had fast paced action on the larger tails in very shallow water, 2′ – 4′ and right at the edge of the rocks was key, but once the crowds arrived we were forced to relocate once the bite tailed off. It wasn’t until we got well downstream, just above the lake in fact, that we got on some steady action again. The grub bite died but the ringworm bite was solid for us the rest of the day with anything purple turning the fish for us. I held the boat well off the rip rap and natural rock in 16′ of water and let the guys make long casts up to the shore. Most of the biters came from 9′ – 11′ during the middle of the day so if you find yourself on the water in the near future, do make this adjustment in depths fished to stay on the bite.

Dave and Ed are shown in this second photo with a 2-man limit of walleyes and saugers from 15.5 – 18 inches. About a half dozen fish over 20 inch were cheerfully released by these guys as well as a number of the super-fat 19 inchers they deemed much to nice for eats! Super job guys. We all appreciate the Selective Harvest and I personally look forward to fishing with you guys again soon as I had a great time myself.

On Tuesday I had the chance to spend an afternoon fishing with Summer Robertson from Roseville, MN… previously from Bemidji. She may have left the north woods and all those lakes behind but she did NOT forget to take her love of fishing with her! Early in the afternoon we butted heads with the clear conditions and strong winds and found the bite to be quite tough. A few small saugers and some crappies was all we could muster for the first couple hours but I was confident that we’d be able to get in on a bunch of fish from 3 PM – dark. And lucky for us, things worked out just the way I hoped.

We got set up on a rocky shoreline up near the dam about 3 PM and decided to simply wait the fish out on a high percentage spot I had a lot of faith in. We also down-sized baits by cutting off about an inch of the head of our purple chartreuse ringworms and went to lighter heads to slow the sink rate… and it worked like a charm on a day when boat after boat was professing how tough the bite had been all day! Summer is shown here with one sauger and one walleye, both sporting some rather nice markings / coloration in this photo. Summer had never caught a sauger before so the chance to see the difference first hand was a bonus. These fish were holding in some pretty swift current along the rip rap below the dam. With some really deep water nearby I’m certain these fish pop up out of the deep water from their resting areas and feed quickly on the abundant baitfish and then vacate once they’ve fed.

One of my tried and true patterns I turn to when the light levels are low is to switch to the larger baits and fish as shallow as possible in the same areas we caught fish earlier in hopes of sticking a big fish to end the day. Summer is shown here with a dandy saugeye caught on a 5 inch K-Grub. Chartreuse Pearl on a Gloss Black Jig head did the deed and this is one happy gal in this photo!

With the rains this past week the river levels jumped up quickly but have nearly returned to previous levels. The flow remains slightly higher than before the rains but for the most part, the river is the way you last saw it a week ago. Water clarity is excellent. Icing is not a problem anywhere and all ramps are open and accessible. The warmer weather has resulted in the return of the sauger bite on blade baits with the regular sonars working much better than other designs. I’ve not participated in this bite but for the most part, those that are getting fish but choosing to not fish plastics over the last few days have been doing so on blades.

With the predicted arrival of a strong front this weekend one can just about bank on a couple days of very good fishing until the front rolls through. The forecast is for some pretty NASTY weather on Sunday so if you plan on hitting the river this weekend, might I suggest Saturday be the day?! <img src="http://www.in-depthangling.com/forums/lake/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

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