With the hundreds of boats that I have been seeing converging on Pool 4 and not seeing a report…I thought I would throw a quickie out there. Various presentations have been putting fish in the boat. With the clear water at hand right now, low light periods are best. But that does not mean that fish cannot be had during the day! Quite the contrary in fact! Fish are being boated with live bait, BFT Super Doos, Ringworms and Paddle Tails vetically jigged and slightly dragged. This bite should stay hot for the forseeable future. Stained and warmer water should help provide some better daytime bites in the weeks to come.
Blade baits pitched to sand flats and shoreline structure are also catching fish. I have been having my best luck with B-Fish-N Tackle Gold Plate Blades that I get at Evert’s Resort from Dean. If you were to ask Jami Ritter, it would be a black blade. If you asked Big Erick, it would be purple. The biggest thing I find with fishing blades is that you have to get them in front of the fish. Pitch in to shore and let the bait settle…which you can tell by watching the line go slack on the surface. By holding the rod 45 degrees to the shoreline, you want to provide a quick snap of the wrist, and “Guide” the bait back down to the bottom by reeling slack and lowering the blade simultaneously, Once back on the bottom….repeat. Work out to the deeper water to right under the boat. Let the fish tell you what depth to focus on.
The dragging bite has been good as well for numbers of fish, and some size mixed in as well. Ringworms Paddletails and Shad bodies have been putting the hurt on some very nice sauger and walleyes. Curt Angerman of Hastings caught a 10.6# beauty! He has NEVER caught a walleye that big! Other IDO Staff and folks I have talked to have echoed the same thing. Slow dragging and xig zagging the pattern has helped put stingy fish on the boat floor! St. Croix Avid Medium Fast 7 foot and 8 foot Tournament Legend rods in Medium Light have been proving to be worth their weight in gold for dragging. (I just bought another 8 footer from Dean this weekend! Thanks!!) I have been teaming them up with the New Pflueger line of reels. Dean will balance out your combo for you and get you on track and on fish quickly. Even if for some odd reason you wouldn’t purchase your rod from Dean, listen to what he tells you as he know fish, and he knows the equipment. Dragging depths have ranged from 6-20 feet for us.
Anyways…a few weeks back during the FYB Tournie, I was listening to this Cat-Guy whine about wanting one of the Walleye-Guys to take him out fishing to show him the finer side of life. I thought he was kidding as usual and just kind of blew it off as the ramblings of someone who has been around too much Sonny’s Stink Bait and lead fumes from pouring his own sinkers. But his whining became more insistent, to the point where I actually thought he was serious! Turns out he was…so I took him out for a Pool 4 walleye adventure. (I swear I heard him mumble something under his breath about wanting them for some early season cut-bait…But he denies it.) We were able to coax some nice crappies pushing the 14″ mark and some nice walleye pitching blades (Which I did as I didn’t want this rookie to donate the better part of by BFT Blade collection to the rock Gods!) and pitching some Shad bodies which I had a large supply of and figured I could lose a few. Sure was fun fishing with ya BK! We will have to do it again, and if you buy some blades, I will show you how to fish them!!!
I agree. I was down below the Red Wing Dam yesterday dragging paddletails on 1/4 ounce jigheads. Many fish were caught, including a 26″ walleye and a 22″ sauger, with amny fish in the 15″-20″ range.
TWO of the right color is a large supply?!
You just thought a plastic would be softer than a blade if I happened to pop on out of the water.
Thanks for taking me seriously…AND out fishing without leaving me on that sand bar.
Your St Croix sure made “feeling” the fish easier. That night was the first time I fished walleyes with a Croix. They game me a “sixth sense” and I can understand why Deano has the on the water demo.
Sunny evening, good fishing good friends…doesn’t get much better than that.
PS Don’t forget the beer next time!
Good report Tuck and sorry you had to babysit BK. Dean does need a break from his ramblings once in a while though
I think we are right around the corner from the dragging bite really taking off gangbusters! It is that time of year 
Good to see you down there Tuck. So, was BK wearing that nose warmer or did you make him take it off before being allowed in your boat?
Jeremy
Nice job Tuck and nice vest!!!Is that performance fleece your wearing?????
lol oh boy here we go! haha
I got ‘yer performance fleece little man….
Doc, no he didn’t wear it, but he was upset for forgetting it.
Dean, thanks for the $20 off the rod for getting BK out of the shop. You really didn’t need to do that.
No way that’s worth $20.00. 50% easily. Think how much stuff he didn’t wreck. Now that I think about it, he probably owes you a couple rods.
Nice vest, they were so cool in the 70’s!
My job is to make things fashionable that are old and unused. Kinda why I hang out with ya Koots!
I was down there yesterday and the bite was terrible for the majority of boats. Did not see one decent fish boated from 1-pitch dark. Only fish seen caught were 8″ saugers. The bite is not “hot” by any means.
Were you wearing a vest?
Ya know Flicker…I feel your pain as with a number of others. When I was with Mr. 70’s Show, we used two very different presentations the few hours we were out.
We stayed away from the deep water and we didn’t fish vertical. We did pitch to shore line and we did drag. Dragging brought in the most fish.
I only saw one fish shorter than 14 inches and the guide caught him. If I would have had a lighter, I could have smoked it right there in the boat.
I’m not sure what presentation you’re offering, but they are out there and biting. On the otherhand, only the true Pool 4 Rats work putting the big numbers in the boat.
Ps If you see a Skeeter boat on the water…
follow it.
Easy now BK, its hard enough the way it is now, dont need any more help
Nice report Tuck and good seeing ya again.
Sorry you had to take BK out, but somebody has to do the dirty work I guess 
Dont ever ever ever look inside of that nose warmer.
Worth every penny Tuck…I owe ya big time! I hope you liked the new rods!
It might be a bit confusing if you followed that advice.
There is getting to be to many Skeeters down there now.
Or disspointed…if you followed me.
great job! looks like lots of fun!
He did that to you too??
BYOB or die of thirst…
Thanks for the report– and refresher course.. Tuck..
hey dean how early are you guys open saturday the 21 i will be over to see ya?
oh yeah and another quick question what are these fish bucks i see next to everyones name??
WH, Everts normally opens at 6 am, but tomorrow I’ll have the coffee on my 5:30.
The explanation of fish bucks can be found in the FAQ forum or you can ask me when you stop in Everts on Sat.
Either way….don’t forget the cookies!!