Pre-Spawn Mississippi River Pool 4 Walleyes

It seems as though spring has finally sprung, and with that the walleyes are not far behind. What a weekend it was for myself and a few others that were out this past weekend. There was a few new personal bests and some very nice fish that were caught this past weekend, along with my own personal best

With the warm weather we are presently having and the fishing starting to get better, there will be more and more boats out and about. With that said if you are looking for a personal best or even just a good mess of fish, dont be afraid to get away from all the boats. Boat traffic and fishing pressure will be the first and foremost thing that will turn the fish off like the flipping of a light switch. By no means am I saying you cant catch fish or even big fish around other boats but your chances are increased when you are fishing fish that are seeing little to no pressure. With that said, keep others in mind while moving from spot to spot.

Now to the guts of the report. I spent my 4 days looking for big fish. After I set my mind to only fishing for big fish I knew it was going to be a long 4 days since I was not likely to catch a lot of fish but the fish I caught were going to be big. So if your in search of that big one stay patient and stick with it, it will come sooner or later.

I focused my attention to fishing shallow sand flats and shallow rock shorelines that have some deeper water nearby. Overall the shallow sand flats out produced the rocky shorelines this past weekend. That can change from week to week and also day to day so be sure to check out both types of areas. The best producing depths would have to have been 4 to 12 feet of water. If you are catching fish up shallow and have a boat go over top of it or have increased pressure on those fish dont be afraid to fish the deeper side of the flat. The fish will either get pushed out slightly or they may turn off completely.

I used a variety of presentations these past weekend and all of them worked but some out produced others. I pitched blade baits, ringworms, and also dragged ringworms this past weekend. Overall my best presentation would have to be pitching blade baits. Black seemed to be the best color, with gold and fire tiger coming in a close second. Dragging ringworms did put some fish in my boat over the course of the weekend but I did not see the big fish I was looking for while doing that. Blue oyster cult with a 3/32 or 1/8 black precision head seemed to do the trick for me.

The river will be ever changing now as it gets warmer, so what worked today may not work tomorrow so be prepaired to switch things up if things arent going so well. My outlook on the spring run looks to be a good one. It doesnt look like the water will get real high but it looks like we will get just enough flow to create some good current seams that will hold the fish.

Stay tuned to the Fishing Report Forum or the Mississippi River Walleye Forum for updates as the bite improves

Until next time………………….