Pool 4 Mississippi River Walleye Report 4-10-09

Well I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter. The last three days I was fishing my favorite body of water Pool 4. My nephew Mike Anderson was here on the Easter break. We shared the boat on Friday with my rod builder Jerie Eckholdt. This first photo is of Jerie with a real dandy pre spawn sauger she measured just a pinch less than 23 inches. However this was an awesome fish we did not weigh her but she had to be pushing six pounds. This hungry female whacked a B fish N paddle tail with the purple white tail.

This spring has had me searching and trying new techniques to find some bigger fish, with little results. With the water rising so quickly and being so cold it has made for some difficult fishing scenarios. The strong flows and cool temps have really had me scratching my head. On Friday the water temps were running 42 degrees on Sunday when we quit it was at 49 degrees. The good news is the flow is slowing and creating more fishable current seams. Also the spawn will be over in the next day or two so get ready for the water to hit over 50 degrees and the feeding frenzy to begin.

This next fish is Mike’s largest walleye of the trip around six pounds. She gulped a 3/16 ounce black jig head with a small paddle tail in the pepper chartreuse flavor. Mike let this sweep down the 12 foot edge and was snap jigging with long pauses, she crushed this presentation. Our jig presentations over the past days were 1/8 oz to 5/8 oz; the heavy jigs were worked up the deeper edges with heavier current. Plastics and minnows were a 50/50 split on bringing fish to the boat. Thank you Dean for some great live bait!! Our better colors were orange and orange with chartreuse (yellow and green) the next best choice. Did I mention orange was working?

During my last three days Mike and I pitched jigs and blades, pulled stick baits and pulled Dubuque rigs. We took fish on all presentations, yesterday with the stick baits it was insane we had two and three fish on at a time, most were small sauger but it was still fun. For my boat the numbers have been picking up each trip out. I think part is due to warming temps and the flow is slowing. I still hope the high water stays with us for another month. This next fish was taken on a Dubuque rig and she took the minnow on a plain hook. We were working a 6 foot edge just creeping up the current. Slow has been one of the keys the last few days, and slower at times is even better.

My goal was to try and find Mike a fish of a lifetime however that did not happen. But it was not from lack of trying. Mike and I were on the water by 5:30 am everyday and yesterday we came off the water at 9:30 pm. The bite seemed best for us just as the sun came up after that we just stayed persistent and the fish came in spurts. This next fish is Mikes personal best Buffalo, this was quite the fish. It was just about dark and Mike foul hooked it and she almost spooled the reel. Mike managed to slow her down but could not bring her back to the boat, so I had to hand over hand the fish back to slacker water then he was able to finish the fight with the rod. This whole fiasco took about 15 minutes and we were giggling the whole time. She came to the surface a few times and that just got Mike’s blood just a pumping. So for the 2009 Mikes Easter trip this will have to be his big one. Oh yea she almost broke my net.