Pool 8 Multi Species Report 9/5/09

With a busy weekend in the making and only half a day to fish Mike and I were having a hard time making up our minds what fish to target Saturday morning. Friday night the decision was made, bring along a little of everything and we will decide once we get to the landing
Early morning we were greeted with a heavy but manageable fog. It was then we decided to head for a close by wing dam which would be safe to get to as long as we took are time. Mike’s GPS was fired up and pointing us in the right direction while we kept the eyes pealed looking for the red can marking the end of the wing dam. In short order the boat was anchored up and pieces of crawler were pitch to the face on the rock in hopes of finding some orange belly’s on the feed. Mike’s bobber was the first to hit the surface and as soon as it stood up straight it disappeared, BINGO

With a trip for opening bow season next week and me needing a dinner to pass, this would be a perfect opportunity to put a fish fry together. A number of eager 7.5inch gills were being caught on small orange jigs tipped with a small piece of crawler. Some were caught off bottom and others just 3-4 foot under a bobber as the offering drifted towards the rocks.
With ten gills in the live well and then playing catch and release curiosity started to get the best of us. Why not move to the scour hole behind the rock and see if there are any crappies that would be willing to fill out the rest of the fry. The back side of this particular wing dam has produced crappies for us in past years. 30fow and a big eddy holds these specks throughout the fall season before they start heading into one of there favorite wintering grounds. Once again, Mike’s bobber never stopped going down once it hit the water

The MarCum LX-5 is a great tool for taken the guess work out of finding fish in the water column spring, summer, fall and especially winter. The unit was tattling on the specks in the deep water giving there position away 5 foot under. A pink jig head tipped with a minnow placed in the strike zone produced non stop action and in short order 10 specks were added to complete the fish fry. What a great start to the morning, yep, this was just the start.
Having all our gear along and with the fog lifting it was time to start casting to see what other species could be drummed up. The spook produced a few short snot rockets along weed edges and small blow ups as we worked are way up a side channel. There seemed to be more active fish out in the middle of the side channel itself, plus there seemed to be some larger fish causing a ruckus. At first the thoughts were the carp sure are having fun but then I noticed huge bait balls everywhere out in the middle of nowhere. This is when the spinning gear was picked up and a #5 Blue White floating Rapala was tied on matching the size of the bait fish…….nothing

After some time not getting hit while watching fish chow down all around us, enough was enough. Time to change something up and try to get these fish to put there attention on are baits, and that can be hard to do when mother nature is plumping the fin critters up with the real stuff
It was time to stat covering the water a little faster hoping to fool a few fish that had more than they could ever eat swimming all around them. The electric trolling motor speed was bumped up and the Rapalas where being trolled through the bait balls 8-10 down and at a speed of 1.8mph. Covering water while heading through these bait balls is just what the doctor ordered. The smack down was put on some white bass and a couple walleyes. The one pictured above was the biggest of the day at 26inches, barley hooked but made it boat side for a picture, great net job buddy Mike
Paying attention to the surroundings had us back in action playing tug-o-war before calling it a day This half day trip provided enough fun to get me through the rest of this weekend, well maybe……..I might have to sneak out a bit on Monday

Pool 8…the getting’ is good right now, good luck fishing people