Mississippi River Walleye/Sauger Report 4-01-10

I kicked off my Spring guide season in the middle of March when the mighty river began to fill its banks. Typical high water presentations have been put to good use with some steady fish catching action over the past couple of weeks. Even with the river running full and lots of debris present, the fish have cooperated nicely in this high water for my boat.

Keying in on large eddies that have been formed in this high water have concentrated a good number of fish. The bigger the eddies, the more likely it is to produce large numbers of fish. Dubuque rigging, or dragging jigs tipped with plastics or minnows slowly up river have been best producers for my boat. Now that the water clarity is starting to get better vertical jigging is starting to produce some fish as well in the slack water areas.

Sauger have been predominately the catch for my boat in the last week. Prior to this week we were seeing some decent walleye action. With countless hours of casting jigs to shoreline cover in search of some walleye action and nothing to show for it, I gave up on this presentation until the river falls back in to it’s banks. Once this occurs, the walleyes will be easier to target. Right now most of the walleye are back in the trees. I have yet to find a concentration of male or female walleye staging for spawn since the water came up. No reason for them to stage, they just go where they want.

Best ringworm colors for my boat have been firecracker/chartreuse tail, pro-blue, chartreuse pepper. While running the Dubuque rigs, 5″ firecracker K-grubs on my dropper have been very good on certain days when the fish get very aggressive. 5″k-grubs were one of my best baits when the river first came up and water clarity was minimal. The bigger profile and aggressive thump of that bigger tail definitely made a difference for my boat.

My guess is a lot of walleye will be spawned out by the middle of next week with this warm weather we have seen. Sauger will be soon after as well. If the bite slows in your target area don’t be afraid to move around some. The fish will be on the move once they do there thing……here today, gone tomorrow!

The fish are biting so get out and get fishing!