The bite on pool 4 is starting to shape up a bit from the past couple of weeks. I had the best day I have had on the river for numbers of quality fish than I have since January on Sunday. What was working you ask? Pro-blue and oyster shell ringworms did the trick for myself and partner for most of the day, pool 2 reporter Steve DeZurik. Steve and I started our day casting to some rip rap sections with very mild current flow. The two of us spent about 2 and a half hours doing this and the rip rap bite was a bust for us. Steve had one 17” walleye to show for our efforts.
After the miserable rip rap pitching bite was experienced, we headed for the sand flats and concentrated our efforts on the areas with the highest concentration of clams. It wasn’t long and we were connecting with walleyes and some “mongo” sauger. The pictures posted here are something you won’t see a lot of from In-Depth Angling’s Steve DeZurik but if the mama walleye’s aren’t willing to show up you take what you can get. Those pig sauger we caught on this day were found a bit shallower than most boats have been targeting. We took good numbers of sauger in the 12’ to 16’ depths while we were focusing on trying to coax a few walleye in to the boat. Biggest sauger of the day came out of 12’ of water.
The walleye were cooperating as well with a few smaller females showing up for us as you can see from the walleye I am holding in the above picture. She was a fat and sassy little thing! Most of our walleye catch was males in the 17” to 19” range but it was nice to see a few of those plump females make a showing. We never caught a fish under the 16.5” mark on this day, those 12’ to 16’ depths were the key for us to stay on the quality fish. We did end up taking a couple of walleyes up 10’ of water as well but not in good numbers. Thanks for making the trip to pool 4 Steve, it was some good company!
Around 1:00 we went on a joy ride to check out some more pre-spawn areas down river from Redwing to the top end of the lake. Although the scenery was nice, the 2 areas we stopped and fished were void of action for us. Once down river I decided to see if the WI back channel had opened up and sure enough it had. I ran the back channel on my way back up river to Everts Resort with out a problem, no floating ice chunks or debris to speak of yet. I highly recommend not taking this route if unfamiliar with that part of the river cause it is shallow.
As of today, per Steve Vick from Everts, the water is on the rise and the tributaries are dumping good ol’ muddy water in for us. This will make a huge impact on the bite in up-coming weeks, only for the better. Spring’s right around the corner. I have heard a good half dozen reports of 6lb plus walleye being caught in the last week from other friends and second hand info. This is a good sign! Once the bigger fish start showing and getting themselves caught every so often the bite always takes a turn for the better.
On a side note for those who enjoy tournament fishing. In-depthangling.com has just recently started an In-depthangling.com Walleye Tour. I won’t go in to great detail about the tournaments, you can read about the tour by clicking on the link. In-depthangling.com Walleye Tour
I’ll see ya’ on the river!
Thanks for the report Dustin. I have the river coming up a bit more than 6″ since Friday.
Gator Hunter
Looks good you two…what a team !!
What jigheads are you using when pitching your ringworms ? I am guessing the H2O Precision Jigs but what size,color ?
Dave, I like to use white or black heads most of the time. I go brighter when the water stains up a bit. I use the precision heads in 1/8oz and 3/16oz.
Nice report Dustin. You mentioned trying some areas down river without much luck. Have you heard of anyone else doing anything down river?
Adam I have tried down river from Redwing on/off on my last couple of outings with poor results
. I have not heard any positve reports from down that way but that doesn’t mean someone isn’t gettin um. I see boats down that way every time I make it down there so guys are trying and could be catching for all I know 
. I have only tried 3 areas from the bridge to the lake and there is a lot of water down there. I might try and make a day of it down there this week just to see if I can run in to something. If I find anything solid you can bet I post it here.
Nice work on those fish. We struggled hard down there on Saturday, but I’m gonna jump right back on that horse this weekend.
Dustin, you mention clam beds quite a bit in your reports. How do you locate clam beds and what’s the attraction for the fish?
HI Dustin,
Early Spring, and the RiverPros are on the prowl, great Report, and super pictures, just love those big Saugers. sure is a bad time for me to have to head out to CA tomorrow, when I get back, I’m hoping you guys will have saved me a couple fish. Jack..
Thanks for the report Dustin!
If you have time for another quick question just wondering if you were pretty much casting the whole day? Thanks, Chris
sammy, those clam beds give bait fish a safe haven of living and in return attract walleyes
.Most of the time finding a clam bed is just a matter of catching a few by accident. Clam beds are good producers year round for my boat.
Crankbait, we were just drifting with the current and casting our offering off to either side of the boat.
Spent most of the day on the water and found the bite to be a bit slower than it was on my last outing
. By days end we had 15 walleye and sauger in the 16″ to 19″ range along with the big mama walleye pictured here that was taken on an oyster shell ringworm on a white 1/8oz precision head 
.
I found both walleye and sauger to be a bit shallower today with 9′ to 12′ being the best. Not much of anything when I fished out a bit deeper, not even sauger
I was really surprised! 
The river has come up and the increase in flow is noticeable pushing the fish a bit shallower. With more current in the river I pulled 3-ways and cranks for over an hour today, not the magic answer for me
. . Cranks only produced 1 little sauger.
The water in the dam area is still really clean, I ran down river from Everts to try an area and the water was dingy, visibility only about 3″. I never made it down to the haycreek area to see what the water looked like. Not a lot of debris floating around yet but there is the occasional ice chunk to steer clear of.
That’s all for now
Won’t be able to make it back on the river until this Sunday 
!!
Dustin
good report, still a little slow. I have a question. Do you cast the cranks or how do you use them. I have never hered of someone useing cranks this time of year.
Hey Dustin it was cool to finally meet ya this morning
Pretty slow for me today also but better than last friday when I made it out. Ended up with 3 fat saugers in that 18″ range and 1 stocky 22″ female walleye. Also got a scrappy smallmouth that was around 16″.
I had to leave at 11:00 so never got a chance to try the afternoon bite
. Still getting used to the new rig so hopefully I’ll be whipped into shape by the time the bite really takes off! 
Chris
I was using a 3-way with a #9 floating rap. I run an 18″ dropper and a 6′ leader to the crank bait. I tried different speeds with heavier and lighter sinkers. Sinkers ran in the 2oz on up to 5oz’s.
I know someone had a diagram of a 3-way rig set up posted at one time
. I’ll have to do a search and see if I can find it and post it here.
Once the water temps climb in to the lower 40’s I have had success casting cranks and slow rolling them along rip rap and shallow sand.
Chris, It was nice meeting you as well. Sounds like you a a few nice fish before your departure. The aftrenoon bite was about the same as the am bite, no real big flurry of action at any one time during the day. Just one fish here and there kind of deal. The rain finally got to me and I called it a day about 4:00.
Nice report. I have fished that area a few times. I was going to take the boat out this weekend but after the snow today I might have to wait. If I get out I will post a report.
Welcome to IDA g3angler, there will defiantly be boats on pool 4 on Sat for the Freeze you but tournament, you should join in the fun