What a crazy year! Between starting a new job and buying a house, my trips on the water have been few and far between. I went from fishing a few days every week to maybe once every few weeks! Fortunately, things are settling down and I hope to be back out fishing with some amount of consistency.
Not having been on the water in over 2weeks and missing last week’s Pool2 contest due to tilt/trim issues with my outboard, Dad and I got out yesterday with the hope of chasing down a few walleyes and enjoying the unseasonably warm temp’s. Flow and clarity looked similar to a few weeks prior however the water temperature actually increased showing 65-68degrees depending on the location. Primarily pitching firecracker/char paddle tails and bright colored DT-6 crank baits; we focused the majority of our time on deep wing dams and outside bends in the river where faster moving water was present. When we found fish, they seemed to be relatively concentrated and willing to feed. We’d pop a few fish right away on a spot, then nothing. Since this pattern held true on our first few spots, we turned to a “run n’ gun” approach primarily targeting those most aggressive fish – only sitting on a spot for 5 minutes tops if we didn’t get bit.
The trolling bite seems very strong with good numbers coming on Flickershads and Jointed Shad-raps. 1.6-1.8mph upstream and 2.8-3.0mph down worked well and kept our baits in the zone. With the lower flow I found us trolling out further into the main channel and gradually zigzagging our cranks back and forth from shallower to deep. Similar to the areas we pitched, most fish caught trolling came from 10-14FOW on outside bends where flow was most prominent.
Overall the bite seems to be shaping up nicely and I would expect things to only heat up as water temps begin to decline. The cooler weather moving in later this week will help with the water temps and any rain we can get to help bump up the flow I’m sure would be greatly appreciated.
See ya out there 
Pete