With our first shotgun season for deer coming up, I could not get my mind off old marble eyes, so I gave myself a birthday present and hit the river for a few hours. With a northwest wind at 15-25 mph plus, I was prepared for a tough time, but with some adjustments for the wind, I was able to put 6 very nice fish in the boat pitchin’ paddletails from BfishN tackle. My third cast brought this 23″ fish to the boat!
With the wind blowing down river boat control was tough, so after struggling for a brief time, I dropped anchor and worked small areas with short casts and sweeps of 1/4 oz H2O and draggin jigs with several different colors of paddletails taking fish. The key for this day for me was to anchor upstream and upwind of my spots, make short casts with the wind to prevent bowing the line too much, and then just hold on when the fish smashed the jig! This was my first experience with the draggin jigs, and all I can say is I’ll be ordering many more. In two hours of fishing H2O jigs, I lost 3 to the rocks. The other two hours I used a 1/4 oz draggin jig, and not only did I not lose it, but I spent much less time pulling it off bottom or rocks. They are the best jigs by far I’ve ever used in rocks!
Having confindence in your spots is critical for this presentation, as frustration can set in and put you on the move too easily. Keeping good records of flow and stage can remove a great deal guess work when it comes to locating fish on wings this time of year. When fishing a wingdam I have not fished lately, I like to slide across the face with the bow mount, with either a Dubuque rig with bait and plastics, or a jig and plastic until I find fish. A quick mark on the gps and the location can be found again later or in the coming seasons.
The fish are exceptionally fat and healthy this fall, with my fish ranging from 19-25 inches, and very thick. I worked three wingdams in 4 hours, only one other boat encountered all afternoon. (jigfan I believe!) If you are looking for eaters or saugers, there is still time to fish the dam area, but for great quality fish on unpressured water, you cannot beat late fall wingdams mid pool and below. Paying close attention to detail can make the difference between a frustrating unproductive day and a day to remember. Pool 14 is producing better quality fish each year since the imposition of the slot limit. Lets hope this slot trial becomes a permanent law, so we can continue to enjoy the fantastic improvement in the quality of our fishery!