Red Wing??

[TrollerX]

Haven't seen a report from Pool 4 for awhile. Anyone fishing? I will be there tomorrow morning. I will leave a report tomorrow night. Anyone else?

[CrappieJohn]

Our local paper had a piece written up about the bite there on Thursday, but I think the article was based on fishing a week ago. Alma had been doing well, but was soft today and perhaps RW has cooled too. I do know that the Wisconsin channel at the dam had the activity and that both sides were giving up fish.

Sonars had been a hot bait at RW along with the tradtional jig/minnow or jig/plastic.

Let us know what the score is.

[TrollerX]

Thanks for the info. Tom. Some buddies of mine had great luck just before the cool down last weekend. Lot's of fish and several over 6#'s. I will post a report tomorrow night.

[Jim W]

Troller,

I imagine you did just as well as Renneberg and I. Everyone was reporting limits and size.

All of our largest fish came on plastics alone. A variety of colors worked.

We managed an area on the river with just a couple other boats and boated some where between 40-50 sauger(one walleye) in 3 1/2 hours of fishing.

Jim

[TrollerX]

I fished the MN side chute. I did not do as well as you guys. I boated plenty of fish but no size really. Most fish were 15" - 18" size. I was fishing plastics most of the morning myself. I was off the water before 11:00. I should have fished a few spots on the way back to the landing but opted not to. I was looking for some bigger fish today!

[jigginjim]

trollerx, Where did you launch at? I was wondering if bay point park is open yet? Any ice.

[markkstanley]

Sat was on the slow side for me but I was surprised that most of the fish were walleyes not sauger. Fished up by the dam until 1pm then switched over to P2 for the evening. I was amazed by a group of guys who looked like the Iowa version of ZZ Top. They were outfishing everybody by a mile. I was using the same plastics and jighead colors drifting right down behind them and I wasn't even close to their numbers. I should have slipped down the river to some other spots but was showing Calvinist how to work the dam area.

[kg4mvp04]

Mark- I know who you were talking about. They were definitely outfishing everyone else. It was slow for us too but I'm a newbie to river fishing; haven't quite got it figured out. Was interesting though when my father-in-law snagged a small sturgeon. Saw another boat take ~20 minutes to land what appeared to be a sturgeon that was significantly larger than the one we caught. Saw another angler who outfished the ZZ Top guys in the afternoon / evening using plastics (I think ZZ Top guys were using plastics too). Probably averaged a fish every 15 minutes or less. Mark, what boat were you in? Chances are we brushed by you as I was there all day. I was in a older blue/gray alumacraft.

[markkstanley]

Blue/tan Alumacraft Yamaha tiller. The ZZ Top guys were jigging oystershell and pro blue ringies with orange or chartruese jigheads. I was jigging oystershell myself both ringies and paddletails. Pool 2 wasn't any better 1 nice walleye. I should have moved downstream and pitched banks. Heard the bite was really good after sunset. Oh well there is this weekend to make amends!!

[TrollerX]

I launched at BayPoint on Sunday as did 50 or so others. No ice yet. With a few cold days coming it may freeze up though. I think the pitch bite was the way to go for the bigger fish this weekend. I did see a fair number of fish being caught but no fatties. A question for you Pool 4 experts. I use a 7 foot medium action St. Croix with 6# mono for all of my jigging. I am a St. Croix fisherman and do very well jigging on the Croix. I have noticed that I cannot feel a 1/4 oz. jig/minnow combo very well on Pool 4. I like to tap the bottom when I first put the jig in and then check for bottom every minute or so to account for depth change. The bite and hookup is always better with a lighter jig but I lose the feel. If I go to a 3/8 jig I have no problem and stay totally vertical. The issue is my catch goes down. Do you think I need to downsize my rod/reel or is there a better line? I am a big Fireline user for trolling but not for jigging. I have tried it but it would not be my choice. Thanks for the tips!

[CrappieJohn]

If you are a mono user and like fishing it, I would suggest dropping down to a 4 pound fluorocarbon. This stuff has a very limited stretch factor, is as sensitive in water under 30 feet as the braids, thin diameter and has a breaking point higher than the pound rating on the box.

Jumping up to the 3/8 head actually increases the bait's profile and can shy some fish away. The 1/4 is still easy enough for them to inhale at the hit, but the 3/8 may be more than they can pull in.

I try to stay as light on the jig as possible and have used 1/8 during the dead of winter when the flow is real slow.... on 6 pound fluoro. The 1/8 and 1/4 are all a guy should need for ringies or the power baits and twisters. Now if you are pitching 5" kalins....they are kind of slow to drop if you are in deeper water and their size will add to the amount of drag and they'll come off the bottom.

I don't think you should gear any different from what you have rod/reel-wise, but try thre lighter line. Fluor-ice and P-line are good products. Both will come in 100yard spools and you shouldn't need but 50 yards to fish so you can do a couple reels to a spool. I'd give this a try.

[TrollerX]

Thanks for the tips Tom. One other question related to pool fishing. I have noticed that a fair number of guys like to fight the current with the bow mount to the point that they almost stay in one spot. They still drift with the current but very, very slowly. If you do that you almost have to use a heavier jig to stay vertical or feel anything. You are now increasing the drag on your line a ton. If you do nothing with current like we had Sunday you move too fast and have an issue with vertically jigging. I normally just try to keep the nose facing the dam and slow the drift a little bit with the bow mount. What do you think is the preferred presentation? I also noticed the one guy who threw down the anchor right on the sweet spot on the MN side chute. Several boats ran right in to him on the drift. He didn't seem to figure out that he was the only one anchored amongst 50 rigs. Anyway, thanks again for the tips!!

[CrappieJohn]

You'll never get away from anchors up there so you learn ways to fish around those people. Actually some of those are so poor in the boat control department that you're better off having them in one place. lol

The controlled drifting you refer to is called "slipping". The whole idea behind it is to keep everything going at the same speed as the current and once you figure out how to do it, you can drop down in jig size to lighten the load. It is a perception thing , as far as how fast you think they are moving....they may be moving at what appears to be a snails pace, but you too are moving and unless you are right next to them traveling at the same rate of speed, you'll think they are stalled.

The current is different from one side to the other and in the middle of the chute too. If you can devlope some handi work that gets this job done your fishing success is going to sky rocket while you work the plastics. These baits are best fished as close to vertical in deeper water as possible. The shallow water will allow for pitching and casting with a slow retrieve, the deep water will simply sweep the jig aside and keep it off the bottom.

[TrollerX]

Thanks for the tips. Very helpful!! It seeme like the folks that have the most success are using a transom mounted trolling motor vs a bow mount. I understand the need to be vertical. It is a lot different than jigging on the Croix because the current is greater. I will spend the winter trying to get better at this technique. There is no question that the lighter the jig the better the bite! I have to believe that the boat traffic slows down once December/January arrive. Does the bite stay pretty solid all winter?

[CrappieJohn]

You'll see flucuations in the fishing activity. The one thing I notice more than anything is that the better fish tend move away from the dam at mid-winter. We're not talking about a total abandonment of the fishing near the dam, just that some of the better fishing will occur at the "Y" or even as far as HayCreek and along the levee wall in downtown Red Wing.

The walleyes will almost universally relate to the sand banks early and late in the day offering the ringie pitchers an opportunity to hit on a piggie. Days with heavy overcast can entice those fish in shallow too.

[Down to Earth]

I'm not a river expert and Tom will be able to give you better detail, but there is a very deep scouring hole near the dam. Though this spot is a consistent fish producer from what I've read, most tend to recommend not fishing it due to bring the fish up from such deep of water and a higher post release mortality of the fish. Tom??

Andy

[CrappieJohn]

That thing again...lol.

On the Minnesota side of the Wisconsin chute, there is a huge hole scoured out. Parts of this hole are very deep and it seems that tons of juvenile fish take refuge IN it. That being said, most people encourage others to NOT fish that hole because everything that comes up will blow their bladders and eyeballs. Quality fish are tough to come by from out of that hole, so I try to fish the shallower fringe areas around it and will get some real beasts there occasionally.

In all honesty, it would not bother me to see the upper most boundary to be moved downstream 100 below this hole. I have seen forty boats hover atop of this scour and cream the sauger of 8".Thee real downside of this is that most of those anglers are tossing bait and most of those small fish perish, if not from deep hooks, from the pressure change.

[SHORTS]

Just a quick report from the river. Yesterday was my first trip of the year to the dam and it was a stellar day. I have been keeping up on posts from Crappie Tom and other FM'rs and put all of it to good use. I also got great help from the guy at Four Seasons for spots that are "out of the way". I had to stop in because I forgot my PFD. I picked up my new plastics then too. All together I landed 40 to 45 fish between 9:00 and 2:00. One walleye was 26" that was released, one sauger was 22.5" and it landed in the livewell along with a very nice limit of 16" to 19" walleyes (six fish total). Every fish was caught on plastic. I started with the oystershell paddle tail and it put some fish on the line but when I switched to the chartruse/pepper Super Do it was all over but the cleaning! The B and M 3/16 pink jig head worked great to feel the bottom but still manage a slow fall. "Tapping" the jig near the bottom and then holding steady really seemed to trigger the fish. There was no doubt when they hit, two nearly jerked the rod out of my hand.

Again, I just wanted to say thanks to all the guys who post there information here and help make a rare day off that much more productive on the water for all of us. Good job!

[CrappieJohn]

Shorts...

Oh yes...the superdoo. These are a very good "do nothing" type of bait. The best way I found to fish them was to dead stick them a foot off the bottom...even two to three feet. Often times when the fish are hot a larger ones are tough to come by, I will jack that dead stick unit, whatever it might be, up off the bottom a couple feet and find what I am looking for.

I have some scented plastics that I have modified to look like the superdoo and want to try them, who knows....maybe stumble across an even better bait. lol

Thanks for the report!

[TrollerX]

Tom,

Interesting. How do you deadstick a SuperDoo? Do you just float it in the current off the bottom or do you have a different method? You must be anchored when you do that right?

[markkstanley]

Tom, ever think of upsizing your Stub grub crappie jig paddletails to say 3"?? They would hold scents fairly well with the ribs as well extra vibration in the current. They would also have a different profile more shad like than the other paddletails. Just a thought.

[CrappieJohn]

Troller....

Hang the doo on a jig head just heavy enough to stay vertical while you do the controlled drift thing. Drop it to the bottom , put the rod in a holder or lay it down with the tip over the side, and take up enough line to keep the doo a foot off the bottom. Watch the electronics and when you get deeper, drop it accordingly. Shallow up? Just take up some more line.

You can get by with a tad heavier jig doing this. The fish that hit up off the bottom like that are feeders and hit pretty darned hard.

MarkStanley........

I've toyed with the thought of a ring bodies paddletail, but would much prefer checking into scented products for the waldos. There are a lot of things to consider when a person gets into this arena.

[rosspj59]

Way to go Shorts! Glad to hear you had a good day. You picked a great time of the year to hit pool 4. Thanks for the report.

[LuckBites]

Heading down that way tomorrow. Anyone check Baypoint for ice?

Good fishing!

[rich4walleyes]

I will be down there tomorrw also. I will be launching from Everett's. I just hope this snow does n't mess things up!!

[LuckBites]

It was a tough day for boat control with the wind blowing up the chute but I did manage 10 saugers & a sturgeon. Seemed like the trollers were having must of the fun. I stuck to ringworms and caught enough to keep me coming back! Some guys were still launching @ baypt and making their way through the ice but I thought the ramp looked a little slick and opted for Everts. Water temp in the channel was 36. Fish were caught on a variety of colors as long as the tail contrasted with the bodies. Can't wait till the flow goes down a little more. Might be a while now with the recent rains.

Good fishing,