Last night on Pool 4 - not a typical trip

[markkstanley]

Mike and I and Joel Nelson decided to do a last minute evening trip to the river. The goal was to find some of the big eyes that the river holds. Left Everts at 5pm and started dragging jigs in 9ft of water. We had several areas we planned to rotate through. Caught some nice eater sized eyes the first few passes then things got weird. Joel had the first simultaneous double by one person I have ever seen. He was fishing two rods back at the stern and suddenly jerked both rods back hard. I thought he was having a spasm of some sort but he had two eyes strike each rod at the same time. Shortly there after I set the hook on a walleye and just seconds later noticed the guy in the next boat set the hook on a fish. Couple of seconds later we were both wondering what the heck was going on. After a little tug of wart between us I yelled over to him to reel his line in and untangle us. I thought I lost the fish and then snagged his line. Not so. When the other guy had reeled up the walleye had both of our jigs in his mouth. THe fish were really on the chew.

Mike had been feeling a little left out but then he tagged into something really big. The fish was just about to spool Mike so we decided to give chase and began our marvelous mystery tour of Pool 4. For the next hour and half we wandered from one bank to the other, upstrean and then downstream, around wingdams and just about everywhere all the while never even getting a glimpse of the monster. Just when we finally thought Mike had the upper hand the jig came out. It was amazing to witness the power of this fish. Mike's rod looked like a rainbow for a solid 90 minutes and the fish never even gave an inch.

Now we were even more determined to get a big eye and went back at it but sevral more passes just brought more teeners to the boat (and one very dead smallmouth). And then all the batteries on Mike's boat went dead. Not kidding all of them. Mike was able to manual start the big engine and it was back to Everts.

The final count was close to two dozen walleyes and some interesting stories.

[Cooter]

Big sturgeon, eh? Sounds like fun, too bad she came off.

[rattleL]

Stanly wat depths were u in im heading there in a bit and was jsut wanting some depth locations no specific locations good luck and good fishing

[skunked_again]

Too bad you guys didn't even get a glimpse. Awesome story though. I have kind of an odd story - A couple of weeks ago I was fishing up by dam and hooked into a 15 inch brown or brook trout - not sure what exact species. Anyone else ever hook into a trout on that part of the mississippi?

[HateHumminbird]

Fish where the seams are, depth will vary based on where you're at on the river. We saw fish caught anywhere from 21 feet to quite a bit shallower.

Largest was 21" with a few around 18-19". What was nice to see, was only a handful of the 12" variety. Most of the rest were solid 16+" fish.

Vary your presentation (jig size and bait color) until you find what works, then capitalize once you've found the magic combinations. Tonight, "popping" your jig while dragging a bit was nearly essential. Hits would come as you slowly drop your rod/jig back on a tight line after the lift. There was no guessing when/if there was a hit, as these fish slammed it with authority.

We're pretty sure the big fish was a foul hooked monster flatty. The fish never took any power runs, just some serious continuous low-gear strength. Mike turned him off bottom about 4-5 times, but never more than halfway each time. When the hook popped out, we were in 13FOW and gaining on him Mike played him like a pro, no horsing, just constant, steady pressure.

By the way, that hour and a half break took us off of what had been our best consecutive runs, 6-8 fish a pass. While I would've chased that big flat around every time, it's tempting to think how many more we may have caught.

Did Mark mention that the two fish simultaneously, two jigs in one fishes mouth, and monster fish all came in the same pass?! What a night.

Joel

[trock84]

Skunked

I was at the boat landing in alma a month ago and caught a nice brown. I have heard of a few.

[Mike Walerak]

Definaltly the strangest 10 minutes my boat has ever seen. And the fight that followed was heartbreaking. No doubt that fish could have been the biggest fish of my life. And to day that we missed out on a few walleyes to do so is even more disheartening.

The batteries are charged and will be fresh for this afternoon's outing!

[harvey lee]

I talked with a gentleman the last trip down that also caught a brown trout.

[gonecribbin]

We caught a nice brown the other day, sheriff stopped our boat later in the day, and we told him about it, he said its pretty common this time of year... First ive seen it....

[youngie22]

Sounds like a fun trip for you guys. there river sure can make it interesting. Had a buddy catch 2 brown trout last week, one after the other about 3 minutes apart. I wasn't epecting that, but he said he has caught them one other time down there.

[HateHumminbird]

One of the nicer ones from that afternoon.

Joel

[eyebjim]

Are trout in season in pool 4?

[crazyice]

 Originally Posted By: eyebjim

Are trout in season in pool 4?

No, only on winter season streams, and that is catch and release only with barbless hooks and no live bait.

[eyebjim]

Thanks. It didn't say anything about trout in the wi/mn part of the regs. I did see after I posted that all other species are regulated by inland water regs.

[AceintheHole]

Sounds like you guys had a very eventfull evening.

[gonecribbin]

 Originally Posted By: eyebjim

Thanks. It didn't say anything about trout in the wi/mn part of the regs. I did see after I posted that all other species are regulated by inland water regs.

UPDATE- I emailed the DNR and they said they must be released until April 12th

[eyebjim]

Thanks, I can't seem to find anything about that in the border water section of the regs. Off to get a trout stamp then.

[gonecribbin]

 Originally Posted By: eyebjim

Thanks, I can't seem to find anything about that in the border water section of the regs. Off to get a trout stamp then.

I heard Pottery Pond in Red Wing had a trout tournament the other day, I was told they put alot of stocked fish in there for the tourny... I stopped and talked to a guy fishing out there the other day and he had 3 nice keepers in his bucket... I dont know how thick the ice is out there though...