Mississippi River Pool 4 Fishing Reports Pool 5, 6, 7 , 8 & 9

[Gordie]

What are you guys using out there? Anybody care to share?

Also, where is Evert located at? I would like to stop by.

Thanks.

Not sure what they were using but Everts is on the east side of the river in between the puplic access and the dam,just past the split. its the only resort that way

[Turk]

Report

03-22-10 The Mississippi River is about to crest next Thursday and should rise another foot between here and now. The river is surprisingly clean and better clarity than you would imagine for being as high as it is. Getting you boat in the water, with flooded parking lots and high water can be a challenge. If you manage to make it on the water the fish are biting on plastics, minnows, and trolled stickbait crankbaits. Eaters are being taken in the vertical jig style in areas with less flow in 10 to 20 fow. Some larger fish are being caught in the flooded trees on plastics in 1 to 4 fow, this is a challenging effort, but can be rewarded with a fish of a lifetime. Best jig colors have had heads of orange or gold for minnow anglers. Plus orange core colored ringworms, gold paddle tails.

Water flow at Red Wing Dam 81,900 CFS Water temp 36.5 and Stage is 11.72 going to 13.4. Turk

[no bait nate]

we had most fish on green green jigs, and multicolored blades, go light

[YiGGiN4SLoBS]

gotta luv the green green

[hart0670]

ya, a buddy and I limited out in about an hour and a half on saugers saturday using green jig heads and minnows...I started using a white jig head with a bit of a chartrouse plastic cut off and stuck above the minnow, only caught two on it while my buddy using green caught about 6, I then switched to green and hammered em too.

[MidCoast]

What kind of jigheads are you guys using out there? Im assuming something that stands at the bottom of the river?

[hart0670]

the ones we were using were 1/4 oz and were bought at Everts with glitter flakes glued on

[rattleL]

the precision jigs work well if your gonna be using plastics. otherwise straight ball headed jigs work just fine most of the time. Dean will have the precision jigs

[fishinfey8]

Just wondering if a 14ft. 15 hp lund is too small with the current river flow?? It is just fine usually, but with the fast moving current on pool 2 I didn't know what it's like on pool 4, so I figured i'de just ask...thanks!

[no bait nate]

sounds like same rig i was in on sunday. worked great, shouldn't go to fast anyway with all the debris in the water.

[mudslinger]

Tough bite on the water today. We took some chances and chased only larger fish and went unrewarded for our efforts. Guess thats fishin.

[Gordie]

We had aslow day as well mudslinger we statred out for the piggys but ended up trying for some eaters and only got three saugers 16-18 inchers I got them on a green jig head and green fuzzygrub we tried a bunch of stuff with not much sucess we did see a few being caught

[7outof10]

me and 2 frinds where out yesterday cought 30 fish did pretty good on size after we moved away from the dam and went down streem got 14 nice keeps and one 27 icher ill post pics latter to get the fish you really had to be in just the right spot we where work hard for them and have the boat in just the right spot at the right speed....very slow to not moveing with burts of powering from the trolling motor then still

[7outof10]

she was 27 and as fat as pig and is still swiming around pool 4 !!!

[rosspj59]

Nice walleye! Thanks for the report too.

[Ebiz]

Thinking about heading down there on Sunday, only have a 14' with a 10hp and am wondering if it's a good idea or not? I'd probably stay around the Bay Point area, I've been hearing a ton of different info about whether it would be safe or not. Any input is appreciated, thanks!

[YiGGiN4SLoBS]

i would think you'll be just fine. just watch out for debris. The river is high, but it aint movin fast enough to out push a 10 horse! Good luck

[Rigger1]

Ebiz - I would go give it a try. Land your boat at baypoint park. There is some good spots to fish close to there. I was there wed, I know if I had a boat that size It wouldn't bother me.

[Ebiz]

Sounds good, thanks for the info. If you see a beat up old green Starcraft down there say hi!

[MidCoast]

Yes,10 horsepower should be fine out on the river right now.

[paceman]

6 of us just got back last night. We stayed at Everts. We fished thur. afternoon thru Sat. Morning. Bounced around a bit, trying a few spots and a few different presentations. By far the best spot was at Hay Creek, and the best presentation for us was a 1/2 oz weight, 2 foot snell, and a green phelps floater. 18-22 feet along the seam lines and fish SLOW. I used the bow-mount and tried to sit as still as possible. It was a tough bite thur./friday with the cold temps but on sat. morn they bit really well. Nothing huge but we got some dandy saugers in the 20" range. It would have been nice to anchor but with all the boats there it would have been rude and we would had guys snagged in our anchor rope all day. Some guys were also getting a few on green/orange ringys tipped with a minnow. The guys crawling along slow got fish. The trollers/drifters got nothing. The water is really high and moving! As the water levels drop and with the warm temps comming the fishing should really improve dramatically. Another shout out to Dean at Everts as he put us on the fish and just has a great set-up. We have been going there for 5-6 years now and it is just an awesome experience.

[Ebiz]

Fished yesterday from noon to 6:00, tepee area and hay creek. Didn't even have a bite, tried shallow up by the trees and out in ~20' or so with everyone else. Of the 50-60 other other boats out there I think we only say 4 or 5 fish caught.

[Turk]

Last Sunday I got a call from Joe Jacobsen and he said that his group trip to LOTW for ice fishing was canceled do to unsafe ice. They wanted to get out and fish this week. He also said he had a party of four, I told him no problem as I’ve got the new guide boat, an Alumacraft 195 Tournament Sport and that it can handle four people and me.

When the group showed up it was Joe and his fiance Beth Schanzenbach, Her father Larry and sister Ana. They said that the group always has a team fishing competition where Joe and Beth (they young couple) versus Larry and Ana (father and daughter), basically the team with most fish wins. These competitions always add a bit of drama and some trash talk, I think they are great, and there was some talking.

Larry started the day off with the first picture fish, a nice 22inch walleye crushed his ringworm and got caught in the current and provided a very nice fight.

Ana and Beth teamed up for a double ( 19 and 21 inch fish), one sauger one walleye, where the second fish hit moments after the hookset on the first. I had to judge by the pole bend which one to net and older sister Beth showed little sister who catches the bigger one ( I am paraphrasing here, but that was sentiment!).

Ana’s revenge she lands a sumo sauger that stayed deep and came up after a very good fight. Some guys could learn how to fight big fish, by watching Ana not rush the fight and not horse in the fish. Well done. This one was likely longest and for sure the heaviest of the day.

Larry strikes again; he sat on the boats wide gunnel in rear right in the far back and sniped another picture fish on a boat turn.

The guide caught a nice walleye as well, though I was outfished, but who wants to see the guide catch all the fish?

There were about five lead changes, back and forth like a good final four hoops game. Joe and Beth won the competition 40 to 38, we lucked out and caught 92 fish total in the trip, they got to take a pile of fish home and the crown of most fish.

We used techniques listed in the below report. One key when fishing with multiple people such as three or more, is I use 8 foot 3 inch rods (Limit Creek)that keep the jigs spread for the front two anglers and the rear anglers use shorter 6 foot 9 inch rods on the inside. In theory this is the same set up that trolling guys use for leadcore or trolling in general, where longer rods are up front and shorter ones inside. Spreading these jigs really makes a difference. The key with these rods are they are medium light spinning rods and not trolling rods. Also just keep the jig just off of the bottom for most hook ups.

03 30 10 Mississippi River Pool Four fishing is very good for numbers of sauger and walleye. Many of these fish are from 15 to 19 inches, plus there are 20 to 23 inch walleye in the mix. Some of these saugers are obnoxiously large and weigh over five pounds! Jig fishing either vertical or dragging in 12 to 20 feet of water is the ticket currently for these fish. Fathead minnows and ringworms on jigs are catching fish. They absolute key is to work the current seam between fast and slow water. Catching big fish in the flooded trees is a large challenge right now, but with the falling water that will be a possibility very soon. Purple, chartreuse pepper, and firecracker are hot colors, big paddletails also turned fish. Water flow at Red Wing Dam 78,600 CFS, Water temp 44, and Stage is 11.83 going to 9.4 by next week. The water is clearing very fast.

Sorry I can't get the pictures to work anymore here, I'll figure it out soon.

Turk

[Turk]

Tougher bite today for me in the morning, good numbers but the bigger sized fish up and pulled the pin. Fun trip though with C Lou.and his crew! They boxed a pile of eaters (all saugers).

[c_lou]

The fish might not have been the whoppers we were hoping for, but we had a great time. I got to spend some time on the water with my pops and brother. Even hooked up on a double. First time that's ever happened for me. Forgot the camera of course, but we have the memories.

Those eaters are going to be cooked up tonight with some taters, salad and a cold one.

Thanks again Turk.

[Turk]

Cory,

You are welcome! Today was tougher! We did get a 29.75" walleye though early in the day, actually that was the first bite of the day...I thought this was going to be gangbusters. My two best spots dried up. Back to fishing and not catching! ha.

Turk

Gang- turning fish on plastics was tough today, you better have minnows!

[blakeb]

Minnows and jigs were the thing today, very scatered fish, didnt mark too many but ended up with over twenty fish (cpr) try to keep them jigs vertical.

mid channel temp was about 50

[mudslinger]

We have tried to get off the beaten path as of late. The usual spots have resulted in little to no fish for us in the past 2 weeks. Most fish have come on soft plastics while working current seams. Too bad our groups larger walleyes had already spawned out (26.5in & 30.5in)

[vman59]

this will be my 2nd trip to Pool 4 putting in at Everts. Are the fish in close to shore, out deeper or just scattered all over? I am not use to river fishing so any help would be appreciated.

[TSchultz]

vman if you don't have a lot of experience loading your boat in heavy current I would highly recommend that you put in at baypoint, then boat to everets to pick up jigs and minnows. That current can be a bear to load your boat if its fast.