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

[Travis18]

Went out Wednesday evening to try for some walleyes. Had some success catching some sauger slowly drifting with jigs tipped with leeches in about 19 feet of water. Ended up catching about five or so that were all in the 13 to 14 inch range. Never could find the walleyes though. But all in all it was a lot of fun to get out there, the lake was pretty calm so boat control was easy.

[MidCoast]

I was out yesterday jigging, pulling cranks, 3 way, and my boat caught a limit of saugers and walleyes... We were out there from morning until dark though.

[Rick]

Mississippi River Pool 9

Water level at Lansing is 8.6 feet and clarity is improving.

A few catfish biting well on stink bait or worms near woody debris and rocky areas. Bluegills have been spawning recently but reports of catches are mixed with a lot of little fish caught. Seek out spawning areas in shallow bays. Keep moving to find fish.

For smallies try fishing areas with rock and good current, especially near a good back-eddy. Some nice fish being reported at the entrance of Big Slough and near Village Creek. Crawdad color or lime colored crankbaits have been working well. Largemouth can be found feeding on minnows near the shore in the slack water of a back-eddy with some sort of structure (boulders/wood). Some are being caught with crankbaits and top water frogs are well.

A few walleyes caught on wing dams and in Minnesota Slough. Fair numbers of smaller walleyes are being caught with crankbaits near Village Creek. A lot of drum being caught just fishing worm on the bottom along main channel and side channel shorelines. Drum are easy to clean and excellent eating fish especially if eaten fresh.

Thanks go out to you guys above who are helping each other out. "NICE POSTS" Let's get a few of you better anglers who are lurking helping out and sharing a little info. Even if just how-tos would be cool. Maybe we'll get to meet you some day

[96trigger]

fished Lake Pepin today. Good south wind, caught a few walleyes, lost a few walleyes. 2 oz bottom bouncer, crawler harness, red hooks, hammered copper spinner. 2.0 mph. 12-15 FOW anywhere the wind was pushing the water on to humps, points, or wingdams.

[smallieobsession]

how was the water level and accesses???

[kyleharty]

Water level is high, the sandbar and point we usually setup on for shore fishing on Pepin was in waist deep water. Still got fish but a little more difficult standing in water that deep.

[96trigger]

Yep, water level is high, but manageable to launch and catch fish. Went out again yesterday, landed two real nice walleyes, lots of sheephead. Had people in many of the spots I wanted to try. Hard to find a good spot to fish, lots of boats anchored.

[james_walleye]

I took the family down on friday. Spent more time swimming by Lacupolis than anything. But in the good hour we put our lines in we got 3 nice 17" eyes and a 12" crappie.

[96trigger]

Jamie, I too found the walleye bite on the lake to be pretty good. Most of my fish were in the 15-20 inch range. Not fast an furious, but a pretty good bite for most of the morning. You had to go just fast enough to keep the sheephead off your line, but not too fast either. I am finding 2 mph to bed the optimal speed. What were you using for bait? I only use crawlers on spinner rigs. I also had a floating jig head on a three way but only managed one monster sunfish on it.

[moger88]

Fished Pepin last Sun and yesterday. Jig and minnow last Sunday, sheepshead city. Switched to a crawler/jig for last hour or so we were out. Got 5 eyes, all keepers with one being my son Laykes PB-22.5 incher. all went back. Yesterday was pretty much sheepie city again with a couple eyes and a sauger thrown in the mix. switched to a crank and walloped the smallies though nothing big. The kid had a good time though and looks like he is going to turn into a fisherman afterall.

[whitebassman]

Fished Pepin Sunday also. Not much action, but did nail a 29" 8 lb walleye on crawler spinner and found some white bass action towards sunset. It was fun chasing them up and down the shore, but action lasted only 20 minutes.

[ben h]

not sure if anyone can help

but were renting a houseboat labor day weekend from hucks in la crosse and probably heading north, from there. just wondering if anyone could give me a general idea of what to look for or a pointer or two so i could find a fish maybe. ive never fished the mississ before so its all french to me

[rodmoen]

not sure if anyone can help

but were renting a houseboat labor day weekend from hucks in la crosse and probably heading north, from there. just wondering if anyone could give me a general idea of what to look for or a pointer or two so i could find a fish maybe. ive never fished the mississ before so its all french to me

what are you chasing Ben?? anything specific or just lookin' for a little action??

[JIvers]

I was up fishing around Winona on Saturday in a running slough; I wanted walleye, and got a few, the biggest of which might have went 10". I also got quite a few bluegills, and a few sheepshead. This is a slough that produced well in the past under these conditions, but not this past weekend.

Right now, there is a lot of grass in the water, although water levels are falling to closer to normal.

Beh h,

As far as the question about what to look for goes, what are you looking for in terms of species?

[ben h]

looking for anything, just wanna have the wife catch a fish or two, something to give a little fight would be nice though.

[JIvers]

With the main channel still a little high and weedy, I would say hit the backwaters and look for bluegill (plent of them), largemouth, and Northern (larger fish). This is especially true if you are a newcomer to fishing the Mississippi, as higher water on the main channel can make fishing challenging even for people who know the river.

Look for decent depths (over three feet in the backwaters), and some cover (standing or submerged weeds, timber), and fish worms on a small bobber and hook for the bluegills, and throw spinnerbaits, or fish large live suckers or chubs under a much larger bobber and hook, for the bass and Northern.

[budboy]

Hey eyehunter have you been up by millstone landing at all, heading down ther for a couple days just wondering if the crappies and gills are biting there?

[John Mickish]

Spent the whole day yesterday on pool 4, mostly lake Pepin. Trolled cranks and slow death. Depth from 24 to about 12. Real slow with only a couple of small saugers and some sheeps caught. Pretty windy and the lake was stirred up pretty bad.

[jigginjim]

I fished up near the dam #3, the slowest I have ever had. The Sheephead bit but nothing else, a large mayfly hatch was going on, guess they were keyed in on bugs.

The river surface was littered with hau ls the mayfly hatchlings.

[TundraKing]

Report for pool 9: I fished pool 9 the 6th. Water is high. Everything is still under water by a couple feet. Did pretty good fishing though. Trolling raps in the backwaters out of the main current. Caught 6 eyes and 4 sauger. Eyes were all 16.5 to 20, with the exception of one 14. A couple of the sauger were decent, 13-13.5 inches, but let all of them back. Most of the fish were caught late morning when we got there or in the evening. All in all, it was a great day on the river.

[TapsBug]

Fished the MN. Boat harbor area this pm...and landed some dandy bluegills. The BIG problem is that there is about 3" or so of water/slush on the ice. You would really be better off with hip boots!

Ice is think enough..but with the water on the ice from all the snow it's going to be a tough season.

Did best with a tiny Rap jigging minnow with a bit of red worm on the treble.

[fishgutz]

Taps you talking about the MBC???

I'm looking to head down there.

Thanks for the update!

fishgutz

[icepro_mk]

man fishing reports few and far between on this site. did fairly well in the marina behing the watersedge resort in stoddard on wed and thursday. now i remember why everytime i keep bluegills i say ill never do that again, too much work cleaning those things and they werent little all between 8 and 9 1/2 inches. nothing like cleaning 4 or 5 nice walleyes or even the occasionall hardwater bass or 2.

[JIvers]

Among my favorite spots to ice fish are the tailwaters below the locks and dams at Dresbach/Lacrescent, Trempeleau, and Fountain City/Winona. In 1996 or 1997, I even got out on the ice above the "Y" at Red Wing, following a massive arctic blast. Last year, I think we had a month or more of good ice at Dresbach, which allowed me to put a lot of saugers, and some walleye and perch, on the ice.

This winter is not looking so good. From January 15 to February 15 of 2010, the flow at Dresbach was between 13,000 and 17,500 CFS, and the stage stayed between 631.3 and 631.9 feet. Right now, the flow at Lock and Dam # 7 is 35,400 CFS, and the stage two and a half feet higher than it was a year ago. I don't know how cold it would have to get to freeze that up, but we probably aren't going to see it. Hopefully the flow drops off soon, and we get a nice cold front.

[Mike Walerak]

River ice conditions are very poor this year due to the increased flow. The continuosly falling stage is a death sentence for good ice. The good thing is it should make the spring bite better as a little boost in flow always seems to help. I know the better flow sure helped the sauger bite for me this year.

mw

[gloomiseye]

Anybody going to hit P4 with these warm temps this weekend?

[gonecribbin]

Maybe sunday... wednesday for sure...

[River Dan]

p4 all weekend and then some

[scott b]

No way. I'm going to wait a couple of months for when the fish start biting.

[WalleyeChaser]

If my boy wasn't so crabby from his ear surgery yesterday I would be giving it some serious thought this weekend! Hopefully the temps will hold for next weekend! Boats still in storage anyway. It will be coming out next month for sure though. But my father in law's boat is in the garage ready to go if needed! He's itching to get out also but is looking for 40+ temps.

Is there any decent place to shore fish down there and get some action? Just to get a fix until the boat comes out.