Mississippi River Pool 8 Fishing Reports by FBMH

[FBMH]

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Hey everyone, this is my first report here and i have a pretty good one. Last night a buddy and I decided to take advantage of the nice weather and go for a winter camping trip. So, we did.

Didn't catch a thing last night but we were anticipating good things this morning for sure.

Got up at 6:15 am and made our 10ft walk from the tent to the ice house and quickly got lines in the water. The first hour, is usually when fishing is good but was slow today. We ended up with one nice crappie on a lil cecil with two waxies.

Then we decided it was time to move around and see if we could find more. Sure enough, it seemed like we had figured out a pattern and found many fish in 10fow. The depths we started out in were 14, then we tried deeper in about 22fow but found the fish in 10fow.

Anyways, we were fishing and were catchin some nice gils and crappies until Marks first ever walleye came through the hole. Luckily enough it was just big enough to keep at 15.5in.

The fish were pretty finicky throughout the day but we managed to get enough for a good meal. all in all, it was a great weekend and camping made it all the better.

Sorry, no video this time around. I'll make sure to get one up this week.

Thanks everyone. Im also not familiar with posting pics on here so if you could help me out that'd be great! THANKS

[Rick]

Hey FBMH,

welcome aboard. Thanks for the report. Were you catching crappies and gils in the same area as the eyes?

As for pics, just click on the little brown camera with the blue arrow pointing up and upload you photos. It works slick.

Looking forward to more Pool 8 goodies from you sir.

[FBMH]

Heres the Pics:

Yes rick, we caught the eye in 10fow with two waxies on a pink lil cecil in the same water as all the gills. It was weird because they are not many eyes in that water during this time of year. Usually arent back there till late spring.

[MarkKnudtson]

Ya it was pretty suprising. I caught the Walleye jigging on bottom with the lil cecil and a couple of waxies. Definatly wasn't expecting a nice row of teeth when i first pulled it up!

[Rick]

Looks like you had fun

[deanstacklebox]

Good to see you had a few volunteers coming to the top of the hole!

[FBMH]

Where to even start! Fishing has been slow lately to say the least. Until, i found the perch last wednesday on a scouting trip on the ice. Most of these fish are starting to turn to late ice routines, but this storm front coming may not help the cause. Anyways, fishing was great over the last 2 days. These perch were in 16-20fow on a flat mud basin surrounded by 40fow on all sides. As for jigs, we were using many slip bobber rigs and that seemed to be best. On the slip bobbers we mainly put banana jigs i think ther are called on our lines. Best colors were pink and green. Once we get the video up on here you guys should watch and let me know if im right. Also, when we jigged we usually used big loud jigs! Mainly we used the buckshot and forage minnow jigs(but we did catch numerous fish on a horizontal jig with 4 black dots on the underside), anything with sound or rattles for many reasons. First, the setup was interesting these days. We would drill six holes in the house. Two holes in the middle were for jigging and the ones on the outside were for slip bobber rigs. The perch would come into the rattle and then most likely see our minnows down there and would hit the bobber instead of the jig. On bobbers, we put plain ol' crappie minnows. On jigs, we tipped with two waxies or even a berkley gulp minnow. As you can see the fish were healthy and always fun to catch. The trio you see in the picture are all going on the wall. MARK IS GETTING HIS FIRST MOUNT! We are so excited and hopefully will find this action again come spring. This is the best perch fishing ive ever witnessed!

Until next time, tight lines!

Cody and Mark

[blue21]

NICE!!!!!!!!!!

[reinhard1]

fantastic perch fishing! like your dog also. good luck.

[Greg Clusiau]

Nice job guys. I really liked your video.

[wiscony]

Nice perch guys. No walleyes out there though huh? Seen that area produce some good eyes as well.

[FBMH]

I caught one eye maybe 11in. Otherwise I was surprised to not catch any either

[IlliniWalli]

nice perches!! a couple of them are real toads!!

[rymcneil]

I gota say nice fish too!!

[FBMH]

Hey there,

made it out today for my first northern/bass trip. If you didnt know about the big storm here in Central Wisconsin, it defineatly affected fishing.

The fish bit well this morning on shiners in 6fow with an occasional perch, most were small. The morning was the best where we got 6 flags between 830-10 and then it slowed down until the early afternooon.

We got the rest of our flags from 11-2 when we left and most were false flags anyways.

Overall, fishing like this is a blast with tipups. I got three rigged up now and am hoping to get more reports on here.

Thanks,

Cody

[wiscony]

Another good day for ya! Have you guys tried the bay on the other side of the river going behind the marine? Been seeing people fishing over there but havent made it out in that area for a few years. We use to get some great crappie out of the channel but that was actually before they dredged it out.

[FBMH]

Yes, we got some slabs there on Wednesday. The deep water is good now because the pies are suspended and roaming around. Make sure to have a vex or marcum

[Crm7290]

Is this near Lacrosse?

[FBMH]

Yes

[Derek B]

Very nice fish guys sounded like a very good time on the ice!

[Andy Loos1431189100]

Welcome to the site FBMH! Glad to have you here!

[FBMH]

Hey folks,

Fishing on pool 8 has slowed down the last few weeks. Yesterday, was the same.

Got out after school and hoped to be there for the evening perch bite. We setup in anywhere from 8-16fow and most fish we found were in the middle of the dropoff in about 13fow. The perch were finnicky and it was very hard to get them to bite. You would see them on the flasher, and they would slowly rise off the bottom. If you jigged it at all the perch would definealty swim off. However, jigging it off bottom and "pounding the bottom" worked well ony if you did one thing. After you pounded the bottom, you would wait maybe 15seconds and a mark would rise off bottom. Then, you would lightly jig the macho or forage minnow with a small minnow head and then you would most likely get lucky and catch those finnicky perch. FIshing has been slow and good reports are getting few and far between. Hopefully we can get some warm weather here soon and melt this ice so we can get the boat out and start the spring fishing massacre.

Tight lines and good luck out there,

Cody

I got a picture of the jigs we were using and the colors are the same also.

The forage minnow outfished the macho minnow but both of these northland tackle jigs are money in any type of fishing situation.

We ended up with 7 9in perch.

[DuaneW]

Where is pool 8 is it by the dam in dresback? or lower

[Andy Loos1431189100]

Thanks for the report Cody.

[FBMH]

Where is pool 8 is it by the dam in dresback? or lower

Pool 8 extends from Lock & Dam 8 located near Genoa, Wisconsin, upstream to Lock & Dam 7 located near Dresbach, Minnesota.

[DuaneW]

Thanks I fish around dam 7 and have never caught perch only gills

[Oldschool]

Thanks for the update Cody. I was down in that area on Sunday doing some exploring and I know that I will return. I enjoy trying new spots to fish and never knowing what the next bite will bring.

[FBMH]

Good to hear you came to Pool 8! There are many spots to fish! If you need any help next time, let me know!

Cody

[JIvers]

There is open water for a few hundred yards below the lock and dam at Dresbach. The ice in the channel below the open water looked very rotten to me. There were two small boats fishing the open water on the east side below the gates; I am guessing they pushed them out over the ice. I also saw what looked like airboat tracks heading across the ice to the open water.

There were people ice-fishing behind the long wall when I went to and from Lacrosse yesterday. Plenty of ice still on the backwaters.

[FBMH]

Hey everyone,

My brother and I have spent most of this week fishing off the wall below dresbach dam. Fishing has been sporadic, but both a yellow jig and plain ol' hook sinker minnow or crawler have worked well. Perch are being caught right along the wall with a plain hook and crawler and the walleyes are kind of spread out, but my brother jake figured something out and caught a real nice 18in walleye along with a few other 16inchers and lots of smaller ones. Make sure to measure every walleye. There are many 14-16in walleyes that we caught and its very hard to guess a fish to be of legal size. The yellow jig seemed to work best for the eyes tipped with a crappie minnow. Sizes seemed to be a factor and all walleyes were caught on a 1/4oz jig. Overall, if you want to get your boat out then go for it. But, you dont have to use your boat.

These fish were all caught along the wall and we contemplated bringing the boat out, but obviously you dont HAVE to.

Get out and get fishing everyone! The walleyes should be biting very shortly once this water stablizies and the water rises.

Thanks and as always,

tight lines!