Thursday 7/24

Got home and decided to see if I even remembered how to catch a fish. Went to coralville in the morning shooting for crappies. I had some good days this spring, so they must be somewhere, right? Well, no. I fished about 3miles around mehaffee and blanked. The bites I did get would just tick the bait and flee without hooking up.

Frustrated, I headed out on the Cedar here in town to chase some smallies. Wife and I caught about a half dozen in the ~2 hours we were out. River fish are driven by current, which I think just makes them more easily located and willing to bite. Fished the face and top of the only wingdam I’m aware of in that stretch, and a couple of current breaks.

Similar story yesterday. Out for a couple hours with 4fish, 2 green, 2 brown bass.

Did everyone quit fishing, or are they all just tight-lipped?

I’m not sure about your area but up here on the Mississippi River the extended high water seems to have thrown people off a bit. Last Friday I drove from MPLS to Winona going through Prescott and Red Wing on the east side of the river before crossing over to the west side at Red Wing… no boats on the water or at the landings I passed. I saw two trailers in Lake City. That’s an off day for how nice the weather was.

Well the tuna boats of P4 are out in force. LOL!

I took a short 3 hour tour yesterday morning of upper P-4.

There were boats fishing Bay City Flats, Youngs Cabin area, Hay Creek and around Everts Resort. Although there were some long lining raps, the majority of people I talked to were using a jig and a crawler.

I talked with a few “island” campers this morning and they reported flatheads near the Vermilion outlet on bullheads (one 40 reported) and channel cats on stink bait in the dam area.

Oh, almost forgot!

A couple staying at Everts boated a 25″ walleye on Friday. Deb, Pat’s wife not to be out done smacked a 30.25″ eye after that while fishing out of a 27ish foot toon!

Hopefully there will be photos in the Traier IA newspaper soon!

It’s good to hear that someone is catching ’em.

We headed to pool 11 on Sunday 8/3 and fished for a few hours. Decent but not spectacular numbers of bass, and a bonus pike and walleye thrown in. The eye was nothing special, probably somewhere in the 18 inch range, he just happened to be dumb enough to follow a swim jig all the way to the boat. Threw back in with a crankbait and pipped him first cast.

Level is about normal for summer pool, but current is very strong. On the plus side, the fish are pretty concentrated once you find ’em, on the minus side, I could use a bigger trolling motor.

Good hearing from you again even if the fish aren’t jumping into the boat for you John.

FYI There’s a $1900.00 trolling motor in the Sponsors Forum for $1600.00.