Pools 8, 9, & 10

O.K. Guys. Am looking for information about pools 8,9,10. Am fishing a B.A.S.S. Regional tourney on them on September 19, 20, & 21. Never been on any of the pools before and would like to get some help. This is a no-cull -catch and release tourney, and therefore every fish counts. Any ideas for patterns or specific locations would be appreciated. Don’t give up anything you will feel uncomfortable with. You may contact me on the private line if you wish. Thanks

Should be a good time of year! Smallies should provide you some action on wing dams and rip rap. I score well on craw colored cranks in the fall, but keep an eye out for schools of shad–a shad pattern crank could do well.

Thanks Greg. How do I locate the best wingdams for smallies? Where do they usually hold? Are they there all day?

The best seems to be in the corner between the wing dam and the shore. Generally, with rock cover like rip rap, yes, they are there all day. However, there are definite peak times to fish like anywhere else. Your traditional morning/evening times holds true. You may just have to switch up tactics and see what works for other times. Best wingdams? I can’t really say as I don’t have *that* much experience on them. If you’ve never been here, your best bet is to check in with a bait shop, as wing dams are just a small piece of the puzzle. For example, I did much better on largemouths on shallow wood a few weeks back. Basically, don’t narrow your options down too much and fish a variety of places (laydowns come to mind) until you find what’s best. Now, I’m speaking of pool 8. I know there are wingdams and rip rap in the others, but I don’t really know much more about other cover in 9 and 10.

jig&pig; the regional should be on 9 10 &11. I fish the iowa federation but didnt quallify. the river is low . fish wood in current along with wings and rip rap on main and side channels. also look for slop in back waters, frog and rats used here. good luck.

I was on 11 last fall and watched some guys pull a few good largemouths out of wood in side-channels. They were hugging tight to a bank with overhanging trees and pitching jigs into the jams & snags. Good luck.

You are right. Thanks for the correction. It is 9, 10, and 11.

Definitely a good time of year. The smallie bite has been great down there in the past couple of weeks. Right now I find them mostly on wing dams close to shore and on the rip-rapped shorelines. Largemouth can be found just off the main channel where they can find some cover. The same trends seem to hold as September goes through, as long as the water flows remain about the same.

I was out on 9 by Lansing on Sunday and saw some pretty nice boats abosolutely flying down river about mid-afternoon. We guessed that they were fishing the tournament. I and my friends were obviously impressed. Do you guys ever acutally let the hull touch the water?

Needless to say, I bought a lottery ticket on the way home. I need to get myself a boat like that. Hope you all had decent luck.

I have fished pool 11 almost exclusively for about 20 years…everything you’ve read so far seems on the mark, but here’s a method I find can at times get you a bass every cast…for whatever reason, Johnson Beetle Spins, 1/4 oz., black w)chartreuse stripes works very very well that time of the year along wing dams for both smb/lmb…for lmb, I try to find a wingdam that is just barely poking out of the water and fish the upriver side casting towards the channel casting from where the last rocks protruding out of the water are…I cast upriver about 15/20 feet at about a 30 degree angle from the dam depending on current and used an even retrieve. I’ve had occasions where I’ve caught 20 lmb of all sizes in an equal number of casts! Seems to be best 11am/noon. I tried this last Thursday, caught 10 (4 15″ or bigger) in about a 15 minute time period, then 2 barges came by, I was wading, the water turned to chocolate milk, and I left because seeing the wingdam became difficult (I wouldn’t recommend wading on these buggers unless you are really, really certain of the dam you’re wading on…I’ve waded this particular wingdam for years, has some flat rock/clear water that makes it wadeable, within walking distance from my cabin). Other colors? Chartreuse w) black stripes, crawdad orange w)black stripes good too, but not as good as black/chartreuse. On pool 11 in the areas I fish, these lures work on any riprap/wingdams I try, no idea why, just works well for me. Don’t be surprises if you get collateral walleyes/northerns too. Smallies will hit it too, but closer to shore like the others state. 1/8 oz. doesn’t seem to work as well for the biggies. Advise on this tactic? Buy lots of spinners, I go through a ton of them this time of year messing with the wingdams, 99 cents at Starks in PDC! Hope this helps, I’ve used this tactic for 20 years in the fall and it always puts smiles on my face.