Pool 4 walleye

You guys looked so dang bored this weekend y’all made it hard to have fun!!

Switch over to the dark side when the walleye waters are overcrowded and there bite is tough.

30 channel cats Saturday
30 channel cats Sunday, and 4 sturgeon.

Over 11 doubles.

Been having the best success fishing sand dunes in the main channel fastest current.

If you want to have fun reeling in fish, multiple at at time even, drop the walleye rods and give Catfishing a try. I guarantee many would trade a skunked walleye trip for an epic fishing day.

You know, you make such a good point. Why don’t species specific fisherman branch out during the lulls? I am guilty and if you were out 3-17 I’m sure you had seen my frowning, frustrated face out there. I’ve never even tried catching cats, and if you are willing to give me a quick tutorial of tactics I’m definitely willing to listen. I’m sure they are a blast to drag off the bottom.

…there goes our little secret!!

PS channel cats taste terrible.

FBRM was that you by the Y on Saturday. Seen someone there pulling them in hand over fist! Heck, we caught 4 of them just fishing for walleyes/saugers.

Yes that was me.

FBRM what’s your bait of choice this time of year?

Cut sucker is a good bait.

did you have to search very long for them cats? I plan on fishing Friday for sure and would love to boat some croakers! sand and heavy current were the two major factors for you? thank you for the info I appreciate it!

Basically no, but I know exactly what I’m looking at.

Here my advise.
I use side imaging to see fish in the dunes. Get in front of them and cast out lines. Do not let a line sit more than 1-3 minutes untouched. Reel 1-4 turns and repeat 1-3 minutes later.

When you get close to the boat, cast out again but slightly different than the first time. Rinse and repeat.

You will hook up in that time window if the bait is in front of a catfish.

Work an area on anchor and move to the next.

Saturday and Sunday I was searching for channel cats over 20# and never found any. If I caught 3-4 cats in one spot I moved. Caught 3-4 more and moved. Not that I couldn’t catch more but I am only looking for that one trophy.

So, the moral is you’ll know they are catfish because they’ll bite, if your diligent in continuously covering water.

With my electronics and experience finding fish is a breeze. Honestly though, the bite can be so far and furious that without the experience one should be able to go catch some cats.

Fish were holding tight to structure on the edge of current with the bigger fish hanging in the main channel current dunes but the velocity increased, water dirtied, and these fish vacated and spread
Out in the main channel dunes.

Hope this helps you.

Any chance you would be willing to share a few screen shots of your SI? I have been playing around with mine for the last year and been really happy in general, but have found it difficult to get the finer details to pop to take it to the level of seeing fish in detail. I added a screen shot I had, so I feel I have it set up the way I want it now its just a setting and interpretation thing, particularly in the sand where it tends to wash out. If there is any interest, I can move the topic to it’s own thread.

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For the most part I run my depthfinders the way they come out of the box.
Sensitivity 10
Contrast 10
Sharpness off.

Chart speed equal to boat speed.
Scan width varies, though I’m generally at 70′. I have a dedicated 10″ screen for SI so I can get the best image clarity. Sometimes I use my 12″ screen for SI.

Looking for fish, slow down and increase the detail by doing so.

Nothing special, except when it comes to identifying fish species. There you’ll need to rely on your experience. What kind of fish would be found in this location, this time of year, in these conditions, and schooled like they are….I could write a book on that subject.

Are those suckers or walleye… I’ll tell ya you can tell on sideimaging, and those two fish like to inhabit the same structural areas. But they school entirely different. That’s the give away. Of course time of year and how they’ll school on any given type of structure and conditions of the vast amount of detail that only time on the water will help.

So many people want to fish like a pro but only venture to the lakes a couple times. It is amazing what you can learn and amazing the amount of questions you develop during the learning process and the more you learn the more you realize how little you know!

Your attached screenshot looks perfect. Do you see the fish?

I cannot guess what they are, it would be foolish to do so, as I have no idea the conditions surrounding that screenshot.

I do not run cards in my birds anymore and do not keep screenshot either. As of late I’ve been deleting waypoints on a very frequent basis. I might lay 3-20 waypoints in one day as I mark fish and fish them and I promise you those waypoints are nothing but a waste of space in your map after a few days. It is just clutter. So I’ve learned to quit fishing memories and to find fish Everytime instead of finding waypoints. I’ve also found that by turning off screenshots that I can mark a waypoint faster thus pausing the scan for less time. I really like how lowrance continuously records and allows playback.

If you want to see screenshots go to BBC boards humminbird image interpretation. You need to spend time and energy understand how to interpret your images. That is the resource I started learning with, and I’ll bet there’s 8 more years of information above what was there when I was figuring this stuff out.

You can set your bird to any setting and interpret the image if you understand how your unit is operating.

Thanks for the knowledge FBRM! Are you part catfish?

<3 minutes in the first spot. Ben catches his PB channel cats.

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Our 15th fish took us on a short boat ride!

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After 15th fish it was time to find a better catch rate. Find a large school.
<2 minutes we had 3 rods doubled over. That’s my first triple in under 2 minutes LOL.

We had a hoot and went from 15 to 33 fish in short time!!

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FBRM, was that you at the gas station in Prescott on Sunday morning? My buddy and I had the trailer with the spun bearing. Ended having to tow it to get it fixed.

Yeah that was me. Rough start to your morning there.

FishBlood&RiverMud wrote:

Your attached screenshot looks perfect. Do you see the fish?

FBRM, thanks for the good info. I know you directed this question to Johnie Birkel and he hasn’t responded yet, but would you mind answering the question for the rest of us? It appears that there is a fish on the 2D sonar and it shows up small in the DI, but I’m confused as to where that fish is on the SI. Shouldn’t it be showing up on either side directly at or very near the 14′ mark, assuming the chart speeds line up close enough? Otherwise, to me it looks like there may be a couple of fish off the right side in what looks like a hole or a dropoff?

Awesome post! Thanks for the info on how you use your SI. Your part about identifing the “school” of fish is something way ahead of the curve of what I have read/watched from some of the bigger electronic guys. Your point about stopping the time to save of waypoints is also interesting as I tend to be guilty of that. Keep up the posts as you have it dialed in.

FishBlood&RiverMud wrote:

Yeah that was me. Rough start to your morning there.

At least it wasn’t my boat…..I headed home and grabbed my boat and got out on P2 for a few hours only to get skunked. Some days it’s just not meant to be.

FBRM- Nice discussion and explanation on some of
your channel presentations and thoughts.
Thanks for taking the time.
Have a great year.
Jack

Matt Moen wrote:

At least it wasn’t my boat…..I headed home and grabbed my boat and got out on P2 for a few hours only to get skunked. Some days it’s just not meant to be.

Funny, I was in the Skeeter and we talked on the river and again loading up at the landing.

I’m glad it wasn’t my boat…., Oh wait that was me. FBRM Thanks for the tools and offer of a bearing. We finally got a big wrench around 9, but the spindal had just enough wear it needed to be re-threaded. A good reminder to knock off those bearing buddies and see what is really going on every so often.
On a positive note-I see fish at R28 between the wood and square block and maybe a few questionable at R48 midway, but not enough experience to know what I’m looking at. I see nothing on the left but deeper water and a few streaks, the first L20ish looks more consistent to how the sand dunes tend to look when I look.
Thanks for sharing the info!

Francis K wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Matt Moen wrote:</div>

At least it wasn’t my boat…..I headed home and grabbed my boat and got out on P2 for a few hours only to get skunked. Some days it’s just not meant to be.

Funny, I was in the Skeeter and we talked on the river and again loading up at the landing.

Nice to meet you out there – too bad it wasn’t a better bite but it was a beautiful day. I’m sure I’ll see you out there again.

Johnie Birkel wrote:

I’m glad it wasn’t my boat…., Oh wait that was me. FBRM Thanks for the tools and offer of a bearing. We finally got a big wrench around 9, but the spindal had just enough wear it needed to be re-threaded. A good reminder to knock off those bearing buddies and see what is really going on every so often.
On a positive note-I see fish at R28 between the wood and square block and maybe a few questionable at R48 midway, but not enough experience to know what I’m looking at. I see nothing on the left but deeper water and a few streaks, the first L20ish looks more consistent to how the sand dunes tend to look when I look.
Thanks for sharing the info!

How does that saying go “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure?” Or, something like that. My boats at the dealer with a warning buzzer that I couldn’t figure out so it seems like the stars weren’t aligned for us.

Sounds like we should’ve parked your boat and hopped in with FBRM…….

Johnnie I don’t know you but I felt bad for your all day man. A broken day of fishing sure sucks in my world.

Is that si from the river in redwing? If yes, then it is likely a clam bed amongst those few sticks and such. Quite a few fish in there. Likely suckers. There’s fish on the left too in a streak, possibly a secondary current seam near shore. Then again water temp is 49 and walleyes do stack like cord wood in spots. Gotta be in the boat to truly interpret the species but you got fish bud. Don’t see crap on the other screens huh.

Schema you get on a catfish bite Id love to come over and try that!

The screen shot is from pool 2 last spring. I should have been more clear, that it isn’t always I don’t know what the fish look like on SI, but often half the river looks like the pic above. The part I need to improve is how to pick the spots to spend time. Again, great idea to think about the whole picture, how they are schooled, the strucute… and start there. Thanks for the info.