“DOOs and donts on Pool 4 Friday Nov 29”

Well I joined a the group of anglers that were out on Pool 4 today….. I was up at the Dam and no doubt some of you were too… though I did not recognize anyone… still for those who were there it WAS pretty windy and most of my feeble boat control skills were being used to the max….
We went straight to the Dam, there was probably around 30 boats there, mostly doing the jig and minnow thing, from what glances I could spare it did not seem a lot of nice fish were being caught that way….. (Just my impression)…. we started out trying to cash in on the “hot” crank bite… hmmm nuttin!! not even ONE…. tried various colors, sizes, brands, I seemed to be picking up “junk” and maybe that was the problem, leaves, alga, and various bottom detritus…..
Hit the top of my trolling run and decided do “do the DOO”… instant action…. started bring in keeper sized fish right away….. I dont know if color matter… I got good action on blue, and on dark green/light green both….. that was all I used… I caught lots of keeper sized fish…. ( maybe 30?) and a few smaller fish too…. biggest fish were over 20 inches (ok. 21.5!)… with a nice group of 17-18” fish… every decent fish I had was a sauger, the eyes were all sub legal….
so the Doos were a DO… and the cranks were a Dont…..
thats my story and Im sticking with it…..
attached is a pic of my fishing partner for the day with a couple of nice fish…..

heres a pic from first thing this morning, while I was making my first trolling pass with cranks, most people were stacked along the Mn side… later in the day they spread out quite a bit, across and down the channel……

Rivereyes,
The doos were do nots for my boat today, our biggest fish came pulling cranks. That pattern did not last long though. Switched to jigs and plastic away from the crowd and had some decent action.
see ya on the water, Don

interesting!….
funny how different people have success with different things….. not sure the area you were fishing.. but I was definitley in the middle of the crowd… maybe thats why the Doos were working… did not look like anyone else was slingin em!….

way to go Kenny I seen first hand what you can do with those doos and its almost scary

*gosh* Nate… *blush*… I dont really think Im THAT good!…
but the guy I was with today…. took almost all day to figure out the knack.. then he was pulling em in right along with me… fish for fish…. once the light goes on it doesnt go off!!

ahhh come on don’t give me that. if anyone here wants to see how to do the doo Rivereyes is your man. he has to be the Superdoo master!!!!!
keep it up buddy

Rivereyes,

I was out on thursday and a buddy of mine was using fireball and minnow’s and I had one hair jig left (courtesy of bucktail wayne) purple… and they were just slamming it… it was kinda funny to see the old jig and minnow fella squirm… he finally switched (said his hands were getting cold from putting minnows on)

to tell you the truth I don;t ever remember using live baite unless I was flathead fishing…….( I guess I do use a half a crawler once in a while) but not usually until december….

anyways,…. to make a long story short I lost the hair jig and I used plastics the rest of the way and noticed a considerable dropp off in action…. I think hair is really hot right now…..

thanks for the info Mavz!… thats one thing I did not try!…. I had good and steady action on the Doos and thats the way its been for me for the last 3 weeks….. but I have those hair jigs available….. just didnt put them in the water……

I know it is unreal isnt it. dooin the same on #3 .pull up on to the spots ,outhers say its slow ,about that time your rod gets pulled out of your hands!i was live bait guy my self, but not no more , the color thing? all ihave done is chart./orange head 99%of the time . white, pink has done well also.

RiverEyes, Heres that color thing again. How long do you fish a certain color before changing, if you are not picking up fish?

Mavzer,
could you share the size (wt) jigheads you prefer? I assume light as possible to let them float in the current. Were you in deep water along with the jig/minnow guy, and if so, how do you fish a hairjig then?

I was fishing in around 17- 24 ft of water most the time it was middle of the day and I started out with 1/8 oz but switched to 1/4 becaue I had to put my gloves on…..
I just raise it off bottom a couple inches and then let it drop and sit for a second and then raise and drop …….. I don;t “work it” like I do my plastics more of a methodical motion and they always seem to hit it on the drop or when it sits….
You might think this is crazy but…. a SUPER presentation is to use a twister tail and rip the tail off…. and hook a half a nightcrawler on the end…. I really think that the scent and different look triggers fish to bite …. somethin differnt that they haven;t seen,… and they recognize the scent for sure….. try it when it is slow…. you might get some smaller ones than you (on average) would using striclty plastics but it can be deadly……. good fishing Mavzer

SnakeEyes…
Im into instant grativication, and my experience with color is if it isnt working switch.. I will go ONE drift without catching a fish.. then I will switch colors… if a color switch dont work.. then I will stick with the same presentation only 2 drifts before I switch that too….. I try and stay with the mood of the fish as they change throughout the day… and its my experience that their color preference will change as time passes in the day and the light conditions change…..
which is not to say that you cant stick with the same color/presentation and stay on fish… I just think you can continue to “dial” them in…. by fine tuning your approach

Rivereyes, I change colors often also, sometimes I think I switch too quickly. Do you think as the sun gets higher during the day that it effects color choice?

SnakeEyes….
as the sun gets higher, when I make my color switch I will go from bright colors to light colors… like blues and whites, if the water is clear… and dark colors if the water is “dirty”… like purples and greens……. those will be my first choices… but as always its the fish who have the deciding vote…. and on some days you have NO idea what the color will end up being….

I know what you mean about some days a guy don’t what the color will be, thats the part that makes me crazy!!!!!