We havn’t had too many windows of opportunity to get on the open water since the Thanksgiving holiday. I was fortunate to share my boat with JakeH from Sportsman’s Warehouse a couple of weeks back for a morning of fishing. After checking in with Dean at Everts on the latest bite reports, we hit the water. Neither of us had been down to P4 for awhile so coaxing the fish to tell us what they wanted took a little while. We got things dialed in and and caught 20 saugers before hanging it up for the day. The first three pics show Jake battling a feisty sauger and a couple pics of the six eaters we kept between the two of us. It was a pleasure watching Jake popping those fish from the back of the boat. Very well done Jake…I hope to get out with you again this winter. 
On Christmas Day, my father-in-law, Leo and mother-in-law came into town. What is turning into a holiday tradition is our obligatory trips down to Pool 4 to chase after saugers. On Friday, 12/26, Leo and my son, Mitchell, headed down to visit Dean at Everts to get the highlights on the bite and get on some winter action. Because of the persistent cold snap, information was a bit spotty but Dean recommended we try dragging and vertical jigging using natural colors. We ended up keying in on vertical jigged B-Fish-N Paddletails in the Oystershell pattern with orange Everts 3/8 oz jigheads to get the fish to bite. The middle day portion of the day was not exactly hot and heavy but we managed to catch 15 fish with a couple kept for the frypan. When we got home, our wives said “Why don’t you guys go back down there tomorrow?” 
On Saturday, 12/27, we checked back in with Dean on how the other guys did. Dean had gotten out the evening before too and recommended we try his new shorty-sized paddletails in the brown-speckled color and the cotton-candy color (see the pic of the paddletails). Leo and I each took a color and focused on fishing a single rod each due to the strong North winds blowing down the river. We put 20-30 fish into the boat in half a day. The colors Dean recommended absolutely had everything to do with our improved catch from the previous day. Thank you Dean for the recos…you are always on the mark!!!
In case you guys do not already know the drill, be sure to check in with Dean when you arrive to Everts to get the latest on the best colors and presentations. He will definitely get you pushed in the right direction and help you improve your catch.
I cant wait to get down there myself. A week of bow hunting left and then I will be down. 
