POOL 4 (RED WING) WATER TEMP 49: LEVEL 3.2:FLOW @ 15,500

Conditions are good on the river with a moderate raise in level and flow and declining water temps.

The bite on the river remains good. Crappies are still to be had in the right spots and right times. Still just small bucktail jigs getting it done for the crappies in my boat. Some on the deeper edges but plenty of fish in the 5-10 foot range as well.

Early during this report we were catching most of our saugers and walleyes on blade baits. This bite was very good for numbers and size both. As the water cooled into the low 50s we started experimenting with plastic baits on Dubuque Rigs. This worked well with Hutch Tackle Sauger Slayers being far better than baits with tails at this time.  

We switched gears one more time early in the week. Pulling stick baits on three ways into the heavier flows was really the ticket for what I would consider one of the best big sauger bites I have seen in my many years of fishing. Many fish in the 19-21' range with some going over the 21" mark. These are just ridiculously big for saugers and we have seen literally dozens of fish this size the last couple weeks.

Every sauger you see pictured below was returned to the water. If we all do our part and throw back these bigger fish our system will thrive for many years to come and who knows how big some of these fish will get. 

Pics below include Matt Fahey(21.25") caught on a blade bait

Brad and Clint Schreiber and Matt with a nice bunch of crappies.

Leif Knecht(21.5") Caught on a "Sauger Slayer"

Jake Edel (21.75"  4.5#) another "Sauger Slayer" fish

Dave Fladhammer (20.5")

Kay Kuepers (21"  4.1#) Gold #9 Rapala

Tom Meyer and Doug Mcmanemy with a few eyes from Wednesday.

Dustin Hampton in the next two. Another 20+" sauger on a rap and a couple of jigged up crappies.

The last four are Ken Van Dee and Mike Cochran.  All were caught on Rapalas.  The last fish was 21.75"es and went 4#s