POOL 4 (RED WING) WATER TEMP 36: LEVEL 2.4:FLOW @ 7150

Low level and flow....3-foot clarity...water temps holding so far.

Conditions are good on the river right now due to the moderate temperatures. We have been fortunate to have warm temps as the nuclear plant at Prairie Island is down for maintenance and refueling as I understand it. What this means going forward is that the river below the dam at Red Wing Dam will likely freeze as soon as we get an extended cold snap. The warm water that is discharged from the plant would normally keep waters open all winter in this stretch even on the coldest winters. 

We have been experiencing an extended November if you would with outside temps allowing us to operate as normal. Fishing plastic baits vertically over the bottom while sliding downstream with the current has been a fun way to catch big numbers of fish each day. Pulling against the current with similar plastics on Dubuque Rigs has been equally effective. 

A few crappie pics below as well. These fish were caught in mid-November just after my last report. Water temps were in the low 40s and those fish were pretty active then. Most were caught on small bucktail jigs either fished vertically or pitched to wood. 

It looks like we'll get out a couple more times this week and that will likely wrap up another year for my boat. I will have a look back at the year as a whole as usual, probably in early January.