Pool 4 (Red Wing) Water Temp: 46 Level: 10.9 Flow:@66, 400cfs

Water level is back up a bit from last week, still about 7 feet above normal. Water clarity is good and temps are in the mid 40s.

A bit of a short week due to the rainy/windy conditions early on but trips mid to late week found us catching great numbers every day.

The great sauger bite we wait for every year arrived in force this week.  In the past month our catches in the upper end have been made up of primarily walleyes but that changed to almost all saugers this past week.  This is a lot of fun every fall when this swarm of fish arrives and is something you can count on sometime in mid to late October.  The exact timing is based on water temp, level and flow. I am still in awe of the size and numbers of these fish which we are very fortunate to have in our system.

We used a few tactics in my boat to catch fish……vertical/bait, vertical/plastic, casting plastic and pulling plastic slowly upstream. Late in the week it was all various plastic baits pulled slowly upstream on Dubuque Rigs.  Ringworms, paddle tails and some sort of flukes have all been really good.  As the water clears Hutch’s “Sauger Slayers” are still one of my favorites.  

In pictures below are Jake Edel, Jerry Arseneau, Jay Franz, a large sauger, Heidi Brosseau, Brian Paulson and Tim Drexler.  

Cold weather in the near future will no doubt drop water temps even more although our bite should remain good.  Water levels are also predicted to be on the down slope starting next week as well.  Once the water gets into the upper 30s we will likely lean a little more towards fishing vertically with plastic as long as the water stays clean which it typically does.