Pool 4 (Red Wing) Water Temp 47: Level 8.1 :Flow @ 40,000cfs

Cresting water on the river with good clarity and water temps that have cooled by 8 degrees but are now normal.

The bite since my last update has been all over the board, a bit like water temps.  We had very good fishing in general early last week with both saugers and walleyes.  During our recent cold spell we lost quite a few degrees of water temp and lost our sauger bite as well.  The walleyes didn't seem to be effected as much as we have been able to put together decent catches on most days with some big pre and post spawn females in the mix.

We had started to see the trolling bite kick in as the water temps were well up into the 50s but with the fall in temps we have been leaning more on pitching and pulling Dubuque rigs both with plastics.  The old rule of thumb "dark baits on dark days and bright colors on sunny days" has really held true over this stretch.  Blue, grey and purple have been our cloudy day colors and chartreuse, orange and green have been best when the sun is out at least for my boat.

Too many pictures to post all of them but here are a few of the highlights.....Josh Evans with a pair of nice saugers (bright green plastics)

Jim Gustafson....22 incher

Marty....24 incher 

Neil Loofsboro....19 incher

Steve Field with a 29" post spawn female.  A pro blue ringworm on the back of Dubuque Rig fooled that one.

Matt Moen in the next two...25" pre spawner and 23 1/2"(purple/pink ringworm)

Kyle Biddle....23 incher (purple/char paddle tail)

Marty....29.5 inches...weighed 11.4 pounds. (Pro blue ringworm)

Dave Voissum... 27" post spawner (chartreuse/greencore ringworm)

Marty...28 1/2" post spawner (pro blue ringworm)