IDOfishing.com: Mississippi River Pool 3

Spring is finally here and its time for me to leave my wintering hole of Pool 4 and get back familiar with the great fishery that’s in my back yard. Dean and the boys at Everts will probably still see too much of me, since he has the best river selection of tackle around, and I always need something….

Pre fishing for the FLW league tournament for me consisted of finding box fish, and finding big fish. My plan was to get my box fish early in the morning and spend the remainder of the day going after the fish that put checks in the pocket.

Early in prefishing the water temp in the main channel was running 45-47 degrees, the water temp in the back shallow channels was between 48-50 degrees, the amount of water coming down the main channel quickly eliminated a lot of water to fish. There was too much current on many of the spots I normally fish this time of year, so it was time to adjust the game plan. A quick browse through my fishing journal, and it was time to get fishing.

Early in the game, we found the big fish we were looking for. Chris Tuckner and I spent an afternoon trolling #5 and #7 Rapala shad raps and minnow raps in one of the many back waters of Pool 3, the fish were there, and they were on the chew! The water temp was warmer back in these cuts compared to the main channel, and these big girls were setting up off of current seams and behind natural humps in the channel ambushing bait as it came past. On tournament day, old mother nature decided that we needed a nice NW breeze in the 20 – 30 mph range, which made fishing these locations very difficult for me, boat control and getting the baits to run at the right speed and stay clean was challenging.

The box fish were found and caught by pulling cranks just off of the current seams and on top of the sand flats adjacent to the current seams. Running a #5 or a #7 Shad Rap or Flicker shad bait back and forth over the tops of these sand flats was putting fish in the boat. Jig and minnow combination is also very effective at these locations. Dragging a ¼ oz jig and fat head slowly (.04-.06 mph) from the deep edges of the sand up over the top is putting a lot of nice eater fish in the boat, along with some bonus piggy’s like this upper 20” from last night.

Another way to go after these locations is by pitching. Anchor up or hold with the trolling motor and pitch raps and jig combinations to these same locations. I have yet to use this technique, but good friends of mine are doing very well picking apart the water and finding active fish.

This weekend brings us the opener! I’ll be up on Mille Lacs slip bobbering and rigging and enjoying a little time away. Hope everyone has a safe and enjoyable opener!

See you on the water…

Jami