Jason Halfen
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Fun early February day on the river today with less than 10 boats on the water.
Fishing is in typical mid-winter form. There are gazillions of fish between Everts and the dam....the trick is getting them to pry their mouths open.
At this time of year, I spend the daytime hours fishing vertical. My go-to bait for the 2009-2010 winter season continues to be Dean's line of flukes...the one with the sparkly green back in particular....rigged on a 3/8 oz gold glitter jig. We caught all of our fish relatively deep today, in 25-28 feet of water. Saugers (with the big fish at 18") and a few smaller walleyes until the sun hit the treetops.
As day turns into evening, I turn my attention to the shallows. With nothing to show for our pitching efforts, we elected to spend the twilight dragging jigs in 6-8 feet of water. The hot bait was a new offering, "Victoria's Secret", on a 1/8 oz black glitter or venom head. That combination accounted for well over half of our dragging fish, including the one shown below.
Big fish are available, numbers are available, all that's missing is....you, and your boat on Pool 4. Come on down before it gets chilly again!
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Jason Halfen ~ IDO Pro Staff
Guided walleye and smallmouth bass fishing in western Wisconsin:
JasonHalfenOutdoors.com
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zonar
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Thanks for the report Jason 
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Marty Hahn
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Jason,
Good to talk with you yesterday. I have to agree that the little green backed fluke of Dean's has been the best producer this winter for my boat.
The bite was on the slow side for us yesterday, at least by pool 4 standards. We did manage a few quality saugers and at times had plenty of time between bites for a few laughs.
Dean, I must ask-Does the new bait come with a catalogue?
Brian was just curious. 
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Hahn's Guide Service
www.mississippiriverwalleyes.com
marty@mississippiriverwalleyes.com
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hairjig
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hey jason,great report.Unfortunately all I can do today is T.V. fish........I don't suppose I could get you to give up a little "sneak peek" of Victoria's Secret.....Mikey 
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EyesNDucks
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Hey Jason,
Thanks for the report. I'm cleaning up the new rig for the maiden voyage and I hope the weather holds out for me to get up that way next week.
Keep the reports coming.
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Everts Resort
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Quote:
Jason,
Good to talk with you yesterday. I have to agree that the little green backed fluke of Dean's has been the best producer this winter for my boat.
The bite was on the slow side for us yesterday, at least by pool 4 standards. We did manage a few quality saugers and at times had plenty of time between bites for a few laughs.
Dean, I must ask-Does the new bait come with a catalogue?
Brian was just curious.
Good idea! 
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Dean Marshall - Everts Fishing Resort
Located Below Lock & Dam #3 near Red Wing, MN!
Click on the Everts Resort banner above to visit our website!
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Jason Halfen
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Quote:
hey jason,great report.Unfortunately all I can do today is T.V. fish........I don't suppose I could get you to give up a little "sneak peek" of Victoria's Secret.....Mikey
You'll have to check with Dean for the details. Here's a close-up.
I will add that the fish that fell to Victoria's Secret absolutely pounded the bait. Two of them had the bait go straight through the gills and come out the other side. I tell ya, a 14-15" fish feels a LOT bigger when it comes to the boat lassoed like that...or wrapped about the kicker prop, which is another story altogether. Some of the other baits we pulled last night attracted some tail-grabbers, but none of the hyper-aggressive strikes that this combo elicited.
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Jason Halfen ~ IDO Pro Staff
Guided walleye and smallmouth bass fishing in western Wisconsin:
JasonHalfenOutdoors.com
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Jason Halfen
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Quote:
Jason,
Good to talk with you yesterday. I have to agree that the little green backed fluke of Dean's has been the best producer this winter for my boat.
The bite was on the slow side for us yesterday, at least by pool 4 standards. We did manage a few quality saugers and at times had plenty of time between bites for a few laughs.
Same here, Marty. We need to get out together one of these days, so we don't have to visit across 40' of water.
Your guests looked like they were having a great time. It's amazing how far the sound of laughter carries over water.
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Jason Halfen ~ IDO Pro Staff
Guided walleye and smallmouth bass fishing in western Wisconsin:
JasonHalfenOutdoors.com
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SAUGER
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Good work How do you like the new arbor reels?
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Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish, and he will sit in a boat and drink beer all day .
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Everts Resort
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Quote:
Good work How do you like the new arbor reels?
So far.....when you can cast a 1/8th oz blade or jig straight into a healthy breeze and not come right back in the boat,that is positive! It is certainly worth a guys time to demo one.
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Dean Marshall - Everts Fishing Resort
Located Below Lock & Dam #3 near Red Wing, MN!
Click on the Everts Resort banner above to visit our website!
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SAUGER
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Looks like I'll be seeing ya soon Deano
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Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish, and he will sit in a boat and drink beer all day .
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Jason Halfen
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The Arbor reel worked great. I was working with a 1/8 last night with either a shortened ringworm or "Victoria's Secret"...both very light presentations. Air temps were below freezing with freezing drizzle falling, so there was a fair amount of ice on the guides and on the spool. I was really impressed with how well the Arbor handled these conditions, allowing me to pitch effectively to the wingdams from the opposite end of the boat (we used i-Pilot to lock us in position upstream of the dam in an upstream wind, so the bow was pointed at the dams and the stern was away). When we started dragging, the arbor allowed me to get my bait far away from the lines coming from the guys in the back, and we never tangled once.
After one day on the water, under some pretty challenging conditions....two thumbs up!
Two thumbs up for the Snosuit gloves as well! Very very warm and completely dry!
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Jason Halfen ~ IDO Pro Staff
Guided walleye and smallmouth bass fishing in western Wisconsin:
JasonHalfenOutdoors.com
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Everts Resort
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Thumbs and both my big toes up for the spot lock feature on the new I-pilot!
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Dean Marshall - Everts Fishing Resort
Located Below Lock & Dam #3 near Red Wing, MN!
Click on the Everts Resort banner above to visit our website!
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Tom Gursky
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Great report Jason!
I have already reserved a new Arbor reel after Dean's glowing report. Now if I can just manage to wait until March 21st when our first P-4 trip starts I will be good to go!
Of course things out there will change by then... 
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Tom Gursky~
Northwoods Adventures Guide Service
GameHide / St Croix Rods
BfishN Tackle
"May all your trophies be worthy of the Good Book"
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cedarcreek
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Jason good to here you got a few fish draggin. I also ended well with some decent walleye draggin. The vertical bite was slow but did catch 20 or so half were keepers. I released them all. No big ladies but some solid 20 inch walleyes draggin mini paddle tails,flukes and mini ringworms. My best bite was in 10-15 feet dragging. DAy vertical was deep as well 25-30. I only managed 2 fish on blades a 15 and a 22 eye and to tail snagged gar. Loooks like cold weather again a little wait till a warn up to get at the pool 4 saugies. 
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February 4, Pool 4 walleye update
