Guttenberg Tailwaters Report

[JIvers]

I made a trip to Guttenberg to fish the tailwaters for walleye and sauger. I got some small and eating sized fish vertical jigging with bright yellow hair jigs, but nothing to write home about.

All things being equal, I prefer to troll three-ways over vertical jigging. This week, though, trolling anything was impossible: grass, grass, grass--LOTS of it in the water. Vertical jigging was the only way to go, and you still had to keep cleaning the grass off the rigs.

I think I'm heading a little further upriver next weekend...give the grass some time to clear out in the Iowa stretch of the Mississippi.

[Joe]

Good report eyehunter. glad to hear you gotr some eaters!

[JIvers]

I fished below the lock and dam at Guttenberg this morning for about an hour. I caught about seven saugers vertical jigging in around 26' of water along the east shoreline below the float. My biggest fish was a 14" sauger, with most about 10". The fish I caught came on either bright-colored hair jigs tipped with minnows, or a minnow on a bare hook dropper behind the jig. The weeds that were such a problem a month ago when I was up there were not an issue today.

I only fished an hour because my outboard quit on me--either a fuel line in the motor broke, or the float stuck, flooding the motor with gas. Either way, after that happened I fished a little more with the trolling motor before deciding it was best to head back to the ramp before my battery went dead, or something along those lines.

It was going to be my last day out with the boat until March anyway (knock on wood), so the break down could hardly have happened at a better time in the year. I just wish it had waited a couple more hours today. Bring on the ice!

[Rick]

How's the fishing?

[JIvers]

I hit the tailwaters below Lock and Dam # 10 at Guttenberg for the first time in two years today, having not done great at Bellevue last week.

I wish I'd gone to Bellevue again. It actually wasn't that bad today: I got on the water at 11:00 AM, and after trying to vertical jig I found that the light south/west wind made that a chore, so I switched to trolling.

Floating jigs on three-way rigs tipped with shiners got enough sauger to at least keep me occupied. None of the fish I caught were especially large, and I would go ten minutes or so between fish, but at least it was a steady bite.

If I have to fish open water again this year I will go to Bellevue, but hopefully that won't be necessary--I saw ice on the ponds and marshes all the way up to G-berg, and some of that ice was still there when I drove back to Iowa City.