Mississippi Pool 4

[Cabela10]

Went out today to brave the winds on the mighty Mississippi Pool 4. The winds were probably pushing 35mph and was very difficult to cast any light/finesse lures. This was my first time out this season and on my sixth cast of the year, I hooked up with a 3lber, which had no eggs in it's belly if it was a female. Very thick healthy bass, but no eggs. The bass was caught on a point with a 5 foot drop off with the wind sweeping across the point. Jigworm with Gambler 7" Ribbon Tail - Green Pumpkin was what I used to entice it.

My buddy and I were out from 1:15pm til 4:15pm and that 3lber was the only thing we got. The river seems to be at it's normal water level. The backwaters are brutal and almost unfishable because it's so shallow. I think the bass weren't active because of the cold front that was starting to roll through, maybe the hot bite was this morning, well before the storm was getting sensed from the bass.

I was unable to know the water temp because my buddies bass boat wasn't equiped with a temp gauge on it. I'd think it was around low 50's. With the backwaters so shallow, I'm thinking the key areas would be main river points and not the backwater points like we were mostly fishing.

It was weird being on Pool 4 this early and have the water so low or it seemed extremely low to me, cuz the ramps weren't flooded like normal.

[bronzeback01]

Pool 4 is a bit low for the time of year hopefully we get more rain! The good fish are all main channel or close for that matter. Don't feel bad, the river is unusually tough for some reason right now even for water temps in some areas reaching 60. Tourney results are good though but all reports on for 4 are tough.

[Cabela10]

Bronzeback, Are they holding north or south of Lake Pepin? Got any info? I'm guessing, and correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm thinking most the bass are on the points going into the sloughs off the main channel or holding someplace around that area, or with this low water, hanging out in lake pepin along that Minnesota riprap.

[bronzeback01]

They're on the rip rap year round they just get more pressure right now because most people cant find them anywhere else. I prefer the upper end of the lake but most like the lower. The big fish are almost all comming off of 5 and 5A.

I did hit some backwater stuff Sunday and found some largemouth in about 3-4' so they are on target for this time of year. It just sucks that the river is so low right now, it eliminates a lot of spring water. The KFAN should be fun again this year. I'm not expecting to see too many big bags.

[Cabela10]

Yeah, I have a tourney on Pool 4-5 May 5 for the ABA. I did well last season in the FOM event but all my water that I fished last year is pretty much toast because it's so shallow.

I don't hear to many people fishing north of pepin for bass, seems more for 'eyes. I am going to fish north of lake pepin this coming weekend to see whats hanging out up there. email me about some spots I should check out if your not fishing a tourney in the next couple weeks rbenbo at comcast (Contact Us Please) net.

[bronzeback01]

I have a buddy comming up from Iowa for the KFAN so depending on our schedules I might bring him up there to a spot or two so I can't give ya any specifics.

Just look for the usual, points, isolated rip rap exc. If I were you I'd really target 5 for your tourney, I think you'll have better luck.

I actually do most of my fishing around Red Wing where the fish get almost no pressure, but it'd take torture to get me to give up any of those spots. LOL!!!

[Cabela10]

ha ha ha, Yeah, I know, sorta like I wouldn't give up all my spots on the St. Croix. I figured it was worth a shot.

Bad thing about going to Pool 5 is that most of the KFAN boys will be heading that way and Pool 5 will be loaded with boaters. I'll figure something out.

[ikeslayer]

We went out to pool 5 on saturday and we struggled. we didn't catch anything however where we were the water was moving fast and the battery was a little dead on the trolling motor so that had everything to do with it. good luck in your tourneys. ike

[bronzeback01]

I found a new spot tonight on 4. I probably landed 15 fish in 40 min and lost a couple really nice ones. All largemouth too.

[Cabela10]

Stop rubbing it in Bronze. If I don't have to work saturday, you should show my buddy and I some of these hot spots you have . Did you find this spot on the main channel or backwaters north of Pepin? Share a little info Bronzy

[bronzeback01]

Mid Lake, thats all I'm sayin'. LOL!!!

If the KFAN fishes like it did last year, I think my buddy could win off the spot if it holds up.

[Cabela10]

Went down to Pool 4 again this saturday and tried the north end of Pool 4 and couldn't make anything work with all the FLW walleye boys prefishing for the May 5th weekend. The south end of Pool 4 had all the FOM guys and they are some crazy boys. Running backwater areas with less than a foot of water at around 30-40mph to stay on plane to get out of there. I'm not sure I'd risk destroying a $40k+ boat for a FOM event.

Going into my ABA tourney on Pool 4 & 5 will be interesting but I will, , get 5 bass for around 12 pounds and hopefully that will get me in the top 5.

[YUM]

Hit the pool 4 backwaters near Wabasha for the first time ever last Friday. Unfortunately it was the FOM official practice day but we were still able to catch some largies...6 total with all coming from just two spots and most of the fish were in the 2-3 pound range which was nice.

[Cabela10]

I failed on getting my predicted weight. I came in with 5 fish for 9.37lbs or something like that. Came in 4th place out of 16. Not bad, and like normal, I was one spot from making the money.

[YUM]

tell us a little more Bobby what did u catch your fish on.. what kind of structure/cover did u find your fish?

[Cabela10]

We were suppose to launch from Roshen Park just outside of Lake City. The waves were hammering that launch and we had to move north to the launch north of Lake City, Hok-Si-La, I believe. That is a nice landing with a covered picnic area that served great for the weigh-in and such.

The waves to start the event in the morning were around 2-4 feet. I started my day by nearly breaking my back trying to get to the pickle factory pier on north Pepin, I ended up fishing the outside of that marina, north side, which was blocked a little bit from the wind. I got to that spot at around 7:25am, and took me 2-3 casts to get my biggest fish which was 2.47lbs. Two casts later, I had another decent smallie that was maybe just above or below 2lbs. I had 5 smallies, with all of them coming on a green pumpkin 4" Gambler tube. This is my first season trying the Gambler products and so far I'm really impressed with them.

I proceded to get my limit of 5 by 8:10am and never got anything over 14" after that.

Around 11am, I ran south towards Wabasha to see if I could find anything in the backwaters area and caught a few short fish. At noon, I decided to go find my buddy to see how he was doing and found out he was sitting in 4-6foot swells all day out on Pepin hammering a shoreline with cranks. At 12:30, we had enough and headed to the launch when we were suprised by how big the waves were the farther north we got. I've never been on a body of water that had waves that big and I've never been so wet after pounding through waves. After looking back on the whole situation, I wish I never would of entered the tournament, because I knew how bad the wind and weather was suppose to be.

However, I did have fun at the tournament. It's where I forget about everything off the lake, like work and the everyday grind of life. I'm not one to let "LITTLE" things bother me, like some due.