Fishing Report 4-23-10

[sandmannd]

We hit the river this morning. Got out there about 8 am out of Prescott. Got some very nice fatheads at the baitshop and launched the boat. Headed a little north to the normal spot. Two weeks ago a gold jig produced very well for us. Not today, not even a bit off a jig. I always have my 8 footer out as a dead stick with a lindy on. Today it was chartreuse hook. Took a little while but I got a small eye. We went up and down the docks a couple of times and that was all we managed. Not many bites at all.

So we reeled up and headed for the wing dams. Fish finder lost bottom and wouldn't recover so we estimated we were in about 16-17 FOW. Tried jiggin and still had my dead stick out. Still nothing on the jig but the lindy got smacked. Pulled in a small sauger. Put a new minnow on and threw it back out. Another smack on the lindy and got a nice sauger but came off at the boat, thought I could get it without a net.

I switched my other rod over to a lindy with a red hook, red bead and gold blade on it. Wade switched over to lindy rigs as well. Then it was on. We were in about 9 FOW at the time and were getting hits after hits, the first pas into that shallow water produced a nice keeper for Wade. We zig zaged around and I putzed with my Lowrance a little and got the graph working. Man were there fish below us!! But I missed a couple while messing with the graph.

I got another huge smack and the fight was on. Turned out to be a very large white bass. The next few fish for me were white bass after white bass with a rock bass mixed in. Then we looked up to another boat and saw a guy fighting a fish. Saw it splash once and looked like a sturgeon to me. He fought it for about 20 minutes and it was a 42" sturgeon, got it on 6lb test.

We got back to fishing and wade got one in but was just a little shy of keeper it was a walleye. Right after that one was boated I got a good hit on the line. Saw a pretty nice sauger come up but Wade was a little slow with the net. Think I hand him hooked in the belly anyway so it got off. We caught a few more fish and I ended the day with a nice keeper.

Went to head back in and the starting battery died so we had to troll back to the launch. Good thing we didn't head down stream 7 miles to one of my back water spots!! Was a good day on the water, little windy and chilly at times, but still a good day. Didn't see too many others catching many. Most stuck with jiggin and that just wasn't producing today. You really have to try different things and see what's gonna work. Especially on the river where you can use two rods.

[Lee Borgersen]

Sounds like a nice trip despite the defugelties. Better to have equipment problems early in the spring so you'll get those things fixed now and coast the rest of the season. Nice saugar there a real plumper. Thanks for the report.