7-18-11

7-18-2011 Mon

7:30 PM – 11:30 PM

Weather: calm 93, clear, 93 ˚, 29.89 – steady (7:53 PM)
H2O: 82 ˚, 8.39’, rising, 75.6 kcfs, dirty, somewhat weedy

Location: Mississippi R. Pool 7

Caught: Bluegills, and one perch and one sauger (bait), 15” small mouth, 17 LB flat head

Partners: none

Comments

What else can I say, it was fricken hot!!! I knew I was in trouble with the heat when I pulled up to the boat landing and the wet tracks from the last rig that had left the water were steaming. It looked like a scene out of Ghost Rider when he burned out on his motorcycle and left smoking tracks.
One other observation that I got a chuckle out of was an older gentleman working on his boat house. This guy was in his whitey tighties as he worked in and out of the water removing debris from around his dock. Of course he was fairly large, very white and his whiteys were no longer white.
And now on to the fishing report: I knew that with all the rain that we have been having upstream I was going to be challenged by dirty water. My plan was to do a little bass fishing, and if possible catch a few gills for flat head bait. The bluegills were very tight lipped as were the bass.
The flat head fishing was pretty good. I pulled a nice one in right away and lost one and missed about four others. I was having a hard time sticking the fish, which made me believe some of the misses could have been the result of catfish and their light biting.

Observations

I have come to the realization that the river is never going to be normal this summer. The fish are still there and will bite, I just have to accept it and change my tactics. I targeted the main channel for flats and they did seem to be there.