7-1-12 Sun

7-1-2012 Sun (8:00AM – 1:30PM)
Weather:
S 9, sunny, 87˚, 29.96 falling
Water:
9.59 falling, 80.4 kcfs, 78 ˚, very clear to cloudy
Location:
Mississippi R. Pool 8
Caught:
Myself LMB (7) 12 – 19 “, pike 20”// Scott LMB (7) 10 – 18”
Partners:
myself and Scott
Comments:

I got to bed at 2 am last night and I was up at 5 am to go fishing with Scott. I would not really describe it as going to bed; it was more like a nap. My plan for the day was to do some fishing and exploring down in the Stoddard area. This is the area where most of the qualifying pros for the final of the elite tournament fished. Stoddard really has a strong fishery and it is on account of all the habitat improvement that the Fish and Wildlife Service has done in this area.
The first cast of the day was made at 8 am and it was game on with the competition that Scott and I usually have going. We had some decent action today, with most of it coming from top water frog action. The pike did take their toll on my baits though; I lost at least two Spro Frogs and one swim jig to pike. Scott also lost some tackle to the toothed fish.
For most of the day Scott out fished me, he really shined on the frog bite and I really sucked at it. Then about the last hour things turned bright for me. We did some exploring and fished the new islands over in the Brownsville bottoms. This is where my fortunes got richer in the number of fish boated. We found a pretty good concentration of fish on the rocks with some water flow.
When the day was over I had bested Scott by two fish!

Observations:

The water is receding, but it is still very high. The clarity of the water in the Stoddard Bay is just incredible; the rest of the river that has any flow to it is still cloudy. The Stoddard area really has and incredible fishery. Today it was extremely hot and calm, my plastics that were in the tackle box had the consistency of cooked pasta.