7-22-12 Sun

7-22-2012 Sun 9:00 AM – 4:00 PM
Weather:
(2153) S 9, few clouds with some light rain, 84˚, 29.95 falling
Water:
651.44 falling, 28.6 kcfs, 80 ˚, semi - clear
Location:
Mississippi river pool 5A – Fountain City
Caught:
10 LMB 11 – 18”, 3 SMB 11 – 13”
Partners:
myself

Comments

Today was a day for exploring. I just love fishing new areas on the river, and it had been several weeks since I had done that. I have fished Fountain City once or twice before, but I had never fished the lower portion of the pool. I was envious of this body of water, just as I am envious of the Stoddard area. The Corps of Engineers had also done a lot of island and habitat restoration measures here, and the vegetation and the fishing have responded in a positive way.
I started out fishing for small mouths on the rocks. I had lots of action, my hook up percentage was very poor and the size class of the fish was generally small. After a couple of hours of hitting main channel rock areas it was time for a little back water exploring. Running a new area always makes one a little nervous, mainly because you do not know what may be lurking under the surface. I am not as afraid of hitting something as I am of getting stuck on a shallow bar. I had done that once with my sixteen foot boat when I was by myself and that was not a lot of fun getting it freed from the suction like force of the sand.
The large mouth action was not fast and furious, but it was consistent and I had a mega amount of fun. The vast majority of the large mouths were caught on a frog. The fish were quit active, I would miss a fish multiple times, sometimes even briefly hooking the fish, and I would still be able to catch them.

Observations:

The water up on this pool was a little dirtier and maybe even a little lower than normal.