Weather:
(1153) VRBL 3, sunny, 89˚, 29.88 rising
(1900) NW 5, sunny, 93 ˚, 29.89 rising
Water:
8.36 falling, 68.9 kcfs, 82 ˚, clear
Location:
Mississippi R. Pool 8
Mississippi R. Pool 7
Caught:
Dan and Wally, LMB (12-14) 12 – 16 “, myself, SMB 16”
Myself PM, LMB 11 & 14”, SMB (7) 11-18”, striper 15”, channel cat 10 LB,
Bluegills - many for bait
Partners:
myself, Dan and Wally AM
Myself PM
Comments:
It was an early morning trip with Dan and his father Wally. Dan is fairly new to the area and he wanted to give his father an opportunity to experience the river first hand. The species of fish that were sought today were bass, both largemouth and small mouth. We were also hoping to tie into a pike or two, but with the warmer weather their activity level has fallen off dramatically. We put in at the Stoddard launch at six 6 AM to avoid as much of the daily heat that we have been experiencing the last couple of days.
The morning was beautiful, with great scenery, comfortable temperatures and a light wind. Dan and Wally both caught a fair amount of large mouth, nothing fantastic, but we picked up a fish here and there. I was hoping to get them into a number of small mouths, but where they were yesterday, there were none today. Swim jigs were about the only game in town today. I also gave the guys a lesson in the use of a bait caster, which went okay, but I don’t think they will run out and buy one anytime soon. Learning to use a bait caster is a lot like learning to ride a bike; most who try are going to fall a time or two, be intimidated and stay off for a while, but eventual come back and master it. Yesterday I had done so well with buzz bait and today the fish showed no interest in it. The river is dropping very fast, and with the changing conditions comes constantly changing fish locations.
Stoddard is my home town, I have spent countless hours on the river down there when I was a kid, but slowly all the islands out in the open areas disappeared and along with them disappearing so did the fishing. But the area has come back as a major fishing and waterfowl area, thanks to the planning and hard work of the US Fish and Wildlife Service. I know some people have bad opinions of this government agency, but without the work they have done in the Stoddard and Brownsville area, you would not have the fishing or bird life that is there today. The area is teaming with birds; we saw ducks, pelicans, eagles and geese. The area also has some major wild rice beds, something that was non-existent twenty years ago. The landing that the village has there is also a very good facility. I wish I could persuade the Fish and Wildlife Service to come to pool seven and do some work. The pool up here has degraded tremendously in the last twenty years since I have lived there, the sloughs are all filling in and the islands are eroding at a very rapid pace.
After my guide trip I came home and took a little nap, before heading out on a solo trip on Pool 7. I started out fishing for bluegills in the Hammond chute area; because I was going flat head fishing and I needed bait for the evening. I was easily able to get all the bluegills I needed in some downed trees using artificial bait. I then tried largemouth bass fishing around the weed lines with very limited success. My next stop was an area with rock over on the Minnesota side. I was able to find a couple of areas with a decent number of small mouths, but I did not catch any largemouth or pike. The best bait of the night was a black Heddon Baby Torpedo that I had just bought. The small mouths were very aggressive and a riot to catch.
Observations:
The water is clearing up nicely, but the flow is still pretty strong which makes it difficult to fish main channel areas. There was little to no fish fly activity last night. The small mouths are very active on the main channel areas, but the large mouths have not seemed to venture out into the channel yet.
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