8-4-12 Sat

8-4-12 Sat
Weather: W9, clear, 74 ˚, 29.89 rising

Water:
5.14 falling, 20.7 kcfs, 79 ˚, clear
Location:
Mississippi river pool 7
Caught:
LMB 17”, SMB 2-12”, 14, 15, 17” and tons of little bait stealers, Flat head 7 lb., 10 bluegills.
Partners:
none
Comments

I had just got back from our weekly vacation on the Chippewa Flowage in Hayward; I was unpacked, bored and ready to once again fish the river. Tonight I was after flat heads, so the first order of business was to catch some lively bluegills for bait. Surprisingly I never found any large concentrations of them, I found some here and there, and caught an ample supply but I had to work for them. The little pesky bait stealing small mouths were not hard to find though. I did hook up on a nice 17 inch largemouth and some decent small mouths on my 32nd ounce jig and piece of crawler.
I flathead fished three spot in about an hour and a half, and caught one seven pounder. I was more or less out looking to see which areas the fish were or were not in.
It is truly amazing how fast the conditions on the river change. In just a short week the rice has really taken off and the upper end of the lake is almost entirely covered in celery grass. And if I was a betting man I would have to say the bluegills are more than likely hanging out on the wing dams.

Observations:

The weed growth had exploded. The upper end of the lake is full of celery grass and the wild rice has really taken off. Duck weed also seems to be very abundant. The water clarity is very good.