9-28-13 Sat

9-28-2013 Sat. 4:00 PM – 12:15 PM
Weather: rain and some wind the first 2.5 hours, then clear and relatively calm, 60 ˚
Water: Quite low, clear, 66 ˚
Location: Mississippi river pool 7
Caught: Bait: bluegills and crappies//flat heads: Marvin 42 & 10, Donte 25 & 10.
Partners: Marvin and Donte
Comments:
It was my last guiding trip of the year and probably my last for a few years. It was Marvin’s second trip of the year and he was definitely looking forward to it. We started out fishing bluegills in the dredge holes on the lake, and it was relatively easy catching. In the morning the lake was full of boats, but this afternoon there was nobody out in the rain.
The flat heads bit fast and furious for about ten minutes right at sun down and then we had no more action till our fourth spot right around midnight. Donte missed several fish right away, but then he figured things out a little bit and was able to bring two into the boat.
Observations:
Water is still very low and mostly clear. We have not had a frost yet, but the mosquitoes are few and far between.

9-26-13 Thr.

9-26-2013 Thr. 6:00 PM – 10:30 PM
Weather: perfect: sunny, slight wind, 70 falling to 55 ˚
Water: Quite low, clear, 67 ˚
Location: Mississippi river pool 7
Caught: Bait: bluegills and crappies//flat heads 33 & 15.
Partners: none
Comments:
It was a short exploratory trip before I took Marvin out on Saturday. I was pretty confident on the spot I was going to take him, but I wanted to make sure. I started out fishing the snags on the sloughs looking for bait. The bluegills came relatively easy, but they were not everywhere. The flat heads came from a main side channel out of about 25 feet of water.
Observations:
Mosquitoes seem to have almost totally disappeared.

9-24-13 Tue

9-24-2013 Tue. 6:00 PM – 11:15 PM
Weather: perfect: sunny, slight wind, 70 falling to 60 ˚
Water: Quite low, clear, 67 ˚
Location: Mississippi river pool 7
Caught: Bait: perch, flat heads (3) 5, 5 and 10.
Partners: Scott
Comments:
We started out fishing a side channel scour hole up by Trempealeau. We did bring one to the boat and lost another. We then moved to a woody side channel area with 20 plus feet of water and caught two there. The fish in this second spot really seemed to be tight to the wood. I am thinking the fish are getting less active and not venturing out as far from their lairs.
Observations:
The stump field path is still very vegetated, but the rice has all dropped its seed and the other emergent weeds are starting to die off.

9-22-13 Sun

9-22-2013 Sun. 9:00 AM – 7:30 PM
Weather: perfect: sunny, slight wind, 75 ˚
Water: Quite low, clear, 68 ˚
Location: Mississippi river pool 8
Caught: Bluegills, a few crappies and some large mouth bass
Partners: Wayne and Gary AM// Jen and Scott PM
Comments:
My morning trip was a guided trip with Wayne and Gary. Wayne had won a guided fishing trip with me that I had donated to NASA. We targeted almost exclusively gills, and they caught a pile of them. We fished mainly dredge areas around La Crosse.
In the afternoon I took out clients Jen and Scott. We started out catching bluegills, then we moved to the little bigger quarry of bass and pike. We caught lots of gills, but the bass did not cooperate until the end of the evening. The bluegills again came from wintering areas and the bass came from rocks up by the dam.
Observations:
It was a beautiful day today, which has been the typical weather pattern the last two weeks.

9-21-13 Sat

9-21-2013 Sat 11:30 AM – 7:00 PM
Weather: sunny, slight wind, 70 ˚
Water: Quite low, clear, 68 ˚
Location: Mississippi river pool 8
Caught: Bluegills and crappies with the largest gill being 9” and the largest crappie almost 14”.
Partners: None
Comments:
I was again doing some exploring on pool eight for a couple of upcoming trips. I found lots of bluegills and crappies today. The fish are starting to move into their wintering areas and are real eager to eat.
Observations:
I have not seen any bait fishing chasing activity in a long time. I would think that activity would be taking place this time of year.

9-20-13 Fri

9-20-2013 Fri. 11:30 AM – 6:30 PM
Weather: sunny, slight wind, 70 ˚
Water: Quite low, clear, 68 ˚
Location: Mississippi river pool 7
Caught: Not a lot, some gills
Partners: None
Comments:
I was doing some exploring on pool eight for a couple of upcoming trips. I did not catch much, except for a few gills. I tired jigging below the dam for flat heads with no luck.
Observations:
The water is low and the main channel is very clear, but the side channels are still pretty green.

9-19-13 Thr.

9-19-2013 Thr 6:00 PM – 11:30 PM
Weather: rainy, light winds, 60 ˚
Water: Quite low, starting to clear up, 66 ˚
Location: Mississippi river pool 7
Caught: Bait: perch and bluegills, two flat heads 33 & 10 Lbs.
Partners: None

Comments:

It was a Thursday night and I had Friday off so I was going to take advantage of it. My plan was to hit some unconventional flathead waters for this time of year and that is exactly what I did. I mainly targeted main channel areas both wing dams and areas with plenty of woody cover.
The night was quite slow; I only had three bites and out of the three I only connected on two of them. The thirty three pound flat head I caught put up quite a fight. With the low flows it did not have a hard time pulling the boat upstream and it also managed to tangle the line into the front anchor rope.

Observations:

I fished a total of four spots and a caught a fish in two different spots that both had a depth of twenty plus feet.

9-15-13 Sun

9-15-2013 Sun 6:15 PM – 10:10 PM
Weather: clear, NE 5 – 10, 62˚
Water: Quite low, starting to clear up, 66 ˚
Location: Mississippi river pool 7
Caught: Bait: perch (12) 9 -11”, four flat heads 32, 13, (2) 8 Lbs.
Partners: Scott
Comments:
It was a spur of the moment flat head fishing trip with Scott tonight. I was quite nervous about catching enough bait to even bait all the poles, but I caught enough perch and had them in the live well before Scott even got to the landing.
We headed out to one of my favorite flat head fishing holes and almost as soon as we sat down after casting our six poles out we had a fish on. In the next five or ten minutes we had boated three flat heads with the largest being a nice thirty two pound fish. It took about another hour before we caught our next fish, but we were very happy to have caught four.
We did try one other spot, but we had no action.
Observations:
All the fish were caught in twenty plus feet of water, which was the first spot, and no fish were caught in the second spot, which only had a depth of about ten feet.

9-12-13 Thr.

9-12-2013 Thr. 11:00 AM – 7:30 PM
Weather: Sunny, windy, temps in lower 70’s
Water: Normal summer pattern with very little depth
Location: Mississippi river pool 8
Caught: Approximately 12 LMB
Partners: none
Comments:
I have wanted to fish the Stoddard area for bass all summer long, but I have just not had the chance to get down there. Today was going to be the day, except the wind would have made that fishing adventure quite brutal.
Instead of Stoddard I opted for the more sheltered and tranquil waters around Goose Island. It was still winding there, but with the area being more sheltered it was not too bad. I was targeting largemouth bass and pike, with the latter being pretty much a no show.
Almost all the bass I caught came on a frog in the weeds and slop.
Observations:
This area does not have quite as much wild rice as pool seven, but it is fairly abundant south of Goose Island. The bass were not everywhere, but when I did find one there were usually others close by.

9-6/7-13 Friday and Saturday

9-6/7-2013 all day both days.
Weather: Sunny, hot and relatively calm
Water: 66-74˚
Location: Cabin in Douglass County – Bear Lake and St Louis R.
Caught: Total of three muskies: 36, 32 (tiger), 28”, 22” walleye and several smaller pike.
Partners: Scott and Adam
Comments:
It was our annual trip up to the cabin musky fishing. The fishing was not too great, but we as always enjoyed ourselves and had a good time. It was really hot on Friday, so we took a boat ride out on Lake Superior and Adam and I went water skiing. It was a blast!
Observations:
We have not had a summer cool down yet, and I think that was weighing negatively on the aggressiveness of the fish.

8-31-13 SAt

8-31-2013 Sat. 8:00 AM – 12:00 PM//3 PM – 7:30PM
Weather: Sunny, hot and relatively calm
Water: Normal summer pattern with very little depth
Location: Mississippi river pool 7
Caught: Lost of pan fish, and some small mouth bass
Partners: Clients in both the am and pm
Comments:
Today I guided two groups of clients and I believe both groups had a good time. We fished mostly simple today, with the set up consisting of a slip bobber and a small lead headed jig tipped with a piece of crawler.
Observations:
I think the bluegills are starting to transition off the main channel. We still got lots of fish on the main channel, but we also caught some bluegills back at the Pike Hole.