7-29-15 Thr

. Myself and Rob flat head fishing, 430PM – 1130PM

Mississippi R. pool 8, 5.21↑, 31kcfs, 77°, clear// 73°, W6, clear, full moon

Caught: Rob 38, 22, & 15 lb flat heads, Me: 30 lb flat head//bait: bluegills, crappies

I was doing three things tonight that I had not done in quite awhile; fishing with Rob and fishing the river by La Crosse. Another first of the year was catching a fish before it got totally dark. In fact Rob caught a double right about at dark.
The first spot was a main channel scour hole below a wing dam. Both fish came off the channel side poles in twenty plus feet of water, and I might add both fish hit quite well.
The next spot was a side channel area with lots of wood. We each caught a fish at this last spot. My fish came right off a snag next to some wood and Rob caught his on the farthest pole out form the shore. Both of these fish also thump the rod rather well.
Its funny I really don’t care for crowds and a lot of people, but fishing basically within the city limits and seeing the city all lit up against the water is quite tranquil. Maybe it is the fact that I am glad I am on the water and not in the city! The bait fishing was not super easy tonight, but we did manage plenty of gills. The rocks are not yet holding any number of bluegills and the wood does not seem to have an over abundance. Rob was the champ of fishing tonight. He caught the majority of the bait and three of the flat head.

7-27-15 Mon

7-27-15 Mon. Myself and Scott flat head fishing, 7PM – 1130PM

Mississippi R. pool 7, 5.43↓, 31kcfs, 78°, clear// 77°, SE 8, clear

Caught: No flats, 1 soft shell turtle//Bait: bluegill

It was a Monday after work flat head fishing trip with Scott. I had high expectations on account of having done well just a few nights ago. Those expectations were quickly doused from lack of action. Scott did have one bite and I did catch one rather large soft shell turtle.
Those turtles must have quite a tough hide. The hook was buried in the turtle’s neck and even with my forceful and persistent trying I was unable to remove the hook. Now, there is one soft shell turtle out there with a piercing in its neck. Heck, maybe it’ll be the new rage with the soft shells.

7-24-15 Fri

7-24-15 Fri. Myself, flat head fishing, 7PM – 12AM

Mississippi R. pool 7, 6.0’→, 45kcfs, 78°, clear// 80°, S8, storms in area

Caught: 4 flat heads: 5 – 17lbs//Bait: bluegill

It was a lone flat head trip for me this evening. I wanted to get out and try one of my old time favorite spots that I only know about. That’s how they are kept secret; don’t show any of your fishing buddies.
Well it turns out I never made it to the “secret spot”, I got side tracked at another spot up by Trempealeau and the bite was so good that I never left. The first spot I fished was an action spot. I probably did not get my first bite until about 930 (half hour after dark), but after that the action sign was shining.
I moved to another spot about 1130 and missed one other fish there before the storms chased me off. Have you ever heard the term heat lightning in the summer time? Well that is a folk’s tale. It is lightning all right and caused by the heat and unstable atmosphere, but it is truly real as I found out. When you see flashes in the sky but cannot hear the thunder is from a storm that is quite a ways off. Yes, you can get rained on and still see stars as happened to me on the ride back to the sanctuary of the landing.

7-22-15 Wed

. Myself and Scott, flat head fishing, 630PM – 12AM

Mississippi R. pool 7, 6.3’↓, 45kcfs, 77°, clear// 70°, clear, calm

Caught: Scott: 37 lb, Myself: 21 & 6 lb, //Bait: bluegill

It was a weeknight of flat head fishing so it was not going to be a super late night. From the results of my last cat-fishing trip I was pretty confident that the fish had completed their spawn and were in the process or already using the main channel areas.
The first spot was a woody area along side the main channel with about ten feet of water. We fished the spot for about an hour and did not have a bite. I think the flow was just a little too strong here.
The next spot was just on the other side of an island from the firs spot, but with less current. It also had submerged wood in about twelve feet of water. This second spot was the magnum hole. Scott had a bite on the first bait he threw out. The fish hit almost before the bait settled to the bottom. And, this first fish ended up being the biggest of the night. We caught one more fish in this spot and missed two others. After about an hour of fishing this spot we gave up on it and moved about two hundred yards downstream and onto the opposite shoreline. This area was fairly shallow, but it did have and abundance of wood. The small fish was caught here and one other bite was missed.

7-19-15 Sun

7-19-15 Sun. Myself bass fishing 845PM-915PM

Mississippi R. pool 7, 6.6’↓, 49kcfs, 77°, semi-clear// 75°, clear, calm


Caught: Nothing

It was a spur of the moment fishing outing just before dark. It was a Sunday and I had not been out yet today, so I was feeling a little bad of not fishing at all on a day off. I just took the small boat tonight. It is so convenient to have that boat already in the water and ready to go most of the time.
Since I had very little time to fish, and I wanted to make the best of it and yet do a little exploring I went right to one of the spots where I always catch at least one bass; in fact I think it is the same bass each and every time. Sure enough after casting the area around this spot and having no action I casted to the old reliable spot and Charlie the bass was waiting. The fish crushed my frog, and after a brief struggle he shook my bait. Oh well! Except for one other swipe that was the extent of my action for then night.

7-18-15 Sat

7-18-15 Sat. Scott and myself bass fishing 2:30PM-9PM

Mississippi R. pool 5a, 6.7’↓, 50kcfs, 77°, semi-clear// 80°, sunny, S 10-15

Caught: Me: 1 – 23” pike, 1 – small mouth, 4 LMB//Scott: 2 Small mouths, 4 LMB

It was an afternoon of bass fishing for Scott and myself. Scott wanted to go someplace different and I suggested the pool just above Winona. Usually the bass bite here in the slop is quite good with both numbers and the size of the bass being high. Today however was the exception. The fishing was very slow, and we only found a decent concentration of fish in one area.

7-17-15 Fri

7-17-15 Fri. Scott and myself cat fishing
Mississippi R. pool 7, 6.7’ →, 50kcfs, 77°, semi-clear// 88°, sunny, light winds
Caught: bait: bluegills, rock bass and crappies, two flat heads, 8 & 10 lbs.
The bait catching so far this summer has been pretty tough, but tonight it was quite easy.
Tonight I wanted to key in on areas that were major channels off of the main channel. I figured the spawn was winding down and the fish should be heading out to deeper main pool areas.
The first spot we fished was a deep scour hole with little or no wood. Our fishing poles were set up in anywhere from ten feet of water to forty feet. We managed to catch both fish out of this first set up. Both fish came off of the same middle pole in what I would say was about 30-40 feet of water. We tried two other spots with no other fish coming boat side. The bites tonight were not pole cracking type of bites. Besides the two fish we caught we did have a couple of other bites, but they were very lack luster type of bites.

7-15-15 Wed

. Dick, Nora and Ike
Mississippi R. pool 7, 6.7’ →, 50kcfs, 76°, clear, 82°, sunny, light winds
Caught: Four channel cats, 1 sheep head, and 1 rock bass
My brother Dick had his two grand kids for the week and he wanted to take them out fishing again this year. The plan was simple; take the kids out swimming for a little bit, then we would fish until almost dark. The kids were a little hesitant at first to get into the water, but in a very short time they were enjoying themselves in the water. Nora has a little bit of an episode in the water though. I had taken them to the sand flats that lead into Lake Onalaska. Normally this is a great area to take kids because of the expansive shallow area that it provides. Well it was still very shallow for the most part, but there was quite a bit of current blowing through the area. Unfortunately Nora got out a little too far and got swept into an area in which she could not touch. She did have her life jacket on, but with the swift current she could not get back to the boat. Grandpa Dick had to go retrieve her from the swift current.
The fishing was not too good, but the kids each caught about three fish and they had a good time. Also, both were pretty excited about having a catfish fry and going to the fair the next day.

7-14-15 Tue

7-14-15 Tue, Myself 630PM – 930PM
Mississippi R. pool 7, 6.7’ →, 50kcfs, 76°, clear,
Caught: 3 crappies, 2 bluegills and on 15” LMB
It was an after work solo trip. I started out mainly targeting crappies, but after and hour and a half of very little action I decided a change was needed. I started throwing the old reliable frog into some of the spots that I had done so well at the previous outings. Unfortunately, the bass were either not active or had vanished. I had very little action and only hooked one fish.
There was a pretty good fish fly hatch going on tonight right at dark and the fish were feeding heavily on the newly emerging flies.

7-11-15, Sat

7-11-15, Sat, 6PM – 930PM, myself and Scott
Mississippi R. pool 7, 6.7’ →, 50kcfs, 76°, clear//S 8, overcast, 77°
Caught: Me: 8 Large mouth bass, Scott: 5 Large mouth bass
It was a top water frog fishing night with Scott tonight. The fish were not as plentiful or as active as I had been experiencing, but we did all right. We did run into a couple of spots where we would catch or miss a couple in a particular spot, but then we would go quite a stretch with nothing. It almost seemed as if the fish were there, but if they had experienced any fishing pressure recently they were not very aggressive in biting our frogs.

7-10-15, Fri

7-10-15, Fri, 6PM – 1130PM, myself, Dan and Eric Moen
Mississippi R. pool 7, 6.7’ →, 50kcfs, 75°, clear//S 5, clear, 70°
Caught: bait (bluegills, crappies, rock bass and a perch, 6 lb flat head, 28’ gar
Tonight I was taking Dan and his son out flat head fishing. Dan has had quite a lot of fishing experience, but I could tell his son was a little shaky on the fishing. The first chore was catching bait, and it was no slam-dunk. I feel bad when I take people fishing that do not have the fishing skills I do and bait catching is tough. In order to flat head fish we need bait, so that is the number one priority. Unless the gills are easy to come by, I am pretty intense on getting a supply into the live well and I don’t have much time to help an inexperienced angler catch fish.
The flat head fishing was pretty slow. Eric missed one bite early in the night and he caught a decent gar a little while later. Dan caught a 6-8 lb flat, but other than that the action was quite slow. A couple of fish were also missed, but that can probably be contributed to lack luster bites.

7-9-15, Thr

7-9-15, Thr, 7PM – 9PM, myself
Mississippi R. pool 7, 6.7’ →, 50kcfs, 74°, clear//S 7, clear, 72°
Caught: Blue gills and a few crappies
I have an upcoming trip with a co-worker and his son tomorrow, so I wanted to get out and try and find a good spot to catch some bluegills for our bait. Well bluegill fishing has been relatively tough this year and tonight was no exception. I guess it was not a total waste of time; at least I eliminated areas that did not have any pan fish.

7-7-15, Tue

7-7-15, Tue, 7PM – 1130PM, myself
Mississippi R. pool 7, 6.7’ →, 50kcfs, 74°, clear//S 8, clear, 65°
Caught: bait (bluegills, crappies, rock bass and a perch, 12 lb flat head
I have not been fishing flat heads too much because of the inconsistency of the bite. I don’t think the weather or conditions have anything to do with the lack of bite, but I do think the flat heads are spawning now. Flat heads are pretty tough to get when they are spawning. They build a nest in and around underwater snags and they stay close to the nest until the eggs hatch and the fry leave to strike out on their own. You pretty much have to drop your bait on their heads to catch them.
I fished Sommners slough and Big Cat Alley tonight. I caught my bait in Big Cat, and the one flat head, but Sommners was a bust.

7-6-15 Mon

7-6-15 Mon. 645PM – 915PM, N13, hazy, 67°, myself
Mississippi R. pool 7, 6’↑, 75°, clear
Caught: 10 large mouth bass
We had some major storms in the area today, but fortunately our area was spared. I had not really planned on gong fishing tonight, but he rain had stopped and some areas to the north of us had upwards of five inches of rain and I figured the river would probably rise and get dirty. So, I figured even with the drastic drop in temperature the last hour and the strong north wind, I had better get out.
I was pleasantly surprised with the results. I really did not expect much, and I was especially not sure if the top water frog bite would still be strong , but it was. It was a little harder to fish a frog on account of the wind, but in the end I boated a respectable number and size of fish.
One little odd thing that happened tonight was that I could smell something burning. I kept thinking something electrical in the boat was getting hot and burning or melting, but then at times I thought I smelled it in the wind. Well come to find out when I went on line to look at the past weather there was a warning for smoke in the atmosphere. Apparently Canada had some major fires going on and the smoke was blowing in from there.

7-5-15 Sun

, 530PM – 830PM, S 10, 80°, Jake and Cole Tupper and myself
Black River, Hwy 35 Landing, water: clear, 4’ ↓
Caught: Approximately 6 channel cats, 1 carp and 1 sucker
Jake wanted to go cat fishing on the Black River. I do not fish this river very often and it’s very rare for me to be on it during the summer, but I was game to give it a try.
The conditions of the river were quite good, not too low and not too high. We basically set up on the upper side of deep holes (compared to the rest of the river). I fished with night crawlers and Jake fished with stink bait. The stink bait caught most of the fish, my pole baited with crawlers accounted for a sucker, carp and channel cat. Jake and I allowed Cole to catch the majority of the fish and it was quite fun to watch him tussle with the carp.

7-4-15 Sat

7-4-15 Sat. myself, 5PM – 930PM, calm, clear, 77°
Mississippi R. pool 7, 75°, 6.3’ ↓, 45kcfs
Caught: 12 large mouth bass, 2 pike
It was the fourth of July today and I am always depressed on this day. I did enjoy it when Autumn was younger and at home and we would go out boating and to the sand bars with friends, but those times are over. Now I just can’t stand all the people out on the water and all the noise associated with them and the fireworks.
Well I sulked most of the day away with small projects around the house. After I had enough of that I decided to take the goat boat out and do some bass fishing. Good thing I have that boat in the water behind the house, because there is no way I would have put a boat in at the landing today.
Anyway I was very glad I went fishing. The top water action was great. The bass were hanging right on the edge of the weed mats and when the frog would pop off the edge and into the open they would hammer it. At times I would dead stick it a few seconds after it popped off the mat and this would initiate a vicious strike from the more reluctant bass.

7-3-15 Friday

7-3-15 Fri, 9AM – 130PM, myself and norm, 75°, calm, clear
Mississippi R. Pool 9 (Genoa), 74°, calm, Minnesota side was dirty, Wisconsin side was clear
Caught: 1 – 20” pike, 1 – 13” small mouth and 1 – 13” large mouth
Norm was back home for the 4th of July, so I met up with him to do some fishing. We started out up by the float and were met with a ton of floating weeds. We then fished the rocks down by the power plant and caught nothing. Next stop was the spillway on the Minnesota side. The water was so muddy it smelled of mud. The area on the Minnesota side has some great backwater cover, but with the muddy water the fish were not active.
Our final destination was the Wisconsin side at the Roncoski Slough area. I managed to catch one each of a pike, small mouth and large mouth bass. The water clarity here was so much better than the Minnesota side. I believe the muddy water on the Minnesota side was a result of the Root River in Minnesota being flooded.

7-2-15 Thursday

7-2-15 Thur. 3PM – 930PM, myself, 75°, calm, clear
Mississippi R. just north of Winona (pool 5?), 75°, calm, clear, clear
Caught: 8 LMB, 3 SMB, and 4 pike
I headed up to one of my favorite top water action pools on the river today. The fishing was not fantastic, but it was pretty good. I did not have a ton of action but the sizes of the fish were very good.
One little side note: The president was in La Crosse today for a vast and he was speaking at UWL from about 130Pm to 230PM. Well about 3 or 330PM the presidential helicopter flew over me, which was pretty cool. I have no idea if he was in it but I did give it a big wave. I guess I was hopeful he was in it and was admiring the beauty of the River valley, and would see how important it is to protect the Mississippi River watershed.
The Large mouth were in the slop, but they were quite spotty. There was also a fair number of pike around. I missed several nice pike with one appearing to be the giant size of around 40”. The pike are very hard to hook on a plastic frog.
I tried for the small mouth on the rocks on the lower end of the pool and was met with very limited success. I just have not been able to find any numbers of small mouths this year.

7-1-15 Wednesday

7-1-15 Wed. 7PM – 1145PM. Scott and myself, calm, cool 57°, clear
Mississippi R. pool 7, 7.5’ ↓, 38 kcfs, clear
Caught: Bait and no flat heads
To start out the bait catching was a little tough. We hit the man made islands out on the lake first and they were totally void of any fish. We then ran over to the tracks and caught some bluegills, but the majority of them were very small. We finished the bait gathering out by the lights and caught a few out there. My observation is that the bluegill population is much lower than normal.
Flat head fishing was a total bust, we had one legitimate bite and that was it. I do believe the fish are heavy into the spawn and fishing is going to be slow for the next couple of weeks.

6-30-15 Tue

6-30-15 Tue, 6PM – 930PM, myself, calm, 78°
Mississippi R., pool 7, 6.5’ ↓, 40 Kcfs, clear
Caught: 3 SMB and 6 LMB
The game plan tonight was to start out fishing small mouth bass and hopefully catch one for supper. I did catch three of them in the first hour, but they were small. Since the small mouth action was relatively slow I switched species and moved onto large mouth bass. The first hour was terrible, with nary a bite. About the last hour of either the bite kicked in or I hit the right spot, because I had some pretty good top water frog action. I did accomplish my goal and had pan-fried bass for supper.