July 24, 2016 Sun

2PM-930PM- Scott and myself musky and bass fishing
Location: Potters Flowage, Jackson County
Weather: (1455) W9 G16, 87 °, partly cloudy, 29.85
H2O: clear, normal pool, 80°
Caught: Myself: 2 musky 33 & 38”, 2 LMB 17 & 18”
Scott: 2 musky 33 & 34 “, 5 LMB (2) 20-21”, and 3 dinks

Observations: It is definitely mid-summer time on the flowage up here. The weeds are fully developed and the water is quite warm. In fact, the fish even felt hot.

It was a great day for muskies. We hooked four of them and landed everyone. In the musky competition I beat Scott out size wise. But in the bass category he had bigger fish and he also beat me in the numbers category. The bass up there are really impressive size wise, but the numbers seem rather low.

July 22, 2016 Fri

July 22, 2016 Fri 6PM-830PM- bass fishing by myself
Location: Mississippi R. pool 7
Weather: (Approx.) Hot, calm, 90 °, clear
H2O: 10.02↑, 91 kcfs, 82°, main channel and sloughs dirty and weedy, water in the mud lake area is clear
Caught: Not a dang thing!
Observations: The water is very high and quite dirty. There is also duck -weed everywhere. I would imagine that is caused by all the nutrient laden wash off from the land.

The fishing was tough; I never even caught a fish. I did hook into a couple of bass while throwing a frog, but both got off before I could boat them.

July 19, 2016 Tue

530PM-830PM- myself, Dick, Ike and Oz pan fishng
Location: Mississippi R. pool 7
Weather: (1753) S8, 86 °, clear
H2O: 9.06↑, 79 kcfs, 80°, dirty with lots of floating weeds
Caught: Bait: a few small perch and one sheep head

Observations: The water is once again high! The woods are starting to flood up by Trempealeau and mats of duckweed and celery grass are everywhere. Heck, we even saw a very large tree floating down the main channel.

Well this week it was Dick’s grand sons opportunity to do a little boating, swimming and fishing. Ike knew what to expect but Oz had never been on a boat ride before. Oz was quite crabby when he got to my house but those tears soon transformed into smiles once we were under way in the boat. The fishing was very tough, as was expected with the high water, but we all had a good time!

July 16, 2016 Sat

July 16, 2016 Sat 7PM-1AM- flat head fishing with Scott
Location: Mississippi R. pool 7
Weather: (2053) S8, 74 °, clear
H2O: 7.31↑, 62 kcfs, 76°, dirty with lots of floating weeds
Caught: Bait: bluegills and perch, Scott: 1-7lb flat head

Observations: The River is quickly rising and it is full of junk.

Scott and I both wanted to get out before the rising water made it hard to catfish, but we were too late. The high water has stirred up the weeds and made fishing very difficult. We had three bites tonight and only caught one fish. I broke a fish off on a snag at 1AM just before the storm hit. We did have a pretty good light show on the way in and fortunately for us the rain was not too bad.

July 15, 2016 Fri

July 15, 2016 Fri 530PM-910PM- bass fishing by myself
Location: Mississippi R. pool 8, Goose Island
Weather: (1753) E5, 77 °, sunny
H2O: 6.45↑, 51 kcfs, dirty, 78°
Caught: 2 LMB 16-17”, 1 pike 20”

I was back to Goose Island hoping to once again capitalize on the frog bite. The frog bite was non existent, but I did catch a couple of fish using a jig along the slough banks.

July 13, 2016 Wed

630PM-830PM-fishing with Dick, Nora and Jose
Location: Mississippi R. pool 7, Trempealeau area
Weather: (1753) W14, 84 °, sunny
H2O: 5.97↑, 44 kcfs, clear, 80°
Caught: Lots of perch and bluegills, Dick kept approx. eight perch and four bluegills.

Observations: The River is in great shape, but that is going to change within the next couple of days. There has been a lot of precipitation in the upper portion of the Mississippi River watershed and all that water is coming downstream.

Tonight was a night of fun fishing with Grandpa Dick and his granddaughters Nora and Jose. I had a lot of fun with those two girls. Nora got very good at setting the hook. She actually out fished grandpa Dick by about 30:1. Jose was so cute, she was just content to watch and throw the little ones back in. She has a great amount of patience for someone who is only four!

July 12, 2016 Tue

July 12, 2016 Tue 630PM-9PM-bass fishing by myself
Location: Mississippi R. pool 7, lake Onalaska
Weather: (1753) W15, 86 °, sunny
H2O: 5.5↑, 35 kcfs, clear, 82°
Caught: 1 pike 22”, 4 LMB 13-17”

The water clarity on the lake was very good, but it is getting very weedy. I am fairly certain that within the next 3-5 years the western portion of the lake will be completely weeded over in the summer. Fishing was pretty tough tonight. If it had not been for the brief three fish flurry at the end of the night, it would have down right sucked!

July 10, 2016 Sun

July 10, 2016 Sun 5PM-910PM-bass fishing by myself
Where: Mississippi R. pool 7
Weather: (1753) S10, 79 °, sunny
H2O: 5.76↓, 36 kcfs, clear, 78°
Caught: 3 pike 20-22”, 7 LMB 12-17”

Observations: The wild rice has really spread out onto the lake this year. The upper end now has some beds that area quite extensive.

I started the night out on the upper end of the lake and the Somners Chute area. I spent two hours searching and it was a wasted two hours.
I then headed up towards Trempealeau and found them once again in my secret little spot. If the water drops anymore I will no longer be able to get to this spot in my big rig. I had great action once again on a rubber frog. If I missed a bass and I was unable to coax it into hitting the frog again all I had to do was pitch a jig to the spot and wham, fish on!

July 9, 2016 Sat

July 9, 2016 Sat 530PM-12AM-flat head fishing with Tom, Ron and Larry
Where: Mississippi R. pool 7
Weather: (1953) S6, 79 °, overcast
H2O: 6.13↓, 43 kcfs, clear, 78°
Caught: bait, which consisted of bluegills and perch

Observations: We did not find much for bluegills along the channel rocks, but we did find the gills and perch in the weeds up by Trempealeau.

The bait catching was fun and easy, but the flat head catching was another story. We did have three bites, but the inexperienced flat head fishermen in the boat could not capitalize on them. I am thinking it is time to change over to circle hooks.

July 8, 2016 Fri

July 8, 2016 Fri 530PM-1130PM-flat head fishing with Norn and Riley
Where: Mississippi R. pool 9, Genoa
Weather: (1953) NW12, 75 °, clear
H2O: 6.3↓, 45 kcfs, clear, 78°
Caught: bait and 1 flat head approx. 5 lb.

Observations: We had a major may fly hatch tonight! The river is still fairly fast, but it is clean.

The fishing was not stellar tonight. I was fishing an area that I had never fished before so I had to wing it. The bluegills were fairly easy to catch on the rocks in front of the power plant. A couple of bites and one small flat head is all we could coax from the mighty river tonight.
I don’t think Riley will want to go out flat head fishing again. She was definitely freaked out from all the mosquitoes and may flies in the nighttime sky.

July 5, 2016 Tues

Where: Mississippi R. pool 8, East Channel
Weather: (1753) S16, 86 °, clear
H2O: 6.48↓, 48 kcfs, clear, 78°
Caught: bait and 1 flat head approx. 11lb.

Observations: The bluegills are now out on the main channel rocks.

The flat head bite was good tonight, but my outing was cut short by sever weather. I caught the one fish and missed three other bites. The misses were on account of the fish being in snags by the time I went to set the hook.

July 4, 2016 Mon

July 4, 2016 Mon 4PM-9PM-bass fishing with Scott
Where: Mississippi R. pool 8, South of Goose Island
Weather: S9, 75 °, mostly cloudy
H2O: 6.6↓, 49 kcfs, clear, 78°
Caught: Me: (Approx) 30 LMB 10-17”, 2 pike 22-24”
Scott:(Approx) 20 LMB 14-17”, 3 pike 20-26”, 1-20” dogfish

Observations: The area south of Goose Island, know as Shady Maple had extremely clear water. I also heard quite a few bullfrogs towards evening.
The bass fishing was extremely good tonight. I cannot ever recall catching this many bass using a plastic frog. One particular area had a bass positioned by almost every little clump of emergent vegetation.

July 2, 2016 Sat

July 2, 2016 Sat 8AM-230PM-whatever fishing with Norm
Where: Mississippi R. pool 9, Genoa area
Weather: (approx) calm, clear, 90 °
H2O: 7.54↓, 60 kcfs, dingy to clear, 79°
Caught: Me: 1-14” small mouth bass
Norm: 1-18” walleye, 1-26” pike

Fishing was once again tough out of Genoa. We caught a few fish and missed some but it was once again a dismal outing down here! Heck we could not even catch a fish, fishing on the bottom with a night crawler.