pool 9 is falling steadily will all gamefish species moving into their summer haunts and patterns. Over the next couple of days water will be pulling completely out of the trees, sometimes leaving behind a distinct mudline which can be a real fish magnet–but this mudline can change and even disappear in an hour or a day.

This morning I was fishing a trib entry point where THREE distinct mudlines converged. Gar were holding a family reunion just above this confluence, feeding heavily on an abundance of bait, with smallmouth, walleyes and white bass cruising nearby.

The rock bite for smallies with senkos and flukes hasn’t started yet, but will begin very, very soon with walleyes beginning to congregate in fair numbers along current seams relating to rocks.

Barring obscene rainy weather the River should continue to drop, with the wingdam/closing dam bite coming on quickly.

Water temp is now consistently in the upper 60s and getting warmer, definitely having some impact on times when walleyes are most active.

Weeds are starting to grow back in the running sloughs, with American water lotus now on the surface in a few areas and fanning out. Appearance of good elodea patches is still a couple weeks away. When the elodea gets up a couple of feet the perch will be much easier to find.

Taking the next couple days off due to the holiday. Hopefully this will give my hands a chance to heal. Fins, pike teeth, hooks and those lovely walleye gill plates have left a fair number of gashes, slashes, punctures and dents. Occupational hazard. No complaints.

Back to the grind on Tuesday. But so far, not much guide work on the books for the first couple weeks of June. doesn’t matter. Either way I’ll be on the River. Would be nice if temps would top out in the low 80s–but there is much to be said for getting on the water early and to the hammock by noon.