July is just a couple days away. I sit at the keyboard wanting to tell y’all about catching fish now on the Miss and suddenly have the epiphany that the best bite has been in the same pattern for TWO MONTHS.  That is, finding a mudline which is a stark contrast between ‘chocolate milk’ and clear water.

How clear? Yesterday the sun was shining. We were fishing swim jigs looking for bass/pike in 5 fow. You could see the shadow of the swim jig on the bottom of the River while making the retrieve!

Caught a nice mess of LMB and pike. This morning some major weather arrived. Dangerous stuff. No trip today. I was thankful. My buddy Dave showed up with his son, DJ. pretty much my adopted nephew, home from Colorado. DJ was achin’ to catch fish on the River again. We planned on fishing tomorrow–DJ, his dad and me.

I know it will be tough tomorrow. Many of the productive areas for the past TWO MONTHS have been tribs…much clearer than the predominant flow. But when you have a major rain event there is runoff. The hotspots become turbid. Fishing is tough.

Dave, DJ and a couple of other buddies arrive here before noon. We are supposed to fish tomorrow. I know the clear water/mudline interface hotspots are gonna go away in just a few hours as the runoff hits the tribs and makes them muddy.

BUT the air is unstable and electric. There is a window before the runoff hits the clear water. I call Dave and crew. They show up at one of my honey holes and pound 100+ fish in a couple of hours, keeping 2/3 of a 6 gal. bucket full of jumbo perch in less than 2 hrs. The bite came to a screeching halt as runoff arrived and water clouded. Tomorrow will likely be tough.

So here it is, darn near July, and I’m still fishing mudlines instead of wingdams and other structures. The River level is starting to go down–we all hope. In a week or so I may be back on the main channel for the first time since early March. Its about time!

I’ve been fishing the Miss for a lifetime. Every day is different. You need to find the “pattern’ every day. For TWO MONTHS this has been a mudline thing. Thankfully, looks like things are finally changing. Maybe in a week or so we’ll be fishing classic patterns on on the enigma wrapped in mystery which is the Mississippi River.

Don’t know. doesn’t matter. Every day I go out and listen to the River and go from there. Hard not to love this place. Kinda like Alzheimers–you get to meet new people every day. Every day, the Miss is a brand new River. Sweet.