River levels dropped almost a foot overnite last Friday, goading fish to move accordingly. With significant changes in River level it takes fish 24-36 hours before they start feeding aggressively again.

The bite was improving again by Sunday morning, on a mission of discovery with Brian and his wife Amy. Like most days it took about an hour to figure out both new fish locations and their activity level. Fishing a River isn’t about where fish were last time–it’s about anticipating where they’re headed.

When the River is rising, this means probing backwaters. When falling it means targeting structures just off the main channel.  Either way there are migration stops which fish make which are great checkpoints every time you get on the water. I’ve got several such spots just a short run from any boat ramp which are the first stop on any trip. These checkpoints enable me to check client’s skill levels and determine a good starting point on where we are most likely to find what they are looking for.

On Sunday’s trip, the primary choice was walleyes. The first place we stopped was holding fish a couple days prior, but after 10 minutes of casting cranks with only a couple of SMB , I had a fair hunch where marble eyes were liable to be. A cold front was blowing through when we got on the River. Cold fronts don’t affect fish on rivers as much as they do in lakes–but they still have an impact during late summer/early fall…and they impact walleyes much more than bass or pike.

We picked up one healthy fish, lost another and Brian tied into a hefty 19+ SMB by mid-morning. Sky turned bright, wind subsided and walleyes decided to take a break–so we went crappie fishing. Found crappies suspended down about 4′ over water at least 10′ relating to wood and eating my Perchantor jig/fly with a hint of crawler. Caught several respectable fish, lost a couple of real nice ones(have you ever lost a LITTLE fish?) and decided to go for pike, which were extremely active last week before the River dropped–but it DID drop, moving the fish out of the weedy habitat which they have been prowling in out to deeper water. WE caught a couple of mid-20s fish on Rat-L-Trap and Bombers before determining wingdams/closing dams would provide the most action–primarily for very willing bass.

As of Monday morning, pool 9 is low to the point of hazardous navigation away from the channel and profoundly clear due to lack of rain. Visbility is at least 2′ on the main channel now.  Water temp had also warmed from 63 last week to 71 yesterday, influencing fish activity in a slightly negative way. With cool overnite temps and mid-day highs predicted in the 70s this week, it won’t take long for temps to drop back to the low 60s, pushing fish to feed with a little more urgency.

The flathead bite is starting to pick up in deeper main channel holes, crappies are getting active suspended in the wood, bass action will be off the charts soon, perch and walleyes will bite when you find ’em and they feel like it. Same scenario with pike, always ready to eat once you find them…and you find them where you find abundant baitfish.

River bottom maples are turning color several weeks earlier than we’ve seen in recent years, with both pike and largemouth bass predicting we might have an early fall.
Fishing has been phenomenal recently on Pool 9 with a couple of hundred fish days and “slow” days of 60 fish, 55 fish and 25 fish–the latter being just a 4 hr trip over the past week. A major draw has been quality pike which have been active both just off the main channel and back in the running sloughs. Last Tuesday I had super sticks Ron Barefield of MinnKota/Humminbird and John Stone of Shimano/Gloomis out on a multi-species adventure in which they caught 12 pike over 32″, plus a pile of smallmouth, largemouth and a half-dozen non-targeted walleyes. It was a good day to catch 100 fish!
My nephew Darrin Marcure came up a couple days ago, ripped lips on pike and smallies then chased largemouth the next day, averaging a bass every 90 seconds for 2.5 hrs.
The pike wanted primarily Custom Carter shaker chatterbaits, spinnerbaits and Rat-L-Traps. the LMB ate these baits and Bomber A’s.
With a surface temp of 62 degrees it doesn’t surprise me the LMB are schooling tightly off of early autumn structure like breaks out from main channel rocks. Pike are following the bass–which are following the panfish.
Will try to blog again real soon. Right now the fish are screaming my name. gotta go, gotta guide.

Water temperatures are beginning to drop, though you wouldn’t think so with summer-like weather still controlling our human environment. Cool nights are the reason for the change. After mid-month there will be more darkness than light til next spring’s solstice.

With water temps now in the 60’s channel catfish are feeding steadily in preparation for leaving their summer haunts for deepwater over-winter spots by early November. Although you are liable to find channel cat in a number of habitats–usually when trying to catch a different species–there are several habitat parameters to look for when on a species specific search for whiskered fish with forked tails.

*moderate current

*hard bottom, preferably rocky rubble

*close proximity to deadfalls or drift piles

6-14 f.o.w.

The name “channel” cat can throw you off on big water like the Mississippi. The actual channel is a minimum of nine feet deep. With the exception of the wingdam bite, there is simply too much force coming down the channel to hold dense populations of channel cats. The BEST place to go looking for forktail habitat is back in the running sloughs and tributary junctures–which is really a small to medium sized river by its very definition.

Electronics play a major role in a 21st century cat hunt. Once you see a promising deadfall coming out from the shoreline up the slough a ways check the depth and bottom signal on your sonar. A double-bottom echo indicates hard bottom.  The digital depth readout is right in front of you.  But what’s directly under the boat isn’t necessarily what is under the structure you want to fish. make a pass upstream from the snag before deciding to anchor up. Old snags which have been in the River awhile often have scour holes passing underneath them. The best ones usually have 4-6 f.o.w. for at least 100 yards upstream, then fall into a 10-14 foot deep scour hole right at the snag. Locate this kind of water and its definitely worth wetting a line.

Catfish location changes throughout a 24 hour day on a deadfall they call home. On a rising river, the fish will typically locate on the shore edge of the snag around the clock. With a stable or falling river, you’ll usually find them on the shore end from dusk til dawn with movement out to the branches end by mid-day…and a reverse migration as sunset approaches.

Using these rules of thumb when first anchoring up above a promising driftpile simply puts you in the ballpark. Boat position may have to be tweaked a little bit until your lines find a seam which is holding the most aggressive fish.

Sideways is the best way to anchor up, permitting a greater spread of lines across the water column. If lines on one end of the boat are getting all the bites, moving the boat just a few feet in that direction will often put everybody into the action.

CAUTION: deadfalls in current are ‘strainers’ by definition. Let your boat drift into one–especially sideways–and it can flip the boat and kill you. When re-positioning above a snag, start the motor first. Then pull the stern anchor, followed by the bow anchor once you’re under power.

When the boat is finally positioned sideways, an easy cast upstream from the snag, cast your lines out and check the time. Clock watching seems counterproductive in recreational fishing, but if you don’t take note of the time your lines go in seeking fish it is very easy to pee away an entire afternoon without catching many fish–especially if there are few bugs and you’re nestled in a nice, shady spot!

When channel cat fishing driftpiles in the summer I use Sonny’s super sticky channel cat bait exclusively. Sonny’s is great right out of the jar…but I almost always tweak my bait a little bit with something like fresh chicken liver–or better yet mayflies.

Put this stuff in front of them on a dipbait worm below a snap swivel with a 1/4-3/8 oz. egg sinker above it and if catfish are home, you’re gonna get bit in less than 15 minutes. if you don’t get bit in this time frame try re-positioning the boat a time or two before moving on to a different snag. Once you find the fish, if you don’t get a serious bite at least every five minutes its also time to move on.

Bait consistency should be just a little thicker than a runny milkshake. You can adjust the consistency by adding soybean or vegetable oil if it’s too thick or cattail fuzz if its too runny.

One you find a catfish honey hole, it will likely produce in following years. I’ve got a number of spots which are usually sure-fire producers  that have given up fish every September for over a decade. But on every outing, I always try to fish at least two new spots. Sometimes you don’t get a chance to probe new waters. Four hours can pass quickly when it seems like there’s always at least one rod bouncing with a feisty forktail.

I’ve run out of gumption without delving into a discourse of the finer points of September forktail fishin’. The fog is starting to lift. Time to git out on the River.

 

The panfish bite is really heating up on pool 9 with both size and numbers of fish pretty easy to catch. I’ve been catching most of my crappies and gills relating to woody structure back in the running sloughs, targeting deadfalls with at least 6 fow. Crappies have been suspending VERY close to the wood about 2-4′ down in the water column. Gills are holding a little deeper. Fish are holding on pretty much every snag which meets their habitat needs, so you need to keep moving until landing on fish of suitable size. Crappies have been garwoofling little Northland Tackle tinsel jigs and Blond Bimbo Skunks, with most gills coming on either the original Bimbo Skunk or my Perchanator, tipped with a tiny piece of crawler. Most of the better perch have been relating to elodea, feeding on little green invertebrates, making the Perchanator a deadly bait. have also been catching a few on the Northland buckshot rattle spoon in perch pattern. Weed edges where there is at lest 6 fow have been the most productive, but some quality perch have also been coming from water as shallow as 18″.  Smallmouth bass also continue to be active. shade is a factor in fish activity. Best baits have been Rat-L-Trap Echo 1.75 and Kalin ghost minnow fluke style baits. also Chug Bugs/PoP R’s at dawn and dusk when water is flat. Walleye action has been spotty, but manage to catch several jut about every time out on Bomber 6As

I have been a fishing guide for over 35 years, fishing the Miss for over a half-century and out there discovering her grandeur for even longer than that. The Mississippi is truly a force of nature which refuses to bend–at least permanently–to the will of man. Any mistakes out there must be paid for immediately. Sometimes in full. The Immortal River is as dangerous as it is beautiful, even more so right now when the River is at low summer pool levels.

Modern electronics are amazing, but they still don’t come close to real eyeballs. The best way to learn where fish may be hiding during high water is to get out there and look right now for structure like rock piles and deadfalls. But be mindful of where you’re going. Shoals and deadfalls are encounted quickly. Staubs which weren’t even worth considering when the River was a foot higher can tear up your prop in a short second.

Apologies. I just got off on a tangent. If you’ve shared the boat with me you know a fishing trip is a series of stories and tangents, which are a back door way to learn more about the River…and make you a better fisherman.

When you’re guiding on the River, vigilance must be 360 degrees and ever constant. The difficulty doubles with each client added. Three clients are twice as tough as two, even if they have a decent fishing skill set. Ironically, it is easier to guide 3 who have never picked up a rod than 3 who have learned habits which need to be unlearned to catch fish.

I had exactly this three person novice situation last week.  It was both challenging and truly rewarding. Two of the three clients, Eyal and Becca, had never even held a fishin’ pole before. Melissa had held a cane pole as a little girl, but never a long rod with a reel attached.

We started with a little casting practice at a mid-River spot not far from the launch which sometimes holds a fish or two. Melissa hooked 4 walleyes, Becca hooked 3 and Eyal caught a 24″ pike in the first 20 minutes before they even learned how to hold the rod and make a cast.

I’ve been conducting ‘batting practice’ at this spot for 20 years. Can’t remember ever hooking up with more than a couple of fish. Seven walleyes and a pike?!? Anything is possible on the Mississippi!

Of course, i didn’t have a camera…so this has all the makings of a fish story. But Melissa is a card carrying Rabbi, Eyal is her husband and Becca is very active in their temple. So now this has the makings of a joke about rabbis, priests and pastors walking into a bar. There weren’t any priests or pastors present, but we were fishing a bar. And this story is the truth, not the truth as I see it or variations of a joke.

Melissa and her crew are on the River for a project they call “Setting the Table”.  They have interviewed over 300 persons along both sides of the River so far about political leanings, opposing views and the alarming polarization of our American experience. The whole thing will come together in a couple of town hall meetings, followed by a meal next week.

This kind of weight weighs very heavy on the shoulders of Rabbi Melissa, who needed a little extra coaching on mastering a spinning rod–even though she boated more walleyes than anybody. I was watching her and the other two like a hawk waiting for problems, netting fish, untangling lines and forever controlling the boat to keep them in the game.

With a couple of walleyes in the box–and me frankly wearing down–we agreed to try entirely different experience: panfishing. This meant changing both location and presentation, and another round of teaching while controlling the boat and all that comes with it.

The first bluegill Rabbi Melissa hooked was an honest 9″ gill. Too big to get your hand around. Eyal caught a crappie, Becca caught another gill and Melissa was tussling with another 9-incher within a couple of minutes. Once again, no camera in the boat. No time to get the camera, anyway.  The Rabbi was on a roll, the God-wink of her success made me smile…and for a second I thought about swapping my guide’s hat for a yamulke.

After about a dozen fish, all three novice anglers had a pretty good handle on panfishing with the 10′ Crappie Commander rods with one of my Perchanator flies tipped with a tiny pinch of crawler.

I glanced at Melissa, then did a double take. I didn’t see a Rabbi carrying the weight of the entire world. I saw a little 10-year-old girl who was focused and concentrating, watching the rod tip for the slightest hint of a bite. Melissa was totally enveloped, engaged and excited in fishing.

Caught myself smiling in a twisted grin so wide it hurt. This is what guiding is all about! Keep your rod up and your line tight ’til next time.

Pool 9 is finally down to summer pool levels, with water temps in the low 70s.  Prime time to chase SMB on main channel rocks. This is almost too easy fishin’ with just a handful of weapons required to find consistent success.

The most important thing to remember is fish the east side in the morning and the west side in the afternoon. Shade impacts fish activity. Even if it is overcast or rainy, the fish become acclimated to feeding when shade is a factor. With a little froggin’ around you can find shady spots with other good habitat parameters until almost noon on the east side and by 2;30 on the West side.

A topwater bait like a Chug Bug, Devil’s Toothpick or Pop-R should be ready to go at all times. If fish are bustin’ the surface, throw it. If not you might try the Rat-l-Trap Echo 1.75 squarebill in oxbow pattern. This bait can be fished in less than 1 fow, if you hold the rod tip high. Rod tip angle is key to overall presentation when fishing cranks. You can vary the depth of the retrieve by 2′ by holding the rod tip either high or low. Another little tip which needs constant reinforcement with clients is to cast upstream whenever possible. didja ever see a plane come in to land backwards? Of course not! Fish are built the same way, facing into the current.  Bringing a bait towards their face rather than from behind their head dramatically increases the strike window.

Plastics are a big part of summer rock fishing. i keep one rod rigged with a Kalin jerk minnow on a 1/32 oz. tube jig head and another with a Chompers salty sinker, wacky rigged on a #4 octopus hook.

later in the morning or early afternoon the fish may be holding just a little deeper. Any crank which will run down 6-8′ can be effective. I’m partial to the Bomber 6A in root beer float or Caitlin pattern. What is Caitlin pattern? A bomber touched up with purple glitter nail polish on the back. That’s the way i roll.

 

tight lines!

Recent rains jacked River levels nearly five feet in just 72 hours. The River is on the way down now on pool 9 and fishing should start to pick up again tomorrow–five days after our recent major rain event.

When you’re out there essentially every day its good to have touchstones to get a better handle on the River’s mood. The River is always changing, but there are certain spots i check which are driven by River level.  The spots change as both the River level and seasons do, but it is important to have a couple starting places as you head out for another day on the water.

As a general rule fish move into the backwaters on a rising river and back towards the mainstem as the River falls.  Either way, there are funnels which fish must pass through.  These are obvious touchstones.

Water clarity is a major driver in fishing success. On pool 9 your chances of hooking up are much better with 1+’ of visibility.  This is the first thing I look for when approaching a touchstone.  If the water is too dirty, I’ll just keep on movin’ to the next spot.

Time of day also determines which touchstones are worthy of a few quick probing casts. Generally, fishing is better on the east side in the morning and west side in the afternoon in high summer. Although fish are opportunists, they are also creatures of habit. If a shady spot produces every morning under sunny conditions, it will likely be just as good if the sky is overcast.

Touchstones are also driven to some extent by species. If folks want walleyes instead of bass, I might start fishing rocks instead of weeds.  With perch and gills this time of year, its weedline changes and wood–at least for starters.

Regardless of desired species, think of what you’re quarry eats not about what you want to feed the quarry. THE major force behind fish movement is food, coupled with other survival components. Predators are also prey.

Fish get an important vote in the grand scheme of things.  They will tell you to continue to run and gun or stay and play. Once you find ’em it makes little sense to leave fish to go looking for fish.

With 4″ of rain overnite and a hex hatch, i knew today’s bite would be tough. Guys wanted pike. Since pike are primarily sight feeders–now swimming in chocolate milk–trying something different proved to be a wise move. Put a couple of good ‘eyes in the boat in the hour remaining in the trip, with just a couple of minutes to try one more spot. Positioned Lund above an “L” shaped closing dam and got ready to fish.

Stranded boaters changed our plans. their heavy boat was hung up on rocks at one of the most treacherous spots on pool 9, where swirling currents go from inches to 40+’ in just a couple boat lengths.

Tried to pull them free X2. No good. Just too darn dangerous. Took the clients back to the dock and called Lansing F.D. They showed up in minutes.

A lifetime on the River and career as a professional firefighter have provided the wisdom of knowing your limits. My arms are far too short to box with the Mighty Mississippi!

Lansing F.D. arrived on scene. Briefed the I. C. on the situation and offered my suggestions on how to mitigate it. Plan required securing to a point on shore with 100′ of line and using a come-along to pull the heavy boat off the rocks. Worked like a charm!

On the River, mistakes must be paid for immediately. Sometimes in full. In a future blog i’ll tell you all about using the Alabama rig for Miss. R. walleyes and pike. Right now I’m whupped and just thankful nobody got hurt–or worse–tight lines.

River levels have dropped a bunch over the past 10 days. We’re fast approaching summer pool levels. As a rule of thumb, a large part of the fishy biomass moves into nether reaches of backwaters on a rising or belly-full River, then slides back into more significant running sloughs and the main channel as the River level drops.

Some places which held fish a couple weeks ago are now dry land. Others where the River was running too angry and dirty are now good places to find ’em. If not today, maybe tomorrow.

Yesterday we were chasing walleyes. Finally found ’em stacked close to–but not relating to-rocks–drawn by the subtle influence of a spring, which attracts the forage walleyes like to chow on. A 1/16 oz. Weed Weasel jig and half-crawler was what they wanted.

The spring had to be the main reason they were hanging where they were hanging, offering suitable habitat parameters and food. Conventional wisdom says walleyes shouldn’t be hanging in 4-5 f.o.w. near noon on a sunny day with ambient surface temperature of 77 degrees. But they were.

A pea sized brain coupled with a powerful tail can take a walleye anywhere in the River. They don’t think about where they are going and why. They just swim until it feels right and cruise around awhile. When it no longer feels right, they move on. Sometimes in a day, sometimes in an hour.

Consistent success on the River is a study in fluid thinking. More gut instinct than deeper thought processes. Being a deep thinker can be counterproductive–especially when time on the water has revealed a refreshing spring which holds fish under certain conditions.

It is Independence Day! Boat ramps were jammed by 8 a.m. I grabbed the dog and headed for a close one to observe the spectacle, but more important, to see if we had a major hex hatch overnight. Here on the River hexegenia are commonly called mayflies, shad flies or River flies.

They only live for 24 hours, with the hatch coming off around dusk on a sultry summer evening about July 4. The conditions are perfect for this to happen tonite. But the major hatch could come off in a day or two. 10-14 days after that there will be another major, then maybe a smaller one or two into August.

There is true majesty in this event. I can remember a snowplow being used to clear them from the Savanna-Sabula bridge when I was a kid. I’ve seen them hang so heavy on trees that major limbs broke off.  The hatch on Independence Day 2014 was a real beauty, creating a bow echo on radar similar to one a major tornado might make.

A couple of times I’ve been fortunate enough to be on the River as a major hatch was coming off.  It was like being in a heavy anti-gravity snowstorm. Awesome. Beautiful. Humbling.

But the real dose of humility comes when trying to catch fish after a hatch. With so much food in the water, fish aren’t eager to eat anything else.

Ironically, the best fishin’ is usually where the hatch is heaviest–confluences with tributaries and moving water close to marshy habitat.

The most efficient weapon is a large floating hex fly imitation on a #4 weight flyrod.The hex hatch and those times when bluegills are on the beds are the only times my use of a wand like that is marginally productive.

A 1/16 oz. marabou jig suspended 6″ below a pencil float will catch fish. So will a clear Chug Bug with the rear treble replaced by a short dropper line of 80 lb. test mono and a hex or similar streamer fly.

It is possible to catch a half-dozen different species on as many casts when a heavy hatch is on the water. I’ve caught walleyes on dry flies and a flyrod during these conditions.

The bite is far from easy when there is so much food in the water. Something a little different–like a fly behind a topwater lure– is usually the best option.

Happy Independence Day America! May Old Glory forever fly FREE! God Bless the U.S.A. !