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. !

 

 

The River is finally starting to drop steadily. Barring something truly weird this trend should continue. With falling water levels fish are funneling out of the nether reaches of sloughs where they have lived since April. All you’ve gotta do is find a choke point where fish must pass to escape the falling water and start casting. This morning I fished with my ol’ pal Dave Dvorak and his son DJ.  Dave likes to keep score. He says they caught 54 LMB, SMB and pike. Nothing real big, but some quality fish. Hot baits were my favorite oxbow pattern Rat-L-Trap and the Echo 1.75 in same color pattern. When a rod gets bent every five minutes for four hours, that’s a hot bite!

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.

 

 

Got on the River yesterday at mid-morning to find chocolate water, a big mayfly hatch on the ramp and a NW wind blowing steady @ 20 mph announcing a cold front was controlling the barometer. Not exactly prime conditions. but fish will eat if you either trigger a strike or torment them with an in-your-face presentation. Because visibility was <1′ I figured dipping a Perchanator with a taste of crawler tight against woody cover was the best option–especially with folks on upcoming trips wanting panfish.

Caught about a dozen gills, perch and one crappie just lowering and wiggling the Perchanator tight against the limbs, frogging around rather than camping on fish cuz this was a mission of discovery. There are two major keys to success in this presentation: a 10′ pole and 12 lb. superbraid line. If you’re fishing where the fish are you’re gonna get hung up. the long pole and stout line make it easier to get back to fishin’ quicker, besides allowing access to spots way back in the sticks.

 

 

The River is on the rise again, putting quite a bit of color in the water and slowing the bite—if you’re fishing in the colored water. Clear water was tough to find this morning. This situation will improve over the next few days, even though the Miss is risin’. had just four pike and a small walleye to show for 2 hrs. effort–until I found a couple acres of ultra-clear water with lots of good weeds. The black Carter Custom shaker with a dark melon pepper Kalin grub tail was irresistible to pike and bass. Hooked up about every third cast for the next hour.  Several quality fish. Decided to stop at 25 once the sun insisted on ruling the sky. Happiness is a throughly chafed thumb!