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!

The Miss has receded to the point where it is possible to launch at New Albin ramp again.  High water is the new normal on the upper Miss, because the Corps of Engineers is keeping the River artificially high to accommodate a few wealthy tug boat owners on the lower River.

Took awhile, but we’re finally waking up to this fact and starting to rattle some cages, all the way up to the U.S. Congress–which has been underwriting towboat robbery since 1878–but that’s a whole ‘nother story.

On to the fishin’! With the River dropping and clearing over the past week or so fishing is somewhere between good and excellent for multiple species.

 

We are right in the middle of the full moon period, which has an undeniable impact on the bite. Fished with Mark & Dan yesterday afternoon, catching a nice mixed bag of pike, eyes, SMB,LMB, WB and two big perch. One perch on a Rat-L-Trap is not a pattern .TWO perch on a Rat-l-Trap in a 10 minute time span is.

Light penetration is a major factor in both fish location and activity. Fish are most active where visibility is 2’+.  As water recedes, visibility in some areas is 4’+.  Downside is, fish in this very clear water are a little spooky, forcing a need to tie on a floro leader. BUT under a bright sky, visibility of 1-2′ is a good thing. No floro leader needed and fish were aggressive during mid-day under a bright sky until we entered the full moon period.

So, prior to full moon, I was catching fish in 1-2′ visibility during a bright sky at mid day, and fish where water is clearer with a floro leader anytime. Hottest baits have been oxbow pattern Traps and Echo 1.75’s. “oxbow” is commonly called “parrot” by other manufacturers. Catching a few on chatterbait and spinnerbait. With increased humidity even a few on the buzzbait.

One key to buzzbait efficiency comes by observing the bubble trail left in the wake of this lure. The more pronounced the trail, the higher the humidity and the better results you’re likely to have with the buzzer…but there is more to it than this. The best way to learn about this whole thing is to jump in the boat with me. btw, last Spring my good friend Mike Carter turned me on to Choo Choo Lures out of S. Carolina. They make chatterbaits, spinnerbaits, buzzbaits and swim jigs which are just a little bit better than most other products in these genres available today. This edge has convinced me to throw Choo Choo pretty much all the time…when I’m not throwing my beloved Trap or Echo 1.75

Back to the moon phase. I figured the bite would be best early this morning while fish were still under lunar influence. This was certainly the case! Got on the water with Sean and his wife Terri Two-Gar just before 6 a.m. and immediately started hooking up with multiple species.

Bite slowed considerably to essentially a screeching halt by the time the trip ended at 10–even though I know for a fact we were on fish. Changing the presentation made no difference. They just turned off. Experience tells me this is because of the moon’s influence.

That’s pretty much it for today’s report. If you found my webpage by first looking on Facebook or Lake-Link, fantastic! From this point forward you can expect to find more detailed comment here rather than on social media sites.

Probably won’t get out fishin’ much for the next several days with highs in the mid-90s. Beyond that, there are quite a few days in June when my boat is open.  Tight lines, y’all!

Old man River is slowly pulling out of the trees, warming up and the fish are responding by turning on! The mudline which develops as water comes out of the trees can be nothing short of remarkable–and it changes by the hour. Ultra-clear pockets which i fished yesterday have clouded up, while cloudy ones almost to the point of chocolate milk have become ultra-clear–so clear that i had to tie 6′ floro leaders at the front end of the presentation.

Today the fish wanted mostly chatterbaits, spinnerbaits and the ol’ reliable Rat-L-Trap.

Weeds continue to grow as the River drops. Areas where the weeds were a foot below the surface last week now have weeds sticking out of the water by several inches. This makes fishing the Trap tough. But if the weeds are still at least a foot down, holding the rod tip high and reeling fast continue to make this a hot bait.

The weatherman says ‘hot’ is will be taking on a new meaning by the weekend, with highs forecast in the mid-90s.  This will mean getting on the water by 6 a.m. and heading in by about 10. Hot humid weather also means buzzbaits will be a great choice for bass and pike.  The more humid it gets, the more pronounced the bubble line in a buzzbait’s wake and usually the better a buzzbait will work. For walleyes, chatterbaits, swim jigs and a fluke on a light weedless jighead will catch these fish–once you find them.

 

gates at lock & dam 8 are going back into the water today as River levels continue to drop, creating outstanding fishing opportunities for at least the next several weeks. Water temp was just 61 yesterday.  This will rise rapidly over the next several days, resulting in some outstanding bluegill fishing. of course, hungry pike won’t be far away. Bass and walleye action will also improve drastically with each passing day. The New Albin boat launch should be open again by Wed. afternoon, making access on the west side of the River much easier.

high water will still be a factor at launches on both sides of the River for awhile. At least water is warm enough now where Tevas are a better option than muck boots.

My july guide schedule is starting to fill up, but there are a bunch of openings this month and a pile of fish out there just achin’ to feel your hook!

 

By tomorrow we should be coming down out of minor flood stage with the river continuing to fall through the action stage, into just ‘high water’ by early next week. Fishing will be great once those gates go back in the water up at the Genoa dam!

Over the past several years it seems like the Miss is running higher than it used to, with ‘action’ stage coming 4 days after the Twin Cities gets much more than a sprinkle  Common sense says we haven’t got THAT much rain this spring. Snowmelt hasn’t been part of the grand equation for almost 2 months now.  So WHY is the River staying so high for so long?

Come to find out the Corps of Engineers has raised the normal pool levels north of St. Louis by about a foot, all the way upstream to accommodate barge traffic downstream. So now the ‘normal summer pool’ at Lansing will be 9′ instead of 8′.  This move was made quietly without assessing impact on businesses and folks who live and work on the River and have become used to an 8′ pool OVER DECADES.

Back in the early 1800s, the Miss was essentially the Interstate. Congress mandated the Corps shall maintain a channel for navigation.  This has always been priority #1. Back in the 1950s barge traffic diminished.  Then engineers designed a new kind of propulsion system for the towboats. Now they can push bigger loads than ever before. Barges are displacement vessels. The more you load them, the more water they require. Three years ago, major towboat companies like Ingram and Marquette complained they needed more depth. The quickest, easiest way to achieve this is by holding water back behind the dams. So from now on the Miss will always run that much closer to very high water, and will reach flood stage more quickly.

When Congress came out with their mandate over 150 years ago, there was no such thing as sport fishing or tourism. In 2017 these industries generate financials far beyond what the handful of barge companies make. But the old paradigm still exists.  When high water closes boat ramps, fishing and river use for pursuits other than running barges becomes difficult. This costs many millions of dollars in lost revenue, by thousands of guides, bait shops, restaurants, motels, gas stations, grocery stores…..

Most taxpayers who use the Mississippi River for purposes other than hauling corn and coal aren’t even aware they don’t have a voice in this situation. The Corps of Engineers does its best to blindly follow the congressional mandate. We voters/taxpayers have a voice if we choose to use it.

Of course, the barge companies have deep pockets and are very well connected with politicians, a few of which were probably around 150 years ago when the navigation priority was established. Term limits are the ONLY way we can get the USA back on track. Congress works on keeping themselves in power, not for us. But a normal pool level which is one foot lower and term limits are two things we’re not likely to see in the foreseeable future.

 

 

I have had a fear and distrust of shiny objects since Mom used to chase me around with a spoonful of castor oil. This the primary reason why i lightfoot around cyber stuff with a wary eye and hand on my pistol. Really thought the Chicoms would take down our comm satellites by now or hit us with an EMP. With the Big Dirt Nap drawing closer every day, the odds this will happen grow longer–at least for this old river rat.

I don’t understand Facebook or blogging and still associate ‘Amazon’ as a big river where i would likely feel at home instead of an interweb delivery service for the latest shiny objects. My wife told me you can buy my book Mississippi Musings with the Old Guide on Amazon.com and find a couple lures in which i had some design input on a couple of those dot-com deals you can find on the crowd. I’ve always stayed away from crowds and when forced inside to eat at a restaurant always sit where i can see the door with my back against the wall.

Anyway, she said I should tell you to visit www.vibrationstackle.com where you can find my signature series “Teddy Cat” blade bait, which In-fisherman magazine called ‘the Swiss Army knife of blade baits’ and www.bimboskunk.com where you can find the “Teddy Skunk Perchanator”, a 1/32 oz. jig/fly which just tears up the perch and other panfish. Both these websites have an entire stable full of lures which catch lots of fish besides my baits. You should visit these websites if that shiny object you’re looking at right now is more prevalent in your heirarchy of needs than goin’ fishin’. This is about as long as i can stand to sit at the keyboard of this shiny object. Four out of seven voices in my head say its time to seriously plan the next fishin’ trip, somewhere beyond my beloved Mississippi where the water isn’t so angry now. The other three voices are telling me to get out to the pole barn and hook up the Lund and we’ll figure out where we’re going while on the road. Sounds like a plan. Adios for now…

 

Got back from Florida mid-February to unseasonably warm weather for a couple of weeks, followed by a seasonal March with good fishing for walleyes and perch. April we returned to December weather–with high water. May arrived with water high but dropping. At least until mid-May.  The 8th-18th offered pretty good fishing, with unusual stuff, like the year’s 2nd brown trout (a 23 incher) and feisty gar up to 50.5″ long.  Big walleyes on chatterbaits, everything in the River on an oxbow pattern Rat-l-Trap–including the trout and many gar. We’re now three full weeks into May.  last night we got 1.2″ of rain, which came after o.7″ a week earlier when the May pattern started sliding back towards late November.  On the 17th the air temp was an uncomfortable 86, water temp was 70. Then the big slide with a side dish of rain. Got off the water today the air temp was 52 and the water just 2 degrees warmer…and the water is on the rise into minor flood stage by memorial day.Maybe we’ll see June weather by june.