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.

It is fitting and proper that my ashes will be scattered on the Immortal Mississippi when the Great Rainmaker calls me home. After a lifetime on this water i have learned that her inner secrets will remain hidden until I see the Creator face to face.  Until then I can only go to the River like any other living creature, relating to ambient conditions while trying to fit into the grand scheme of things.

Essentially, I’m just one more toothy predator–lacking scales and fishing from an aluminum platform which tries to kiss the River without being too intrusive. I learned the concept of ‘pre-fishing’ is a waste of time many years ago. Better to come to the River, plug in and let conditions take you where experience says the fish will be. If the first hunch comes up empty, you reconfigure and proceed.

Over the past couple of weeks I’ve found considerable success in backwater areas where there is at least 2′ of visibility. Spots like this are tougher to find when the River is in flood stage–like it will be again in about 3 days–because areas which loaded from downstream pushing clearer water to the upper end now have water actively flowing through the trees, bringing color and current which have an adverse impact on fish behavior. All this means is that you need to look a little harder to find the fish in an ecosystem which grows exponentially with every inch of River rise.

Over the past few days I’ve seen smallmouth come out of weeds and wood and caught walleyes up to 27″ in less than 3 f.o.w. on chatterbaits. This flies in the face of conventional wisdom.  But conventional wisdom does not apply on the Immortal River.  The Miss makes the rules, which are absolute and understood only by the Miss.

Sometimes the fish just don’t want to bite–or even strike at passing ‘trigger’ baits, simply because the River says they don’t have to. I understand this but have trouble conveying it to some folks who simply haven’t reached this point of intimacy with the Immortal River. I believe trying to bring others to this point of understanding is the most important work I can do as a fishing guide. As this happen, fish get caught. But fish are just a bonus. It is growth as a fisherman which clients will have for the rest of their days.

Back to ashes. Our time here is known only to the Creator. This fact becomes increasingly lucid with each passing day spent out there on some of God’s very best work. Thursday afternoon my old friend Jesse and new friend James were flying down the River in Jesse’s water rocket Ranger boat. James lives in Alabama, where he is editor of Bassmaster magazine. Until Wednesday he had not been on the Immortal River north of Memphis. We were winding through a side channel known locally as ‘dead man’s cut’. When we were almost at a major side-channel called Minnesota slough we saw a boat at an unusual place for a boat under these conditions and slowed down. In the boat were two sullen fisherman and a local law enforcement officer. Floating face down in the weeds just a couple feet from the boat was a body.

The LEO said more help was assembling at Visager’s landing, several twists, turns and islands from the tragedy. We went back to the boat ramp and led a boat carrying a body bag to the scene.

The Mississippi is as unforgiving as it is Grand. All mistakes must be paid for immediately. Sometimes in full. I found out later that the body used to hold the life of a 29-year-old man who went in 18 miles upstream, 10 days before. The River brought him through the dam at Genoa where gates were wide open because the River is at ‘action stage’ past the first major running slough on the west side of the River above Twin Island, two the second running slough which snakes past Goose lake and into Minnesota slough, where it came to rest less than 100 yards from the confluence.

Why did the body take this path? The course is known only to the River. Someday my ashes may wind up in this exact same spot. Or not. The River is truly a force of nature which is forever changing. Encountering a body is always troubling. I have seen many in a career as a professional firefighter and several more on the River and elsewhere. The corpse is just a corpse. The soul has departed. A human soul is not like the River’s soul–though both are living creatures.

Life is the journey we humans take which is a perpetual study in trying to figure things out. tight lines.

 

 

 

 

just when the River was approaching near normalcy, it is on the way up again–into the action stage, and tickling the minor flood designation.  Water in the trees is the new normal. Water in the trees is no big deal. When it starts flowing through the trees fishing can get ‘tough’. Yesterday and later today I’m sharing the boat with my ol’ pal Jesse Simpkins from St. Croix rods and new pal, James Hall, editor of Bassmaster magazine. hot baits yesterday were oxbow pattern Rat-L-Trap and Custom Carter’s Shaker chatterbait from Choo Choo lures. Most walleye fishermen have yet to discover the chatterbait as a high water weapon on the Miss.  It is my go-to bait when the ‘eyes are in the weeds–which is exactly where they are once water warms to about 70 degrees, because this is where they can find food and not fight current. Chatterbaits are pretty much weedless, with vibration triggering reflex strikes on walleyes which grow to substantial dimensions without eating anything which even comes close to looking like a chatterbait!

Fished with LeRoy, Joel and Jacob Saturday morning. The guys caught a very nice mixed bag of SMB, walleyes, northerns, LMB and WB–about 35 fish in a half-day trip. The River is beginning to fall nicely.  Action should get better and better for at least the next week or so…but 35 fish in 4 hrs. ain’t bad! This trip was 3 generations of very nice folks. Grandpa LeRoy and his son Jacob are accomplished bowhunters who have both harvested bucks substantially larger than the 174 which hangs over my fireplace. When looking for fish for these guys on Friday i only caught a few small bass and one channel cat over several hours. The wind was blowing pretty stiff out of the NW, so I’m thinking the slow bite was barometer related. 24 hours later, they had doubles on at least twice and a triple once in the same spots with the same presentation. As the saying goes, the Lord works in mysterious ways. LeRoy has been working for the Lord for over 40 years as a full-time pastor, so I was quite–and pleasantly surprised when I dropped them back at their vehicle and Pastor LeRoy pulled a case of Canadian Whiskey out of the trunk and gave it to me.  Earlier while fishing LeRoy commented on good whiskey, echoing advice his father had given him” good whiskey should tell you you’ve had a drink, but you shouldn’t drink enough to get stupid”. When he gave me the hooch he suggested I put just one ice cube in a glass, then pour in the entire bottle! Of course, this whiskey story is like a lot of fishing stories—the bottles were only 80ml each–the kind you get on an airplane. Just got home from honoring my mother-in-law on this Mother’s Day. The cube is about half-melted, the sun is getting low in the western sky and I’m gonna savor some good whiskey, stopping far short of getting stupid. Here’s looking at you LeRoy!

Went out fun fishing with Whipsaw jack this morning.Caught a variety of species, most on oxbow pattern Rat-L-Trap. Just got a new Okuma Komodo SS baitcast reel. Very, very smooth. Water temp is now a solid 60. Visibility is excellent, although River remains high. Supposed to fall all next week, which should result in even better fishing! NOAA tells me they may add “recreational action stage” to their flow chart. This would be about 625.2′ when the New Albin ramp closes due to high water.