Mississippi up north

Was able to make a quick trip out on the river near Aitkin this last weekend. I dont get up this way much but aways do enjoy the fishing during the few trips each year.

We meet Jon jordan at the landing around 9. After a little shoveling to clear the ramp of some fine river mud we where set to go. It was good to see the river was still holding some decent water and was still a little dirty also. Looked to be pefect water conditions and it didnt take long for us to find out this was right.

Our first stop started putting out walleyes and small mouth right away. Nothing huge but the action was good. Must of took about ten fish between the 2 boats in the 45 minutes we spent trolling there. This action seemed to be the norm for the rest of the day. Plenty of walleyes, and small mouth. A few suckers, couple of catfish and 1 northern. Most of the walleyes where running small but we did manage 6 decent fish for a fish fry saturday night. Also let one nice 24″ eye go in the afternoon. 24″ matched the largest walleye I have found in that streach of river yet. Largest small mouth I think was around 19″. Seemed like most where running 10″ to 14″.

The river around Aitkin gets pretty shallow. We spent most of our time trolling shallow running crankbaits on the river bends. A blue rattle trap was top producer in my boat and blue aways seems to be a good producer on the river in this area. The fish seemed pretty active on saturday and it would not suprise me that alot of different presentations would take fish right now.

Looks like I will be back up there agian next weekend.

Did get a few photos of our trip but am haveing problems getting them from the camera to the computor.

Here is a nice smallie Jon picked up.

Here is Jon in action on anouther fish. Wish I could figure out how to zoom in on some of these photos.

Thanks for letting me tailpipe you guys Saturday. Had a real good time up there! Can’t wait to get back soon. Here are a couple shots from my boat.

Getting in and out is half the fun!

Nice smallie Mike!

Mike’s 24 incher capped a great day on the water!

A few of those “Other” fish! Hey, anything that bends the pole is a ton of fun!

Thank you Jon for giveing my that little nudge to get back up there and get the old jon boat out of storage. Looks like friday I will be back on the water there again.

How was Hanson lake on sunday?

Well, like Nathanial said, lots of small fish! Snake northern, small LMB and tiny sunnies. But I had it all to myself!

-J.

Mike W, I was up at the cabin two weeks ago and trolled for a while with no luck at all, but the water was running fairly fast and looked like choc. milk. Does the river appear to be normal for this time of year or is it still a bit high and a bit dirty. Also how far up the river from Aitkin do you travel? I’m curious as to how far down I could safely run my boat. There’s a spot just outside Palisade that drops to 1 ft. in the summer.

The water is most likely at a normal stage for this time of year. Dont get up there to much in August so that is a guess. You can see in one of the photos of Jon the color of the water. Plenty of mud in it still. Higher water and mud is a good thing. Higher water makes it easyer to get around. I have seen it a good foot lower than what it was last weekend and it can be slow going. Have had the best fishing in higher water. Most of our time is spent concentrating on the river bends and holes. In the higher water make sure and check any good current breaks also like bridge pillings.

The crankbiat I was trolling had alot of rattles in it also. That might help also. Cant beleive those fish can see very far in the muddy water.
With the warm water these fish should be feeding pretty active. We had no problems even finding 8″ walleyes hitting our lures. They are hungry.

The 24″ eye I caught was on a blue rattle trap in about 3′ of water. She nailed the trap as we where trolling down stream over some logs on a current seam. Must of covered that spot for more than a hour before she hit. Thanks for the photo Jon. She was quickly released after that. Only under 20″ fish are kept for diner. There must be one bigger than 24″ in there somnewhere.

Looks like we might be hitting the river near Crosby on saturday. Anyone every spent any time over there. It will be a first for us.

Was able to make 3 trips out on the river this weekend. Water has dropped about 6 to 8″ and hs cleared up a bit. The bite has seemed to change also. Trolling shallow running crankbaits is still putting a ton of smallmouth in the boat. The eys are not so much. Still catch a few but not like last weekend. The eyes are hitting on live bait. Anchored up with bottom rigs or drifting jigs threw the current both worked for taking walleyes. Crawlers and leaches both taking fish. Would have to think minnows would work well also.
Jon. made a couple of trips to that deeper hole you found up river and have taken a few eyes there. Had one spot just down stream of the hole that we took 6 eyes in one pass drifting jigs threw 5′ of water.

Most of my trips are spent north or Aitkin on the river. Was able to get out just north of Crosby on saturday. What a diffent river that is. North of Aitkin is mostly shallow rocks and gravel. Crosby is deep and mud. No problem running a bigger boat in that area. Lots of 10′ and deeper water to run in. The guy I was with said there is a good 10 miles or better of deep water in that area.