I am new to this site, I will be fishing the Mississippi Pool 13 in a couple of weeks. I have never fished the Mississippi before. Can anyone get me pointed in the right direction for large or smallmouth.
Thanks
First of all get yourself a map. The Iowa DNR has free maps of every pool of the river bordering Iowa. The maps are in a booklet form that you can find at area bait shops. They are blue on the cover. These free maps don’t have a ton of detail but they do show stump fields, wingdams and most major sloughs and lakes are labeled. Of course there are always river maps that you can purchase. Pool 13 offers some excellent largemouth fishing. The Brown’s Lake project alone can provide some great largemouth fishing. This is a catch and release only area and there are a ton of bass to be caught. I have caught a few smallies in the Sabula/Savanna area along the riprap. Pool 13 is full of backwater sloughs and lakes so a map is a necessity.
Welcome to the site!
Eyehunter
The HOT SPOTS map has helped my father and I enjoy a few years of fishing down there. (We enjoy fishing Pool 13 once each year). Its a fun pool to fish, but its absolutely HUGE! If you are just looking to have “fun”, there are some areas off limits to tournaments that have “stupid” fish in them… they are fun to fish! 
Other areas produce a lot of fish, but weekends on Pool 13 mean tournaments… with LARGE bass boats and can get clogged upp pretty fast. The Hot Spot maps help you diseect the pool, too.
Good luck, and welcome to the site! 
Brown’s Lake is definitely the place to go if you are just looking to catch some bass and have fun. It is catch-and-release only so remember your camera… .
Welcome to the site.
Right on, D-Nort.
You know… your Banana Boat qualifies as one of the LARGE Bass Boats refered to above… I was passed down there running with my dad to Browns at 6 AM at ~62 MPH GPS and was passed like I was standing still by a stream of boats like yours headed to the waters north of Browns… it was impressive!
I don’t know what you are talking about RG…my boat only runs 42 mph 
Yeah, in reverse.
Quote:
Yeah, in reverse.
Dave and his pre-fishing partner stopped by the JL weigh-in last week, so I got to “feel” the boat… let’s just say his partner said the boat wasn’t for the weak hearted… in fact, I asked him if he’d been drinking… he indicated it was the only thing he could do to handle the ride! 
As for Dave secret… I saw it… his GPS is amazing… If only I could download his coordinates…
Just wanted to add to be careful with the Hot Spots map the data is pre 93 flood and a good deal has changed. Don’t take the map depth as gospel. It is, however, much better than nothing.
Good Point Ken about the hot spot map. I bought one last year after fishing pool 13 most of my life. There were things on that map that I never had heard of before.
The thing I found that works the best on pool 13 for me is to put in one of the many backwater areas and fish the heck out of it. Then the next time out do the same thing with a new area.
The biggest help I have had was to join a local bass club. Fish some small tournaments, most of those guys really know there way around the river. Then when you fish with them ASK QUESTIONS AND PAY ATTENTION!!!!!!
Jeremy
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