Starting ’07 early…

weather permitting, I think I will be kicking off my bass season EXTRA early this comming new year. With terrible ice conditions, It might be more worth it to hit the river and try and find some wintering bass. It can’t hurt to try and I figure I can only gain (knowledge) from the experience. Catching a few bass would be a bonus. With the forcast calling for more above average temps for the entire week and snow possible next saturday, The fish might be in a good mood if I can catch ’em before the snow rolls through. The water temperatures are warm enough already (mid forties in some locations) that the fish might be more agressive than one would think. I got all the rods ready and I plan on targeting smallmouth first and then might switch to largemouth depending on what i discover. I figure if worse comes to worst, i can try for some crappies in areas I would normally be ice fishing. can’t wait to see a bundle of nice smallies on the aqua-vu in their wintering holes!

Would that be sweet or what. To be able to fish the river in January, with the boat, caughting some smallies. Cant beat that.

we’ll have to see. catching the smallies might be in the equation…Hopefully…maybe… but It should be fun/interesting at least.

You should be able to pick some up. I know up here I gat a few pitching plastics for walleyes all winter. I had a guy in my boat catch a real nice largemouth the other day on a ringie.

Here is a 18″er I caught on a ringie a few weeks ago.

Thanks gator…The confidence meter just keeps going up… are these areas you are “picking them up” out of current, deep water? With good fish like those, you are probably on top of the right areas. If you weren’t, you’d probably just pick up a few little ones. I’d rather catch a few of those to get my fix than a bunch of 10″ fish..we went through that this october down here

PM sent.

Here is another that Gary Wellman got late this fall.

Got this 17″ smallie on the 29th in the DuPage River, 5min. from my house. Good luck, Cade!

Cade,

That new camera and a depthfinder will be a great tools on your search. Keep in mind the water at Red Wing is warmed a couple degrees by the nuclear plant. When I’ve worked downstream around Wabasha, I’ve seen fish but have not been able to catch em. However, as you alluded to, it’s a learning experience. I know more about wintering smallies that largemouth. What I can tell you is large, low current 10-15’ flats with wing dams are where I see a lot of fish. Also, if I’m seeing lot of other fish on a flat I’ll find smallies. The fish will relate to the dams but also sand drops etc.

Enjoy! John

There catchable… think hairjigs for water under 40 degrees Heres one from Thursday

Its a different river up here but I am well south of any artificial warmth Water temps are still below 40 here and these areas are usually inaccessible because of Ice at the ramps and ice over the deep slow areas…. not to mention the riffles you have to go through to get there

Sorry about the size of the pic… I tried to resize to 320×240 and it wont change the size on here

Thanks for all the info guys! I’ve got a good Idea where I’m going and I’ll be heading for the river in a couple hours

hey u catch ne thing. might try it tomarrow if its not too windy. lake pepin is WIDE open!

I saw one bass all day on camera water temp was only 35* so it wasn’t real great. I ended up doing some ice fishing in the bays instead.