3/29/09 Bass Report- 2 fish for 8-10 - Mississippi River – Bass - Mississippi River – Bass

It’s hard to unconfidently fish your homewater when you know you can catch big fish after a short drive beyond the La Crosse city limits. Just up the road from Lake Onalaska, I found myself fishing with new friend Chris from the site, and we had a blast this morning. I was worried that the fishing would be tough after the front last night and the wind today. I was barely even fishing my hardest but after Chris caught a couple short fish I figured I should probably try. My first bite of the day came on a tube and she absolutely pummeled it. The best part was I set the hook and she made a Bee-line for the boat. I love racing the fish (though it’s scary) and finally catching up to her and feeling the rod load up on a toad. I flipped the fish in the boat and was definitely feeling more confident. My first fish of the day went 4-4. We fished around, with Chris catching a several fish using a jig including a couple keepers. I still wasn’t getting the numbers, but I was completely fine with what I had It wasn’t long before I felt another thump and put hook to yet another toad! I swung this one in the boat and could tell she was even bigger than the last. She weighed 4-6. Talk about awesome. We continued fishing and boated several more keepers between the two of us. Chris had a couple over 3, as well as an extremely fat 15-1/2″ fish that went 2-9. Things toughened up towards the end when Chris had to leave, but I stayed out and tried to get to my limit. It took me a long time and I had to try a new area that we did not fish, but on the pass that I decided to call it a day, right at the end of the line I caught a 2-1/4 lber on a swim jig. Nothing special, but to me it was an important fish, because what a waste the day would have been if I would have had 2 hogs and couldn’t even come up with a decent limit. At the end of the day I took down the statistics, and with a 4-4, 4-6, and 3-4 my best 3 were 11-14! If I could have popped 2 more 3 lbers it would have been a real sack! unfortunately for me I had a 14-1/2″er and that 2-1/4 lb fish in my bag and those hurt me. All in all it was still a great day and I cannot complain about catching almost 16 lbs and 2 4 lbers at the end of March! Chris’ 2 big ones and my 3 added together would have been well over 18 lbs.