just fished the upper Wisconsin River north of Merrill very hard with expert guide Todd Koehn. Fishing was tough because WE WEREN’T FISHING WHERE THE FISH WERE. Recalled that back in the flood of ’93 a lot of walleyes got displaced clear down to St. Louis. Speculated that recent flooding on the Wisconsin R. might have blown the bass right out of their typical summer haunts in fast water within a couple miles from the dam to points downstream. Tried the bottom end of the pools ( which is spotty at best this time of year) and found phenomenal action with rods in a constant state of bendage! biggest smallie 21 inches. Most fish took green punkin Chomper fished near rocks.
Even if you don’t plan on fishing the upper Wisconsin it might not hurt to check ‘way downstream from where you usually fish on rivers controlled by barriers like dams if you’re having trouble locating bass after all the high water we’ve seen in the midwest.
Although its true that fish usually move upstream on a rising river…a flood will often blow ’em downstream. This is exactly what happened on the upper Wisconsin!
Has anybody found a similar pattern elsewhere?? 
July 1, 2004 at 2:38 am
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