Chris,
I’m not sure if you are just talking about Pepin or other parts of the Mississippi river. I can only add what I know from fishing Red Wing to Minneiska as a kid and now plying the waters from St Cloud north.
This is something I wrote 3 years ago about Pepin:
Quote:
Anyone for Pepin bass?
I know the subject line is in the form of a question….it was suppose to promote responses to these questions:
1. How often do you purposely fish for bass on Pepin?
2. More successes than failures? or vice versa?
3. Methods that have work?
4. Seasonal patterns you have discovered?
5. Time of the day, water temp., water clarity?
And on and on with the questions. I have found over the years that asking questions such as these help me focus on what is needed….FIND & CATCH FISH!!
If I was to focus on one area, it would be seasonal patterns. This would be true of any species of fish. In the case of bass, it’s especially critical because they are fairly predictable creatures. In order to develop seasonal patterns, I have been keeping a log book for recording (water temp, clarity, date, time of day, weather conditions, specific fish locations, what worked and what didn’t). I keep the info concise and to the point.
What I have found interesting about Pepin bass, smallies, is that water temperature drives their location more than any other item I have listed. For example, last Thursday the midday water temp was 43 degrees in the areas we fished. In previous years and under the same conditions, I have found bass deep (approx 20′) and adjacent to rip-rap shorelines south and north of lake city and along the RR tracks north of maiden rock. What I have also noticed is that as the day goes on I would catch fish making movments to the shallows. The deeper fish would hit slow moving jig/plastics combo’s with a jig head weight of at least 1/4 oz. The plastics were everything from flukes to tubes to craws. The lure combos for shallow fish were essentially the same except the weight was 3/16 oz max. One cold-water tip: For deeper fish I use jig heads that have rattles.
My experimentation with patterning largemouths on Pepin is an on-going subject. What I have found to date is that greenies are temperature slaves too, but water conditions such as flooding changes their locations dramatically and more so than smallies. I ran head on into this after fishing 4 conscecutive days during flooding one spring. The bass moved tight to shoreline cover and went from 6 to 8′ of water to less than 1′. You would set the hook and the smaller fish would go air born!!
So, let’s hear it. Seasonal patterns anyone? Hey, even preferred methods? I’m always in the mood to hear about other peoples successes (and failures).
