Mississippi River Fishing Help

Next week my retired neighbor and his wife are headed for Merrick State Park to camp and fish for a week. I am unable to go with, but would appreciate any general suggestions you folks have on spots he should try for various types of fish. For example, are the sunnies still on the Wingdams, in sloughs with structure and a bit of current or in the deeper backwaters. For Walleyes, would you stick with the Wingdms or head for the main dam.

Anyway, if anyone is willing to toss out any general info I am sure Jim would appreciate it. ditto for other fish.

My personal suggestion was to drive up to Alma on day one and see if you can hire Jarrard for a day, but because Jim has a fairly small boat I suggested if he hire a guide he stick to Polls 5, 5A and 6.

Finally, Jim has never fished the Mississippi before, and my general experience is people new to the river struggle quite a bit without help.

try using a shad rap (orange/gold) troll in around 8-12 ft. near the shoreline, you’ll get some results. early morning is best.

Wingdams would be a good place to start. Try jig/plastics or willow cats. Trolling the back waters is a good bet also. The channel in front of the park has walleyes and lots of northerns in it. Pulled a coupleof 8 to 10# pike out of there while fishing for the championship.

There are also a couple of gravel humps in front of fountian city on the shore line. One just north and one south of the dock. This was a decent place to troll and might be good with some live bait on the bottom.

The ace web site has some decent maps on it. They will show him most of the wingdams and a good layout of the backwaters.