great panfish bite – Mississippi backwaters

Had a chance to fish with fellow IDA member RHW yesterday afternoon. We hit some backwaters of the Mississippi near the Kellogg/Wabasha area.
The fishing was very good! Lots of bluegills and crappies! We caught many small fish, but also lots of nice fish – crappies to 12+ inches and bluegills to 8+ inches. The best method was fishing a small hair jig tipped with a waxie, about 2 ft under a bobber.
Seems the fall bite is starting and will probably continue to get better right up to ice time!

Good Fishing,
Mike

Playing hooky again hey!! Must be nice. Yes, I’m jealous. One of these days somethings going to start going right and I’ll get out there with you guys. Any best colors so far this year for the panfish? Thanks, Bill

Orange head with yellow hair was good, but several colors worked good as well. Tipping the jigs with a waxie worked much better than a plain jig.

Good Fishing,
Mike

Yes Mike, it was good the other day. The best is yet to come with the change of the season, gotta love that fall fishing. Oh we could get hits on plain jigs, but if we put a waxworm on, it was a hit on every cast. My only concern now is what will all that rain do to the backwaters? We needed it to replenish the low level, but we don’t need flooding, that could set us back a good week until it settles down to a normal,
fishable level.

Had a chance to go chase the panfish again today. Checked out several places in the backwaters between Wabasha and Kellogg, and every place had plenty of fish. Most fish were on the small side, but we also got several very nice ones. Small jigs were the best bet once again.
The water is not up much and every place was very fishable. It’s time to get out and enjoy the great fishing!

Good Fishing,
Mike

Mike is right, we had a ball yesterday. One right after another. The bites weren’t very far apart, providing some steady action. The fall bite is here, get in on it. We had some honest 8 1/4 to 8 1/2 gills and I know this because we measured them.
Water level is up but very fishable and I hope it stays that way, which should provide not only excellent fall fishing but should also provide some good ice fishing.
Small jigs tipped with waxies bout 2 1/2 feet below the bobber. Cast it out, crank half a turn, stop for a few seconds, then crank it again another half a turn. Just slowly swim it back, then start all over again. Would I recommend a particular color? Not really they hit everything we threw at them. When we would stop getting hits in an area, just change colors and they would start up all over again. Gotta love it.

Sounds like alot of fun. Any idea how deep of water you guys were fishing in as I assume you were fishing from shore? Thanks for the report. Thanks, Bill

sunnies are going bonkers down here in winona too……not that I’ve fished for em (I don’t want to pad the fish count too much ). I’ve just been seeing lots of guys fishing and catching them all over all the backwaters.

Just a heads up that the MN duck opener is this weekend. so if you were planing on fishing the MN side saturday or sunday, beware of flying steel .

p.s. if you see me out there give me a wave. I’ll be the one with the big gun and camo hat on

Just a big gun a camo hat Jake? No birds? Maybe best to go fishin instead.

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Sounds like alot of fun. Any idea how deep of water you guys were fishing in as I assume you were fishing from shore? Thanks for the report. Thanks, Bill

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The water depth was between 2-20 ft. and did not seem to be a factor. The depth of the jig was critical and using a bobber to keep it around 2 ft. worked well.

Good Fishing,
Mike