I just returned from a 3 day camping trip at Merrick State Park with my son. Our first fish of choice is the Walleye, but if the bite is slow we also fish for Channel Cat, Northern and Smallies. The river was about 5 feet above normal, and past experience told us to start out in the sloughs, closing dams, and selected wingdams which originate in second channels or behind islands.
Unfortunately, we had little luck in those area aside from a few decent Walleye off one Wingdam. This resulted in us spending the remainder of our trip fishing below the Whitman Dam, mostly off the Wisconsin side sand flats. Because the Sheepshead were biting on minnows, leeches and crawlers, we ended up casting and trolling crank baits and the result was some very nice Walleye and Sauger. Although several folks used the shoreline Saturday and Sunday, for what looked like a hugh Kmong family reunion, by Sunday night the place was deserted and we caught some really nice Walleye between 9PM and 11PM, with the largest at 25 inches.
We did not have much luck with Channel Cat or Smallies. The few cats we caught in the sloughs were small, and the Smallie bite didn’t exist, except for one large one which I lost.