I was in Oshkosh over the weekend fishing on Lake Winnebago. A retired man on the bank showed us how he was catching some big walleye. You could try this on the Mississippi River also.
Rig your pole with a wolf river rig, which is a 3-way with 2 ft. piece of line attached to a sinker (he used a narrow tube shaped one to avoid snags.) Another piece of 2-3 ft. line is attached to a brightly colored fly. The third hole of the swivel is attached to your pole. Cast out your line let it sink, then jig and reel in. As you get closer to shore increase the jigging.
Another fisherman there had the same wolf river rig with a floating jig head attached to a leach and he just let it sit on the bottom.
It was nice go fishing and run into some good sportsman who were willing to show us how they were catching fish and even give us some tackle and bait to help us out. He even cleans up all the trash on the shore, left by other anglers.