Whats happening with Mississippi pools -time to take a reality check

I know that I have changed how I post. I don’t often carry a camera so big fish don’t get shown on public forums, not because the general body of contributing members would flog a resource if a location went with a picture, but because of those without any scruples who lurk and take advantage. I honestly feel that responsible anglers need to take and use that same responsibility to the social and public forums today.

Fish go thru natural high/low cycles and we could very well be seeing a low right now if people aren’t getting the quality of fish they think should be there. The DNR might report other-wise based on their sampling but keep in mind the dnr is not sampling the entire pool 4 or pool 2 or pool 5, whatever. What’s sampled is minuscule by comparison to what people actually fish and then timing is everything too. The net results get reported several months after the actual catch, not necessarily when people are seeing fewer fish.

Some people will blame the fishing during the spawn. Some will blame the year round season. The list goes on and on but in the end its up to the individual angler to make changes in his program if the fishing doesn’t seem as good as year ago. If he thinks the fishing during the spawn is at fault, stay home during that period. If the year long season bothers a guy, fish somewhere that a season controls when you fish. The big thing is what you keep. Both walleye and sauger should be put back if they are big, truly big for their species. If you want a mount, go with the replica. If you want some for a meal, take those smaller fish…tastier and not fully a part of the sustainment of future generations of the fish.

On a personal level we all need to use the resource in such a way as to promote its future….responsibly.

Brian Klawitter wrote:

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Its either natural or a result of too much pressure on the spring spawning run. Time will tell.

Open season all year since the early ’90’s. 25ish years.
DNR reports since the ’60’s. 50ish years.

Mr. BK Sir. The Open season all year, was started way before the 90’s. Wi. started the yr. around back in 50’s. Mn. started the all yr. fishing a number of yrs. later in the 60’s I believe. But before Mn opened up to yr. around fishing, you could only fish on the Wi. side of the river. Now that turned in to a nightmare of enforcement.!! Mn Game wardens issued LOTS an LOTS of tickets to the unlucky guys that crossed the center line an were fishing in Mn waters. …. rrr Ps Yes back in those days they were called GAME WARDENS not CO’s. It is to bad that Game Wardens can not just be game wardens any more.! Todays CO’s have way to many other things that have been put on them now to be just a Game Warden.!!!

In the latter part of the 60’s decade we’d drop a boat off the levee in Red Wing in front of the train depot and break ice all the way up to the dam area. Tony wouldn’t have Everts opened yet. If it got cold again after the ice was thin enough to break out we were screwed for getting to the dam. There was no reactor influence then and the fishing was way different than it is today and yes the season was open all year then.

Thanks, I knew if I threw light numbers out there someone would help make my point.

Lol,lots of older fellows can add another 20 plus years on it, its called social media and they still let you keep fish, so don’t blame an ol boy for keeping a few, we threw lotsa of big ones back before most of you could drive

Besides having exceptionally great and poor year classes, has anyone been looking at the over-all changes in habitat?

I seldom go up to P4 anymore, since P6-9 are closer and I have a lot less time. But just thinking back over the last 35 or so years, I can think of so many “spot on the spot” locations that have changed over time. Many great clam beds have silted over, closing dams that have changed, wing dams bustyed up from barge impacts, weed beds that are gone, stump fields that are rotten out and now gone, back sloughs that are silted up, the ever changing network of dead heads deposited in different places, and so on. Probably the single most intriguing factor for me in fishing the river is the ever changing conditions. Locations may stay hot for years…or change and go cold. As stated above, sometimes you need to change how you fish.

forum fishing reports is old hat. i’m apart of a handful of forums that handle fishing on the miss and my area here in illinos/iowa.

i’m also apart of a number of local facebook fishing groups.

The facebook groups post reports almost 10:1.

its just a crap ton easier to do so.

I fish pools 4 to 8, but spend most of my on 6 or 8. I think the fishing is very good most years. Between crappies and walleyes/sauger I can almost always find something to catch. Maybe sauger fishing isn’t quite what it used to be for me, but crappie fishing has been unbelievable the last few years. I have been fishing these areas for 30 years and I don’t see anything that I would call a decline trend in fishing, just some ups and downs.

We’ve had some unusual years the last few years as well. Guys fishing memories have been struggling. I know guys on pools 7,8 and 9 claim there aren’t any fish because they can’t just park on one wing dam and catch fish all day any more. I’ve found that a lot of my favorite dams have silted in and just don’t hold as many fish add they used to. I have others that never used to hold fish that are my best dams now. Adaptability and thinking outside the box are the biggest keys to success on the river.

I dont have nearly as much time to fish the river anymore. Any chance of the DNR helping out with that?

wimwuen wrote:

We’ve had some unusual years the last few years as well. Guys fishing memories have been struggling. I know guys on pools 7,8 and 9 claim there aren’t any fish because they can’t just park on one wing dam and catch fish all day any more. I’ve found that a lot of my favorite dams have silted in and just don’t hold as many fish add they used to. I have others that never used to hold fish that are my best dams now. Adaptability and thinking outside the box are the biggest keys to success on the river.

The river is in a state of change all the times and techniques have to be adjusted to fit what the river has to offer. Adapability is a great words for that.

Consider too the tackle today. Nothing is used that was used 40-50 years ago. But that tackle still works and maybe better than a person thinks. In the late 50’s and early 60’s I’d fish with my uncle on Pepin. The old fishing barge was where the sailboat harbor is today and we’d be all around that big steel tub and the pier trolling Lazy Ikes and Lazy Dazy baits. That’s what the walleyes and pike were caught on back then as well as the trusty and rusty old Daredevil spoons. A couple years ago I fished a day when the bite was….tough. I had nothing else to do but try something different or go home so I tied on a Lazy Ike and that move saved the day. Crappies, walleye, sauger all were taken on a fifty year old bait. How many people here that think the fishing has tanked have tried looking that far out of the box before carping about the fishing? Not many I imagine.

Honestly I think the anglers today have gotten soft and lazy and live on this expectation that they should catch fish every time they hit the water. The people that are doing the catching are working hard to do so and maybe they don’t feel obligated to put in stone how they manage to be so successful. One thing for sure is that they know they have to change up techniques, quite often at times, and maybe even have to tweak those techniques to get the hits.

I used to think 20 years was a long time. It’s not. Fishing changes, especially in rivers.

Too much pressure not enough dnr to catch up with all the walleye poachers . Winona area great fishing but too many poachers getting away with breaking the rules and regs

Randy, I think your right on the $ as far as the habitat goes we’ve been losing spots or access to them for years, I sure hope the people in charge realize this

Randy Wieland wrote:

Besides having exceptionally great and poor year classes, has anyone been looking at the over-all changes in habitat?

I seldom go up to P4 anymore, since P6-9 are closer and I have a lot less time. But just thinking back over the last 35 or so years, I can think of so many “spot on the spot” locations that have changed over time. Many great clam beds have silted over, closing dams that have changed, wing dams bustyed up from barge impacts, weed beds that are gone, stump fields that are rotten out and now gone, back sloughs that are silted up, the ever changing network of dead heads deposited in different places, and so on. Probably the single most intriguing factor for me in fishing the river is the ever changing conditions. Locations may stay hot for years…or change and go cold. As stated above, sometimes you need to change how you fish.

…10-4 Randy you are right on.! .. .. Can you even imagine the changes in the river this old goat has seen in the last 60yrs. An 95% of those changes were NOT GOOD.! Wish I had before an after pics.!! I could show ya where at one time was 20fow an now is a large island with trees. Or where islands use to be, an now are completely gone. Etc. Etc. Etc. It is just plain UGLY with the lose of habit.!! … rrr

river rat randy wrote:

Or where islands use to be, an now are completely gone. Etc. Etc. Etc. It is just plain UGLY with the lose of habit.!! … rrr

As in where the Cannon River emptied into the Miss just upstream from Everts? There was some dandy fishing up inside that lower chute at times.