James you been great throughout the years and this is even better. Hope I win, I would like to meet and spend a day fishing with you. Thanks for the fantastic offer.

Thanks for the reply, it is much appreciated. I will provide a full report on my trip when I return in a couple of weeks.

I just called Tri-State bait shop in La Cresent and they told me that fishing today Weds. (05/13)is good (8 on a scale of 1-10). Tri-State tells me that the level is 8′ today and expected to crest to 9.8′ on Sat. Their prediction is that fishing on Thurs. and Fri. should be OK. Sat. may be iffy and rain is predicted on Sun.

I live in Chicago and plan on fishing the river Thurs (05/15) thru Sun (05/18). From Chicago its 5 hr drive. I have been looking forward to this fishing trip, but I don’t want make the trip if the river is unfishable. Will I be able to fish the river this weekend? Please give me your opinion/predictions. Thanks for you input.

I plan on fishing Pool 8 05/15 thru 05/18. You mentioned that you used leeches and willowcats. How were you fishing these baits? On a jig casting to shore, vertical jigging or trolling live bait rigs upstream? What types of areas did you concentrate on by the dam, wingdams,riprap? I don’t get to the area but once a year and any information that you could provide would be much appreciated? Thanks.