Any of you guys know what water level the Pickle Factory ramp gets closed? I was planning to go out of Pepin on the weekend of June 8th.

Great read. Both of my parents grew up on small family farms around Cedar Rapids. One of my grandmothers still lives on one of the farms and I have always loved spending time there. The land is rented out now and the cattle were sold shortly after my grandfather passed, but I will always have fond memories of stacking bales in the barn in what seemed like 110 degree heat or riding out with grandpa to count cattle before dark.

Now that I live in the middle of Milwaukee, the only thing keeping me sane is skipping town to fish walleyes on the weekends.

There’s definitely tournaments on P4 with entry fees in the $100-$200 range.

I typically fish 4-8 per year dependingon schedule.
I sign up in advance.
I fish with a partner.
I fish tournaments because of mental battle against the fish. Once I stopped worrying about other people and started fishing my fish, my success went up. Tournament fishing consistently forces you to fish outside of your comfort zone and fish in conditions that you typically wouldn’t fish in. There’s also a lot of fishing knowledge in most clubs/circuits. Just hanging around some of these people can help cut the learning curve and help you to become a better angler.

Anyone have any updates on the bite around Oconto? I’m thinking about heading up there on Sunday.

Guessing you’re fishing the NTC? It will be my first time fishing those pools. Good luck!

Funny, a tournament I fished this past weekend on pool 9 was won handlining. Water was 40°, I had the gear in my boat but it honestly never even crossed my mind. I’ll wait for a few more weeks when the bite really starts to get hot. Picked up a few custom painted stickbaits this winter that I’d like to try.

Its been frustrating to say the least. I stumbled onto a few things last year around this time on pools 9 and 11 when the water was low. I’ve all but given up on getting in on that bite again this year. One thing I’ve definitely learned in my first 3-4 years of fishing the river… you really need to be focused on the current and future conditions, and use past success only as a starting point if even that. Looks like we may be facing high water conditions down here going through the entire fall. Can’t say that I’m excited about it but you can bet that I’m going to try.

Always love to see walleye shows on the Mississippi

Sent you a pm.

Pool 11 is projected to be out of action stage by Thursday. It shouldn’t be too terribly bad. Haven’t been to Guttenberg yet this year.