A weekend without a tournament and a chance to enjoy what ever bite. I spent Friday in the Red Wing area, by myself so no photos. Found a few respectable bass, several of northerns including a 35"er, 3-13" crappies and school’s of stripers. Just about everything came on a 5" Kalins grub in a pearl blue color or a double willow spinnerbait in a shad pattern. Even the crappies inhaled the grub so deep it was out of site. The bites could be described as aggressive. Saw James and his clients several times. They were all smiles so things must have been going well. The water was rising and becoming slightly off-colored.
Saturday offered a break from the wind and rain and chance to fish the Wabasha area with Brent Haimes (fishnut). There were some long spells without a bite but the quality made up for it. We took some decent size large and smallmouth on flukes, Northland Mimic Minnows, buzzbaits and flipping a jig. The Mimic Minnow accounted for my first shallow walleyes of the year. Two 20 plus inch fish came out of about 3′ of water and made dinner for Saturday night. The bass still seem to be suffering from the post spawn blues and have not established any consistent patterns. The water temp is stuck in the low mid 60’s. Flexibility was the key for the day.
Sunday was a wash out but the day was great because we had a visit from our new granddaughter. What was interesting was to watch how the rain-squalls followed the Mississippi valley. They were clearly visible and seemed to stay to the WI side. With all of the rain, the river is forecast to rise about a half a foot in the Wabasha area. The Chippiwa river was running clean but the Zumbro was muddy. Watching the condition of the tributaries should help in selecting next weeks fishing locations.