Upper Miss River Smallmouth Bass report 8-3-04

This past weekend officially marks the start of my annual 2 month long quest for the almighty smallmouth bass! With my summer walleye bite from Mille Lacs Lake coming to a close, the smallies gave me just the “pick me up” change I was looking for. Back to the river once again looking for those feisty bronzebacks, this is the time of year where I spend all of my guide trips either on the upper headwaters of the Mississippi River or on Mille Lacs lake. With upcoming guide trips spaced out over the next coming weeks, getting on the best bite now is a must for putting my customers on the best action available. That spells one thing to me…..Play time!

Although water temps are still a bit off the pace for this time of year at 72 degrees, the smallmouth know what time of year it is and this when the feedbag gets put on from here until early October in the river. Most all presentations will take fish at this time of year, but as always there are some better than others everyday for consistently putting more and better quality fish in the boat. The morning bite lately has seemed to favor a much slower presentation such as a light 1/16thoz Jimmy D hair jig pitched tight to the current break or a light texas rigged YUM 4” Garret tube gently lobbed in and around the docks and wood. These lighter and slower presentations are most definitely not search baits by any means, so picking good looking fishy spots first is the key for putting the baits right in the strike zone first off. As the day rolls on, look for speed to be your best tool as the smallies show a definite behavioral change come midday with warming waters. White Booyah Buzz baits burned quickly over submergent vegetation has been getting the nod from some hefty smallies including my second BIGGEST smallmouth bass to date that came to the boat last night. This beauty hit the tape just shy of 22 inches! WOW! This fish absolutely crushed my buzz bait so hard that I second guessed whether it was a smallie or a musky! My biggest smallie came from Mille Lacs Lake in 1995 that hit the tape at 22-3/4”. That fish at my best guess was very close to 7 lbs, and this one last night had to of been darn close to 6#!

What type of spots am I looking for this time of year you say? On the upper Mississippi River, the lay of the land changes dramatically from one “pool” to the next. Although some pools are filled with nothing but shallow riffle type water, others inhabit a bit of a deeper reservoir look. All these pools share some real basic common river smallie characteristics, smallies love current breaks! Current breaks may be as subtle as a shoe box while others will be as big as your living room! The general rule of thumb in this water is, the bigger the spot the chance of more fish will hold there barring there is forage to keep the fish here. Recently my brother and I went in on a purchase of a flat bottom jon boat (notice from pictures) for some of those hard to get skinny water smallmouth bass. Although most all my customers will be taken out in my Ranger 620, this boat offers the versatility to get to places where few anglers will ever go and that mean “nearly untapped smallmouth bass!” Look for more reports from this boat in the future!

Many have asked what are my favorite rod/reel setups for fishing river smallies? Tough question considering there are so many various techniques that are used to be efficient on a body of water each day, but if I had to pick a couple of my absolute fav’s they would be some of the 7 foot Avid casting rods with a fast tip (St. Croix Avid Series Casting rod AC70MF) for throwing buzzbaits coupled with a Shimano Curado bait caster reel. For a spinning rod, I really cannot sway too far from my Avid Series Spinning rods that I use for pitching plastics for river walleyes (AS66MLF). Couple this rod with a Shimano Stradic 1000 spinning reel, and I am a happy angler!

With the best smallmouth bass river action you may ever experience, take the dog days of summer and hit the mighty Mississippi River for some hard pulling scrappy bronzebacks! Fish from 16”-20”+ being very common on these stretches, its easy to see why I take a couple months off the walleyes to tangle with my second favorite species!