Well if you read James’ latest report you have an understanding of the, to quote James, wacky weather,bite, and Barge crashes. I spent a few days this week fishing with Jim Wilcheck and Ken VanHolla from Iron Mountain, Michigan. Last week the bite was sporatic…this week was even tougher as many of the spawning fish,especially Walleye, left the Dam and upper reaches altogether. But thats fishing… and one must be adaptable. The picture at right is a 44″ Flathead that ended up with a 1/4 jig and ringworm stuck in his/her(help me Cat guys!)lower lip. It was an absolute blast to watch Jim toe to toe against that Cat. Jim had a noodly light action rod and 6# test with an underfilled Shimano 1000 FX reel! I was glad I put a 24V trolling motor in this spring as I followed the cat all over a couple of wingdams. The cat’s head filled up my Beckman Walleye net when it finally got tired 35 min later…WOW…Catfish are definitely STRONG!
We spent much of our time in the dam area with forays down both sides looking for possible drop back fish looking for shelter from the current and and easy morsel. Ken was pitching very tight to a tree covered current break with a chart/org H20 jig and Chart/pepper Ringie when it was snapped up by this nice 20″ male Sauger.
Earlier in the week we had our best success on green, blue or purple hair jigs in 1/4-5/16oz. After the Dam debaucle the water was very murky and this 19″ Sauger fell to a 1/8oz NuckleBall I was pitching with a trimmed BFT Chart/pepper ringworm. During better water clarity on Sunday and Monday Blue, Pro Blue, and Fire N Ice ringworms got the nod with the better fish.
This past week saw a PotPourri of species caught in my boat on mostly plastics and hair. Catfish, Drum, Sauger, Walleye, Freshwater Eels, Mud Puppy, White Bass, Moon Eye, Gizzard Shad, Sturgeon, a turtle, and the nastiest Lamprey Eel you ever want in your grasp! The 50+ degree water temps have some dandy White Bass coming upstream. Here is a 16 incher I caught on a hair jig up along the Wisconsin side. Steve Vick at Evert’s reported catching an 18 incher
Wednesday!
Although my crew didn’t land any Trophy Eyes we managed to catch enough for a couple good meals here and for the families back home.
I really enjoyed meeting several IDA forum gang on the water and am grateful for the nice comments concerning pictures and reports. I want to add how great the fishing comradery and boating patience was out there this past week(Saturday not withstanding because I wasn’t there).
I will not be back to the River for a while and my home season is closed until mid May so I will count on IDA to keep me GOING!
as always GET OUT and GET FISHING!
For some reason…I don’t think Jim will forget that cat on 6 lbs. Likely didn’t know he was hooked for 20 minutes
What else did you guys catch?
Nice fish and great report…now if I could just get my boat ready!
Them are some nice fish Tom, wow what a cat. Thanks for the great report and pic’s.
WOW!! Nice Cat!
Mama always told me..”Life is the like the Mississippi River…you never know what you gonna catch”.
Well Brank here is a(poor) picture of the lamprey. I had a hard time holding this slippery bloodsucker.
I see they like Purple and white!
That’s 3 now for the year that I have heard of.
Hey Tuck…have you seen or heard of fish with lamprey scars? I wonder what they are living on? Certainly not Ringworms
Thanks for the report Tom, good to see you on the water the other day. How is the anchor working out for you? Next time you are down we will have to try and hook up for a cold one!
The only place it wouldn’t hold was outside the wingdams in the heavy current. Overall I am pleased with the universal anchor…at a very reasonable price!
Sounds great Steve!
Tom – when snagging paddlefish for the DNR amonth back we found most of the bigger paddlefish are scarred from lamprey bites… not sure what other fish are normals hosts but they definatley like the scaleless skin of the spoonies. Chuckles
Thanks Chuckles…Cats and Sturgeon have pretty tough skin but the Lamprey has a formidible set of cutters in that sucker mouth.
Chuckles and the MN DNR gave me some info on them. You can email them, and they are really good about giving info out.
Tuck