Mississippi River Pool 4/5 Bass 7 18 05

My last 3 guide trips have been parent/grandparent and offspring outings, and a pattern is emerging. The kids are whooping the parents. But I’m sure no one is disappointed. With that in mind, I’m going to run with the theme in reverse-chronological order. July 18th’s trip was with Adrian Lohr of Portland Oregon and his grandfather, Dick Vetter of Rochester. We choose pool 5 knowing the largemouth population is very strong, and there is a shot at catching some big northern pike. Adrian doesn’t get a chance to fish often so his casting was a little rusty but once he got it down it was the “Adrian Show”. The photo is of Adrian and one of the many largemouth he caught.

The fish were using a variety of cover types but it had to have current. We caught fish on wood, rock, sand and grass and undercut banks. The lure of choice was a 3/8-oz home made black and blue swimming jig with a blue Yum Chunk trailer. Because of the weed guard the lure is forgiving if the cast isn’t perfect. The picture is another nice fish Adrian caught. Grandpa did even the score late in the day. His last two bass were the biggest of the day and he added a 6-7 lb. northern. Scroll down to the first reply to see his biggest bass. A work of warning, the water is really low on pool 5 and navigation is a challenge. You can see how much bank is exposed in Dick’s picture. The low water has allowed me to see why some areas are holding fish. It also scared me when I saw what I have been running over. The areas I assumed were safe do have hazards.

On Thursday, July 14th my guest were Jim and Brian Goergen. Jim lives in Austin and Brian in Fridley. We did an afternoon trip on poll 4 thinking the evening bite might be good. We spent most of the time swimming grubs on wingdams and on a rock, sand, grass area at the foot of Lake Pepin. It was hot and still and the bite was tough but we did manage some OK smallmouth, a 19” walleye and several quality largemouth. The photo is of Brian and Dad with one of the average size largemouth. Dad did make a comeback towards evening with a nice walleye but Brian put most of the bass in the boat.

The first trip of the string was with Mark Collins of Rochester and his daughter Leslie. Leslie just finished her first year of college in St Paul. Mark warned me when he booked that Leslie was one heck of an angler and that she frequently out-fished him. Well history repeated itself and it was her day. The picture is one of the nicer largemouth she caught. She also added a quality 18” smallmouth off of Lake Pepin. Unfortunately, threatening weather chased us off the spot and ended the day.

The bottom line is the last three trips have been a ball. The super hot weather has passed for now and the conditions on the River are improving. The water levels are back to normal and the flow is down. I want to thank Mike Anderson for volunteering to help with the scouting trips. Mike is great company and understands what the mission is.