What a joyous last couple of months I have had! I have taken the last couple months off of guiding and decided it was time to take a little break and spend some invaluable time with my family as well as get some fishing in with my relatives and friends and chase one of my favorite fish of all time…The great river smallie! Some new exploratory fishing trips as well as some hard charging adventures to some of my old favorites took place on the upper Mississippi river.
This past weekend I had good friends James Holst and Tom “Blue Fleck” Donaldson join me for a couple days of smallie hunting in my old stomping grounds. Friday we experienced a little “off the pace” bite overall for what we typically expect for this time of year. Several days of stormy weather was the excuse we used for the bigger fish not cooperating. We still managed to boat about 50 smallies by days end but big fish for the day was only a tad over the 18” mark. Still a nice fish, but not for what I had expectations for. We mainly covered water quickly on Friday with top waters and spinner baits looking for an active pod of fish that we could slow down on and pick apart. White buzzbaits, topwater chuggers and big chartreuse and white spinnerbaits was our search tools.
Saturday we pulled the boat and ran up to the next pool and restarted the day there. Our day started out a bit better with some active fish showing themselves right away but not in great numbers. As the day grew on the bite got better and better with the sun putting a bit of warmth into the waters. Jimmy D’s black 1/16th oz river bugs were the magical jig for the better part of the afternoon. Probing every inch of the shaded shoreline with these little jigs gave way to many fish over the 19” mark including a couple of fish over the 20” mark. We had the opportunity to sight fish about 90% of the fish this afternoon as they were staked in waters less than 3 feet. Some fish came out of about 9” of water. Sight fishing big 3lb+ smallies is something that NO ONE would ever get sick of. Using mono over braid in these conditions is a must for throwing these little jigs the distance you need to without spooking the fish.
It is the time of season where these fish get the best of me and prevent me from getting back to pool 2 and catching those old marble eyes. After some serious thought this summer, I have decided to take Mille Lacs Lake off my guiding schedule for the next year or so to concentrate more on the smallies during the early summer months. Instead of dedicating only a couple months a year to the smallies, I plan to be on them for nearly 5 months next year in between the cold water Pool 2 walleye season….I can’t wait either!
Good luck to all.
Thanks again Steve. The trip north was excellent! I got a hands on education pitching 1/16oz jigs. What a fantastic technique.
Steve
Thanks for having us up there! We had a blast and hope we can turn this trip into an annual deal. Even the camping was enjoyable although Blue probably wishes he hadn’t rolled over and been poked in the back by “little stubby” in the middle of the night (inside joke).
When you have a chance, send me that sunset pic with the chugger in the air over your shoulder. Thanks.
Anyone looking to get in on some incredible bass action, give Steve a holler. The average size of bass he’s on right now makes for an incredibly fun day!
I would make those fish look small, at least that is what Blue Fleck tells me.
Nice Fish and Great Report guys
Great Fish Guys! I got one question though…. Who are those ugly looking dudes holding those PIGS
Yes, Steve. Please share those sunset pics. They are fantastic.
You guys have GOT to learn how to use a fly rod. Big Smallies in shallow water, and they want a small hairy fuzzy little black thing to eat? I’ll have to show you what a Wooly Bugger looks like. Under the circumstances you described I think a fly rod would be deadly effective. And if they want to chase topwater baits then a flyrod can’t be beat. It would be fun
Rootski
Here is a string of additional pics that did not make it to the report.
Here is Blue with yet “another nice one!”
That’s Steve “The Pike Crusher” Dezurik, James ”The Tree Whisperer” Holst, & Tom ”The Rock Bass Crippler” Donaldson….
Rob………that’s just Brutal…….true, but Brutal.
Looks like you guys had a great time. Blue, you’ll have to let me in on “Little Stubby” 
.
We definately had those departments covered like a fat kid on a cupcake!
Its BIGGER…..Its BADDER….Its…..another pic of BLUE!
Here is the dynamic duo together with a nice double!
Here is a pic that was taken in the middle of smallie mayhem. “Quick get the picture taken because I see one even bigger lurking about 10 feet away!”
Rootski,
Normally, I would give huge thumbs up on the fly rod approach. However we had to be about 10 feet and less away from the fish as they were tucked way up under the trees at times that were only inches off the water. I’m sure similair approaches would score with these skinny water fish. Several techniques were simply turned away except for the little harmless riverbug. I would have to say we optimized our efforts at the end of the day in this particular spot. Having said that, I can see where a fly rod would excel even more in situations up here when times are right.
I’m packed and ready to go Steve
I’m a big fan of the long rod and have even talked with Steve about bringing mine along on one of these trips. In some areas a fly rod would have been a hoot… particularly on the sand bars. Where we caught these bass the fly rod would have been a liability as Steve mentioned. We were fishing such tight, heavy cover that many of our short little flip casts would end up in the trees, over a limb or in a mat of weeds. That type of hand-to-hand close range fishing was a real hoot… particularly being able to see the fish stalk your bait from such close range!
These fish were so negative towards spinnerbaits, topwaters and plastics it was quite remarkable how positively they reacted to those black hair jigs.
They definitely saved our bacon.
Steve, sorry to hear you won’t be at Mille Lacs any more, although, I can see why, those are huge smallies
. If you are having a fire sale on all those reef runners and tail dancers I want to know when 
. I want the ones in the good boxes that catch the fish though 
. The deep bite has been awesome since we went with you in July 
. Good luck with the smallies. 
OK… I guess I had that coming after mentioning Blue’s run in with little stubby. I’ll take my medicine and like it.
That explains the bass boat (crazy) comment you made to me not long ago! But it does sound like you’re having a lot of fun up there. Nice fish guys!
John
Great fish guys, looks like a blast. How far north on the Miss are you? Do you ever fish around otsego, I just moved up there and keep looking at the river there but she seems a little shallow. One of these days I am going to put the duck boat in and check it out. Great report
Bob,
We were up near Little Falls and Brainerd on the Miss.
From Elk River and south to the Coon rapids is REALLY low right now due to some dam repair going on right now in Coon Rapids. Have not heard on the finish date yet and when the river will be back up again. Usually its shallow in Otsego, but navigable with a jon. Right now, its unusally shallow.
I have not seen the river north of Elk river to see how conditions are there. Elk River and north to Monicello is a great stretch.
Wow, I have to first say impressed that you guys figured this pattern out. It sounds like these fish were in pretty tight quarters and the biggest problem was getting a lure in front of them. Great job getting on some beautiful fish. How do you sight fish from 10 feet away without spooking them? You guys are amazing.
I frequently fish up underneath trees by using a very low to the water side arm cast and a lot of line speed. I still need a couple of feet of open space to hit that target, and I’m sure I couldn’t do it from 10 feet away. This is the same presentation I use for fishing under docks with a flyrod. It’s easier to do with a Bass Bug taper line, one size bigger than the rod. In my case that means I’m using a 9 weight line on an 8 weight rod. You can really gun an air resistant bug into tight pots with this setup.
Thanks for the report and the great pictures!
Rootski
Thanks Steve. Are you seeing any lunge up there. I fish that strech in the spring and fall, I am up at Brainerd and fish down to the Nokisippi, we get a mixed bag of fish, there are some monster smallies in that strech, a few nice walleyes too. The ones that hit muskie gear tend to be on the big side. I have not made it up there this year, to many things going on with my little one, Alex, and with the move I just have not made it there…..YET. I can’t wait to hit it this fall. Thanks for the info on the Otsego strech.
We had 3 smallish muskies the second day we fished. Steve also had a mid-30 inch fish track in on a topwater. My brother had a mid-upper 40 inch fish slug a topwater bait at his feet in 18″ of water while wading a couple weeks back. The following dance in that shallow water was quite a spectacle… with only 8 lb test mono to hold that beast the outcome was predictable but for a few tense moments we held out hope.
After this fish swam away the only audible sounds my bro could make resembled high pitched clicks and squeals… lol
Those are the kind of pictures that make a guy through smallie dt’s.
Steve,James and Blue awesome smallies. Thanks for the report and pic’s Steve. That upper Miss sure treats you good.
Here’s a shot of the sunset Saturday night. It looked like the whole world was on fire and although we could see the sun doing down we also had intense “spider” lightning overhead to compliment this awesome sight! I was even able to catch Steve mid-cast chucking his popper to another bass.
Nice report looks like you guys had a ball.
Black hair jigs they don’t work on bass 
Vandy,
Funny you mentioned that, we had the same conversation in the boat on Saturday between all of us. I think James or Blue asked me if I use diferent colors than black…..My reply was, “I have BUT I keep coming back to black.” Confidence? We like to merge white into the equation once waters get a bit cooler, but still black is in the back pocket.
Here are a couple more pics from this past week.
Here is a average smallie that got on a 1/4oz superdoo head from B-Fish-N Tackle and a YUM Vibra King tube just simply swam at a medium to fast retrieve. THis pattern works very well for us up here later in the day when the fish will simply pass on a slow methodically fished plastic. Speed….they love it this time of year at times. I tend to fish it just like a crankbait. Pretty simple. Alot of the bass guys use this approach regularly with very good success. I think IDA is where I picked up the technique a couple years ago. Thanks guys!
Another victim that fell to a swam tube….
Steve,
Next time you hear some neighsayer dogging the use of those small black hair jigs. Just remind them that “Elephants eat peanuts”
-Mike
Aren’t leeches black? Black Wooly Buggers are pretty standard and the thinking there is that they’re imitating a leech. Ya gotta match the hatch sometimes.
Rootski
Rootski,
Neat comparison here
Wooly Bugger
Jimmy D Black River bug
Not too far off actually. The river bug photo needs to be updated to better quality photos to get a true perspective.
Mack,
I told my Dad that one and he got a kick out of that.
Steve you are having way tooooooo much fun.
Thanks for the report and great pics. Very nice fish indeed. Thanks for sharing Bud. 
Thanks, Bill