This Sunday I had the opportunity to chase my ever favorite Upper Miss smallmouth bass for one more last time before I have to call it a year and focus exclusively on the walleyes. Those fish sure are a true blessing for the soul. Having 20-30 fish grouped into a spot as big as a back of a pick up truck and on the chew is something that you can never ever get bored with. A fish every cast is the theme for the first 20-30 minutes upon arrival to a new spot. These fish are so vulnerable this time of year, its no wonder that Mn puts a catch and release restrictions on these fish come mid September every year.
All summer long you put together potential milk route spots that may be the mother grail of fishing opportunities all scrunched into 3 weeks of the best smallie fishing you may ever encounter. Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end eventually. With weather pending, another week or two could be squeezed out of the river up here. Water temps are in the high 40’s right now, when water temps reach that low 40 degree range the smallies get very sluggish. You can still catch them, but patience, good spots and even some additional patience can pay off!
Jimmy D’s little black hair jigs that were ever so lethal all summer long, have started to show their weakness now with water temps getting cold. YUM 4” dingers on a split shot was my number technique yesterday. The hair jigs picked off the first 2 fish or so and then the Dingers picked up ALL the slack. It’s amazing how good these stickworms can be. Most of my fish came from 5 foot and less yesterday and dead sticking this worm to a slow crawl right on the bottom was the best thing I had going. I hit a total of 12 spots yesterday and I anchored in each one of them. 3 of the 12 spots were fantastic. My best spot produced 22 fish before I left….Wow was that fun.
Fish of all sizes were present yesterday, 14”-20” and everything in between, All in all, the fishing was great and I long for spring already. Thank you smallies, I look forward to our battles come May of 2006! Now off to Pool 2 for some hefty fall river run walleyes with attitude….I can’t wait.
Steve,
I’m a rookie on the upper Mississippi but one observation is the difference in body habitues of the fish from different areas of the river. The fish you are catching are thick and heavy. The fish we took from Monticello are long and lean. The environment they came from may explain some of the difference. In many areas we fished a half-ounce jig would be swept away in the current. The calmest water (and most productive) we fished still needed a 3/8 oz jig to stay in contact with the bottom. You talked of fishing a split shot rig so the flow must be very different but genetics must also come into play. We see two distinctly different groups of smallies on pool 4. Take a look at the fish in Greg Vandermarks report. They are very heavy for their length but we don’t see those fish all summer. I suspect they migrate into the Mississippi to winter. That leads me to believe there are sub groups from different genetic pools. What are your thoughts?
Nice fish Steve!
I broke out some of those JimmyD hair jigs on one of my last outings and had a nice mixture of fish. Smallies & Stripers. I can easily see them becoming a favorite go-to bait. I can’t wait to get back out and try them some more!
John,
Its funny how one section of river up here is completely different than the next. I know Monti only a bit, but well enough to know that there is plenty of skinny and fast water with very few slower deep holes. Up here on the section(s) that I like to fish, it is very slow and deep in the pool for nearly 15 miles of fishable/navigable water. These sections are 10-25 feet deep and very little current to speak of until you get to the northern stretches of the pool. My only assumption from the difference in fish is strictly their surroundings they live in. Fast water= lean and strong fish. Slow water= heavier and less strong?
Sound right? Just an assumption!
Blue,
Keep a slot in June open. When you and Holst were up here in Aug….we caught the very tail end of that bite.
Not a problem!
The wife is headed to Ireland in July again, so that will be my trip away. Then when she gets back, I’ll be headed to Mille Lacs for another trip. Call it “The Wife’s Back in Town” trip…. 
Beauty fish Steve
Way to go out with a bang on the Smallie Bite
Looking forward to hearing your Pool 2 reports
and seeing those PIGS again 
Steve just when I thought you were done fishing smallies and fishing for walleyes you post this awesome report
. Great job this year Steve. I’m always excited to read your reports and see your nice fish. 
How do those smallies fight in cooler water?
Great report and pics Steve. Thanks. You seem to be having way too much fun up there this year. Maybe time for you to to trade the Ranger in on a River Pro and a 16-17 ft Lund/Alumacraft?
Thanks for alot of great reports on the Smallies and for the walleye reports to come. 
Thanks, Bill
Thank you guys! Those fish are so much darn fun, I feel like a little kid when I am fishing for them.
You can tell these fish have started to get sluggish. 1 out of 10 will actually try to get airborne now. Their overall activity has slooooowed way down. They are not willing to chase much anymore and when you do hook up with them, the fight is about 1/2 of what they are capable of doing!
Its a done deal!