Well I had the pleasure of jumping into the River Pro with Capt. Mike Cayford (AlvinMack) from the site on Sunday. We were also joined by John 23 here from the site (nice meeting you John). The game plan was to pitch plastics and jigs on the upper parts of the Mississippi. I was pretty pumped to get back on the water and after having last weeks temps and Sun pushing the temps around the 50 mark. Well Sunday was not quite the same but still we had a awesome day chasing small mouth bass in the snow and wind. The temps hovered around freezing and the winds were a bit raw on the face and hands, but Mike still managed to put us on some fish. As he shows one of the largest ones of the day here.
We started the day out on a current seam where Mike was able to find something that these more lethargic fish wanted. We had tried numerous plastics, but he found these fish had a little more liking for Spider jigs. He was able to entice the fish into taking a very slow or a stopped retrieve. The fish were just nipping the bait and you had to be able to detect the bite quick before the dropped or spit it. A few 16 to 18” fish found there way to the boat via Mikes line. 
Our next stop we made was a spot where the flow was cruising pretty well and we anchored to find a few fish, but with action still pretty slow. I pulled my first Smallie shown above, when I switched and went to a BFT Tackle’s 4" Ringworm pictured to the right here. This fish was must of been on a "Red Bull" binge, cause he had some extra speed and feistiness to him. We repositioned again and while Mike held the boat in place, John and I went on a tear with about every type of fish in the river coming to the boat. Again the bait of choice seemed to be BFT’s 4” ringworm and here it seemed they preferred good old reliable Fire Cracker color. Off this spot we boated: Smallies, Northerns, a Largie, a few Walleyes, rock bass and Mike had some catfish snot on his hook after a short battle with a decent fish. We started out boating fish on about every cast or so. When the flurry died we had a pretty good bite for another half hour until we moved to look at some new water. The bad news is no one wanted to stop for a picture as it was a mad pace to get another cast in.
At days end we probably boated 20-25 Smallies, with a nice amount of 15-18”plus fish. I think John had all 3 of our walleyes. We teamed up on a few snot rockets, one largemouth and one rock bass. 
I think Mike might have regretted inviting two ESOX Anglers in his boat at the same time, as he was the Minority Bass guy. All in all it was a awesome day on the water (aren’t they all), but to be chasing Smallies in January was a first to me. Taking a ride in the River Pro was also a first for me. What an awesome boat for the river. I want to thank Mike for a great day on the water and hope we can do it again sometime soon. Again I wanted to know who said, “You can’t catch Smallies in the Winter??? 
* CLICK ON PICTURES TO ENLARGE *
Well well well, the self-proclaimed BASS HATER LIP RIPPER goes out on a smallie catching trip…
Quit pretending and come out of the closet
, and then admit you are a bass fisherman 
sorry lip..had to
Very cool,smallies in Jan.
Rob,get Mack to bring you down to Spirit Lake for some open water smallie fishing this year.
Ryan Hale
Rob, did you like your trip down boulder alley?
Glad you guys had a good time, just wished we would have fished on Saturday and taken advantage of the better weather. Some Putz had broomball that day. Oh well, certainly better days ahead of us now.
I’m going to squeeze in as much time there until it closes on Feb 26th. Remember this area is considered inland waters has been catch and release since Sept 12th, 2005 for smallmouth bass, be sure to put em back
who is the Putz playing broomball…..
and where did you play…must have been indoor…
lets get a IDA broomball team….
Lip, you had to know you were opening a can of worms by going smallie huntin’ !!!
big g
Nice fish guys! Looks like lots of fun too!! Sure beats watching it rain all weekend long.
“a few snot rockets”
I’m going to have to remember that one.
Thanks for a fun day on the water, Mike and Rob. I look forward to being in a boat with you guys again. Drop me a note Rob and we’ll get out on P2.
Calvin, my mpls broomball game was cancelled and Mike isn’t a good listener.
BTW, I play in another league in St. Paul on piped ice and those never get cancelled. 
Mike also apparently doesn’t see so well either as it rained all afternoon Saturday. I was out on Pool 2 anyway, but the weather was anything but nice!
One thing Mike IS good at is coming up with names for spots on the river. We ran “boulder alley” and fished “three eddies” (AKA “tres eduardos”) and I’m pretty sure there are at least two other names I’m forgetting!
He also brought me a tasty dark beer. Thanks, Mike! 
You guys are killing me
Ain’t right…Catchn’ my fish whilst’ I’m 600 miles away.
Sounds like a great time…Kevin
Gotta luv bronzies! Nice job boys!
Looks like it was a blast. I take Mack didn’t find any ice with the boat this time
Bret no “big” ice chunks this time for Mack. Our trip down boulder alley in a foot of water was like going to Valley Fair. John we should have not even fished that last spot ‘The 8 Johnnies”.
Slop, Bass was all I could catch since I only brought my Homer Simpson shallow running crank. No other fish was dumb enough to bite on that
. There was another species of fish that I caught, but thats right it was a Rock Bass 
I think the 5 Brothers spot would have been better if it were closer to a stinky sewer outlet. Everyone knows that bass are drawn to stink water because that’s where they belong! And actually, that bring up an interesting question: Does stink water make bass stink or does the presence of bass turn water into stink water? All I know is that one way or another … bass stink!
Very cool report guys!! I will have to get out there and give the river a try this year.