Upper Miss Smallie Bonanza 6-5-06

Smallmouth bass fishing right now on the Upper Mississippi River as well as many places around the upper Midwest has been flat out awesome! Numbers of fish as well as the size of the fish has been very cooperating. The past 2 days Tom Wallrich of St. Paul, Mn hired me for two days of sumo smallie huting. The first day we went to one of my ol reliable sections of the upper miss and day two he wanted to explore a section of river that I have never been on…That intrigued me the most!! Here is a breakdown of our last two days together.

Day one Tom and I started out the morning looking for some aggressive shallow water fish. I pulled into our first spot and Tom’s first cast landed one of the biggest fish I thought we would have for the day…so I thought. A big smallie that hit the tape at 20-1/2” long. What a brute of a fish Tom! This fish came on a 4” YUM Garret tube on a BFT 1/16th oz weedless superdoo head. Tom and I swapped bragging rights nearly every fish for quite awhile into the morning, seeing who could “out-do” who? By late morning I shifted our attention to a long stretch of shallow shoreline that had numerous over hanging trees as well as high grass and downed timber. As the sun grew high I knew these fish would stay shallow and need some cover to tuck under. Then Jimmy D’s 1/16th oz black riverbugs took over in huge fashion. The next 40 fish came off these black little wonders. It was best to be pitching real tight up to the shoreline into the shade or real close to it. Most every fish caught in these conditions were caught by sight and not feel.

Tom took top honors for the day with a whopping 21-1/4” long mule of a smallie! Nice fish Tom. All these fish were released in perfect condition. Tom and I caught close to 70 smallies on this day including 8 fish that were over the 20” mark. What a day!

Day two Tom wanted to go exploring on a section of the upper Miss that I have been on before, and thanks to the new River Pro that was now possible. We got an early start and made our way up some real skinny water. Some small areas were on inches of water, but making it through unscaved was just par for the course for this boat. We ran up river about 4 miles and drifted the entire 4 miles in about 4 hours slowly slip drifting with the trolling motor pitching every little fishy looking spot. As Tom and I made our way down river catching mainly smaller 14”-17” fish, I noticed a few of the smallies started to chase our lures back when we were cranking in for another cast. This right away gave me the nod to start picking up the pace. As we did this, the rest of the morning was a fast and furious action with a few nice female smallmouth bass mixed in that were of the 18-19-1/2” caliber. Then about noon, it was almost like clock work just like the day prior when the 1/16th oz black Riverbugs from Jimmy D started to shine once again. From noon until 4:00pm, they wanted this small tasty little morsel more than any offering we had. This proceeded to catch 8 to 1 over anything else! Once again the shade on the shorelines was our prime targets once the sun got higher in the sky.

Right now the bite seems to be mainly a slower more methodical approach for my boat. The top water action that we grow to love here in the upper Midwest on the Upper Miss is not too far away right now but it clearly is not the best approach for your best odds. That moment is coming quickly however and I think another 10 days, the bite will be in top form.

Thanks Tom for the great two days of fast action. It was a pleasure to fish with you and I look forward to our next outing together.

Look for more photos to follow!