Upper Mississippi River smallie report 10-9-07

Regardless of what mother nature had to dish out here recently with all the rains, the smallmouth bass bite continues to shine here on the Upper Mississippi River. Knowing full well that this bite does not last very long I am trying to take advantage of every open time slot to get in on some of best smallie action the Upper Midwest has to offer. Now the question starts to become is how long can we savor this bite with the onslaught of cooling water temps and the inevitable hard water period.

Yesterday Jim Heitz and his son Israel drove up from Nebraska to join me and see what this bite is all about. We had some significant over night rainfall Sunday night that accumulated to close to 2″. With all the precipitation, I was a little concerned on how the river clarity might be affected. After our first couple spots I had noticed that the smallies were not quite as aggressive and predictable as they have been in recent trips. After a few adjustments and going a bit deeper we made contact with the fish at each spot and the fishing took off from there. Jim and Israel each swapped top honors for the day early on and both recorded fish at 20″ or above on the official “MSRD” measure board. Congrats to you both!

As the day wore on we hopped from spot to spot catching an average of 7-8 fish per spot before moving on to the next spot. If one spot was not quite as productive as the expected, we revisited the spot later on and at times caught more fish the second time stopping. By days end we caught close to 50 smallies with 4 bass that were either on the line at 20″ or above. The biggest fish for the day was a 20-1/2″ smallie that is lying on the board.

As always please handle these fish with care as they can be vulnerable this time of year. On several occasions I have witnessed catching the same fish more than once this fall already which goes to show that catch and release is the reason these fish are here again and healthy for the next angler to catch down the road. Other than a few smallies tournaments I never carry a landing net with the risk of potentially harming this resource. Play the fish properly with the right line weight and be sure your drag it set good….and enjoy the ride!