Mississippi River Pool 4-5 Bass

This is the latest I’ve posted my first bass fishing report of the year. It’s partially due to the tournaments schedule but mostly because the fishing has been a struggle. On the sunny, stable days it’s been easy to find the fish but go back to the same spot on a cloudy, cool day and you’d swear there isn’t a fish in the area. It’s like the movie “Groundhog Day” we’re stuck in this cycle of one or two decent days with improving water temperatures followed by clouds and cool weather. Basically the water temp has been at 58 degrees for weeks. This report is a composition of several trips.

The good news is the quality has been good, supported by the winning weights of the tournaments. What we have found is the smallmouth have been staging on rock and current breaks near spawning areas. The Northland Mimic Minnow and a Caroline rig have been doing most of the damage. Of interest is some of the best largemouth we have found have been mixed in with the smallies. Our biggest fish in the St Jude tournament was a 4.25 lb largemouth in heavy current.

Medium size largemouth have been moving thru the bulrush and brush in the backwater lakes. The movements would give you the impression that they are moving towards the spawn. However, forays into the spawning bays have mostly produced northerns. We’ve also noted the vegetation growth is way behind schedule.

Our tournament frustrations have been we know where the fish are but we can’t get the good one to bite. The only thing we can add is we improved the bite by down-sizing the bait. We went from the standard size lizard and brushhogs to smaller plastics. A Berkley Power Leach has worked well for me.

A side note is we are finding some nice walleyes a long way from the “traditional” river spots. The one Eric is holding hit a chatterbait high in a brush pile. He took a smaller one a few hundred yards away on a shallow sand point. We watched it bulge the surface to get the bait. Their up there to eat!