Mississippi River Minnesota Smallmouth Bass Report

The past 10 days I had the opportunity the spend a little time chasing smallies on a Canadian Lake with my Dad and two of my brothers as well as fine some due time back up on the Upper Miss chasing those spawn/postpawn smallies that lurk the shallows. This weather we have been having has found a way to follow me across the border into Canada as well as dodging a few severe storms on the Upper Miss.

First off, a little update on our Canadian fishing trip with some of my family members. We typically try to time our trip every year upon the aggressive pre-spawn smallie bite, but with the late spring we have had, we found to fish to be about 10 days to 2 weeks off the pace of where they should be. So our first attempt of finding fish shallow was kind o grim overall compared to what we are used to seeing. A few fish here and there lurked the shallow cold spring water of 52 degrees. We decided to probe the deeper haunts around some of the areas that appeared to be good spawning grounds. After a quick look we found some willing bigger smallies lurking the deeper 12-16 foot regions. Small pods of 8-10 fish roamed this open area around the shallows and looked like they we ready to move up as soon as mother nature would turn on the heat.

Jay Blegan and I hopped on the Upper Miss this past Saturday. With a bit of an opportunistic outlook, we were quickly humbled and it turned into a bit of search and hunt approach. With some persistence we were able put together a pretty respectable day with some real nice sized smallies. With rising water levels from a never ending rainy early June, we were dealt with very quick and high water. Good news about this was the current had pinned some of these fish up tight to the bank, but the bad news was some of the areas that were holding fish a week ago, were completely flooded and we were left hopping around in search of new areas. White, Black and pink 3/32 oz Jimmy D’s Riverbugs were undoubtly the best ting going for tackling these quick current seams. Instead of the fish being right in the slack water, we were finding fish a little further out into the current seam and a little deeper (6-8 foot) than I expected.

As water levels hopefully start settling down and water temps start to rise into the 70’s, I expect the fish to start moving out in the current more and more and presentations to start reflecting what we typically see for this time of year. Until then I would suggest getting a good stock full of the new 3/32 oz Riverbugs as I am finding that they have a lot of versatility in a size is a nice “in-between” size from 1/16th and 1/8th oz. We all know when targeting real shallow fish, drop rates can be the difference maker by days end and this past several weeks have been sure indication of it!

Good luck to all!