After a long, hot and humid work week I packed up my two boys and made the short trip north to our camper on lower pool 10. Reports were coming in from family that the Pike were on a tear with the above 80 degree water temps. Yes! One of my absolute favorite times of the open water season!
Usually, right around the 4th of July is when the "teeth" get ornery but as many of you that fish the Mississippi know, things are a little behind this year.
Heading down river, my trusty flat bottom and the ever popular 25hp.Mercury were creating that perfect late summer breeze.
I could see from my two boys faces that they were just as excited as the old man with my youngest boy Jack already "white knuckling" his rod, anticipating that first cast.
Mentioning earlier that the river is behind a bit this year brings up another point.That is the lack of the huge lily pad fields that are usually prevalent.I don’t know if it is too late in the growing season for them to recover but one things for sure, the back waters look a heck of alot bigger without them! Hopefully the floods of 08 only did some seasonal damage to this vital growth and that next year the pads will be back, strong as ever.
Question to my IDO River rats……..Have you noticed the lack of pad fields up and down the board on the river?
If so, in your view, what has this done to fish locations and how have you adjusted in fishing different structure?
Sliding into one of my favorite spring fed bays, my boys and I were thrilled to see, or not see, another boat around. Quietly poling the flat boat through the dense duck wart and heavy moss is when the true summer time smells of old man river took hold and like magic sent me back 40 years. Back to when I was only 8 and MY Dad was the one pushing the boat. The same man, who at the time, was casting almost the same identical rig that I had tied on just a few minutes before. I always looked at Dad with admiration when he hucked that big old Johnson spoon and pork frog using a heavy rod, black braided line spooled on to a big baitcaster reel.
Looking down I noticed that I had along my side a baitcaster with black braided line, attached to a 7 1\2’heavy rod and a big Johnson silver spoon. Wow,full circle thing going for sure!
My oldest son Cam was the first to say, "Dad, nobody has been here in awhile". When casting Pike in weedy backwaters the first thing you notice are the tell tale signs of lines in the moss from other peoples baits. Our bay was devoid of these depressing lines giving me a hunch that this could be a night that my boys would remember for a lifetime.
The action started a little slow but knowing the pike were there I just told the boys to keep on casting. After the first fifteen minutes Cam finally rolled a good fish deep in the weed mat.Then Jack had a hit on his new favorite lure, the kid friendly Moss boss. For the next hour the Muskies little cousins went on a plain ol hit anything that swims feeding binge!
After the bite slowed down we ended up with five pike in the net for photo ops and release with tons of blow ups! Jack ended the night with his new personal best 32"er that missed his bait at least 6 times before finally gettting hooks.
I tell ya, if you’ve never taken a kid out after these water wolves you should really think about it.You will find out that putting them in the net is only a bonus, just watching these short fused fish blow up a weed mat when there is a little kid on the other end of the stick is big time excitement.
Leaving the bay and traveling into an awesome sunset is when Jack said, "Dad,that was the best fishin ever, I Love you Dad". What can you say to that? I do know one thing for sure, I knew exactly how he felt…….Thanks Pops!
Thanks for the great report
A few of the baits I like to tweek to give them extra castable weight for kids.
Moss boss—-Great hook! Big plastic trailer makes it even more kid friendly. Good hook up ratio.
Scum frog—– Cams favorite! Again,a couple added tails.
This bait gets better when getting teeth marks making it fill with water. Come off of cover,let it sink sloooooowly, be patient, twitch, twitch,…..hang on!
Hook ups… below average
Spinner baits—–Go big or go home
Johnson silver minnow—–The most versatile bait for Pike in cover. Dad was right on with this one!
The view I had when leaving the bay, Thumbs up to you too Jack
Ditto, pool 4 has very few pad beds and the ones up do not extend into and over the deeper water. Also very little submerged weed in deeper water. My fish seem to have made the move for the main channel already. Last year the fish stayed well into september. But that is why the river is so much fun to fish. It is always changing.
Good job Jensen clan putting the smack down on the toothy’s
Great read and pictures
I bet there was some high fives being past around
Awesome report and pics Buddy
Funny how things go full circle, I know I have had the chance to look back and think the exact same thing with my boy, and what a great feeling. These are times that the boys will never forget, and with any luck, they will get to share that same father and son bond with their kids down the road. Congrats Jack on a new PB, and congrats Dad for taking the time to show the boys what great memories are made of
Great Job 
Way to put the whippersnappers on some nice Pike!
way to get the boys out there Jeff! Nice report!
Nice report Jeff, those toothy critters must have been quite a sight wallowing around in the slop.
As far as the weed situation I think your right about the pads. There is still a little more pad growth occuring but not very much. Besides the pads there are alot of areas normally with eel grass that are barren too. As far as fish location I’ve stayed with fishing what’s left of the weeds for bass and northerns and have did well. THe bluegills are a little different story though, those little critters seem to have dissapeared for me.
Congrats again on making some memories with those boys of yours.
I would think if you have the lily pads starting to grow now, it is a sign your water is finally starting to clean up and get back to normal river stage. Don’t let it concern you a whole lot, I would bet if you have a normal year in 2009 they will be thick again.
Another thing to remember with the river, flooding is not always a bad thing, other than the destruction is cause for the people living in the flooding. It is a way of flushing things out and along with that will come change. No different than a forest fire.
Sand points move, flats grow and shrink and weed beds always recover, weather it will be in the same location is another story but, they will recover.
The weed beds outlined in red never recovered from the August 07′ flood waters on Pool 9 last Summer/Fall. As you can see from the pics they shot back stronger than ever this year & survived another shot of high water in late June of 08′. Personnally I didn’t do very well ice fishing either location last winter whereas in previous years prior I faired much better on the pannies. Verdict is still out on the upcoming ice season….
PS. The areas in black best represent the shelf lines where water depth falls off to 8+ feet deep.
Thanks for the recent pics Bosman.
As Bret mentioned above, floods can be temporarily harmful but eventually healthy for our system. Looks like the river is in great shape up your way!
looks like the boys had a great time! Great pictures, Jeff!
That was really a fun read Jeff. Took me back as well! Great job!
Nice report.