Mississippi River Smallmouth bass report 8-25-08

The smallie bite here on the upper Mississippi river stays strong with the dog days of summer upon us. No matter sun shine or overcast skies the fish seem to be responding right on cue about everyday. For the last 3 weeks now, we have been seeing the activity of the fish increase dramatically as the day grows on. By 10:00am each morning the smallies flip a switch and go into a chasing frenzy. If you have ever played the game of keep away from a cat with a yarn ball, you can appreciate what I have been seeing on a daily basis here. Pulling reluctant smallies out of cover and seeing them chase down a fast moving horizontal presentation at speeds so fast you could blink and miss it all.

This past Friday I was joined by Paul Grocki and his friend Terry. They drove over 10 hours to Minnesota to experience what the great Mississippi River is famous for. Friday the decision was to get on with the hunt for big fish, so we opted for a 6 mile section of river that has been giving up some mighty fine smallies as of late. As we got started in the morning we began throwing Jimmy D’s 1/4oz motor oil and pumpkinseed colored swim jigs with 5” grubs as trailers. The start of this very windy overcast morning got off to a little bit of a slow start but by 9:30am we slowly began to see fish starting to chase down our baits with some half hearted interest. By 10:30 those fish that showed a mediocre enthusiasm now were all over these swim jigs with vengeance. Terry was the hot hand on this particular day from the middle position of the boat as he boated several big smallies and capping his personal best with not 1-20” but 2 of them nearly back to back with a host of other fish in the 19” range. Nice fish Terry and congrats!

Saturday morning we got on the water and experienced a very cool night of mid 40’s and water temps dropped nearly 10 degrees. We decided to venture to a different section of river for a little scenery change and a shot at maybe boating more numbers even though we had one heck of a day on Friday chasing big fish. Paul was not to be outdone and his comeback was almost inevitable. With a nasty cold front rolling through the night and the a stiff cool breeze, the swim jigs took a little time to get rolling. But as we experienced the day prior the fish were on cue the bite started to swing once we hit that 10:00am witching hour. Paul took charge throughout the day and began his revenge on his buddy Terry boating a number of quality fish throughout the day. On this particular day, even though we had windy conditions, we had the sun to eventually sneak out and give us some good sight fishing periodically as fish came out of cover to chase down our swim jigs.

A swim jig is one of those baits that can be perfect for every level of fisherman, from a very early beginner to the most seasoned angler. Simply cast the jig out to cover and wheel it back with a medium to fast steady retrieve. Keeping the lure about 4”-6” below the surface of the water all the way back to the boat seems to work best and triggers many bites on these upper miss fish. As you develop more confidence with these easy yet effective lures, you will find some days fish want the retrieve slow and methodical to very quick. As the day moves along, experiment with different colors as well as retrieve speeds and let the fish dictate what they want!