Mississippi River Pool 4,5,5a Bass Fishing Report

You know it’s going to be a good day when on the first two cast of a tournament you have three fish in the boat. The first cast put a three something in the livewell and the second cast landed a 14” and 15” pair on the same lure.
On our pools (4,5,5a) the quality smallmouth seem to disappear during the summer. They are there in the spring and fall but elusive all summer long. During the summer, small fish are abundant but are often very lean. Occasionally we’ll get an 18incher that barely weighs 2 lbs. It seems like the fish burn more calories chasing small minnows than they gain.

The good news is the big girls are showing up again. Over the past two weeks the numbers of quality fish have been increasing. The cooling water temps and shorter day trigger the urge to put on weight for the winter. I don’t know where they’ve been, but they are showing up on upstream points, current breaks and manmade rock structure. Top water and carolina rigs have been doing the damage. There are more tournaments to come so not to many details.

Saturday’s tournament was the beak out of a frustrating tournament season for Eric Ronningen (Eronningen) and me. It’s been finishes just out of the money. We won this one with a six -fish limit that weighed 21.5 pounds. Smallmouth were the bulk of the limit and a 4-11 smallie anchored the limit.

The overall fishing on the river has been great with numbers of quality fish. In addition to the bass the northern bite has been awesome. However, the last string of warm days has slowed thing a bit. I had a 28” walleye on a C-rig lizard while practising this week (sorry, no camera on board). Even the sheephead add a thrill, especially when your looking for big smallies. River fishing is good and will get better