Mississippi River Pool 8 Report

This weekend was not the early fall weather I was hoping for, sunny sky’s with warm temps made it feel more like summer hangin’ on one more weekend. When is it ever going to end The cooler nights have done a good job keeping the water temp in the mid to high 60’s. This has every thing that swims staging up for the big fall feed and when located any particular species can be caught with a good presentation. What a fun weekend, and just think….things are only going to get better

Saturday 9/20/08 was to be about playing with early morning top water bass, then trolling for an eye or two looking for a few of the Esox which might happen to be using the main channel highway.

6:40am with the boat anchored in 14fow a large school of bass showed themselves They were busting shad on a sand point (2-4fow) created by a creek running into a backwater bay. The good flow from the creek was holding the shad which were diving from one weed edge to another while being preyed on. The action made for a perfect opportunity to throw my favorite bait, the super spook. The spook teased two nice fish into a suicidal slam with some chunky 13-14inch fish making top water a blast. The frog chug bug was another bait the green fish found to be irresistible. With the sun over head the top water action died off making it time for game plan 2.

After pulling a verity of colors it became obvious orange/gold was the ticket. Before you get excited about the eye bite, the majority of the fish in the channel are 13-14.5 inches long. A sauger at 15.5 and one eye at 16 however did take the offering of a #7 floating rapala on a three way. Pulling down stream proved to be more productive than pulling upstream. The track made was in 18-22fow following the channel edge anywhere from the tail waters at the dam to 1.5 miles south. It was a good sign catching fish but when the water temps start steadily dropping the bigger fish will start to show ….it’s not to far off.

Sunday 9/21/08 after promising the oldest daughter a fish fry, this morning was about crappies and gills. The crappies were more than willing to inhale a minnow on a small jig head or the glow/pink Ratso from custom Jigs N Spins. To entice a crappie to bite the bait had to be tight in the wood. The boat was parked tight along a tree in 12-22fow and the bait was pitched short or at times dropped over the side of the boat. Early morning had the fish using the water column 7 feet below the surface. As the morning wore on they kept slipping deeper into the tree top. If you are not losing some stuff, you’re not putting the bait in there pie hole. By 10:30am there were 5, 11.5inch crappies on ice and a number of 10inch fish released. With the bite becoming slow it was time to head for a rock pile to check on the gills.

In short time 5 gills at 7.5-8 inches were keeping the crappies company (perfect fish fry for 2) after taking a small piece of crawler using the same jig head that produced the crappies Tight to the rocks were numbers of watch fobs but getting out in 12fow off the rocks is were the filler filets were found.

The fall bite in the La Crosse area is coming into shape. Soon the bluffs will look painted with falling temps, and the bite will improve…….you gotta love signs of winter being on it’s way Get out and get after em