Mississippi River Pool 2 Report, 7/1/09

With spring finally transitioning to summer the river has been an ever changing place. The consistently warm air temps over the past few weeks have driven the water temp up significantly, and fast! Swiftly changing weather patterns with wind and heavy rain one second followed by calm sunny skies the next have really thrown a twist in the standard ‘summertime steady weather’ we typically experience this time of year. 3 weeks ago the river sat at 60 degrees, a week later at 70, another week at 80, and now with this cooler weather dropping again. Wingdam’s that were hot last week may not be the next, and baits that worked awesome yesterday may only catch a few tomorrow. It does however look like we can expect some amount consistency in the weather moving forward.

This being said, if I’ve learned anything about fishing the river it’s that versatility plays a key role in consistently putting fish in the boat. Trolling, pitching, rigging, jigging, casting, and dragging all have their time and place on the water. By successfully identifying the styles and presentations these walleyes are zoning into, an angler can now ‘fine tune’ each method day by day with what the fish really want. Small and subdued changes that are many times over looked can turn an ‘okay’ day into a ‘good’ day, or a ‘good’ day into a ‘great’ day!

Many different presentations have been putting fish in the boat lately. Casting both Rapala DT-6’s and Bomber 6A’s have held very consistent in catching fish with the occasional Bandit 300 Series crank getting tied on for those deeper dams. Color preference seems to change depending on the cloud cover and water clarity; however this has not seemed near as important as the style and action of the bait. With these higher water temps lately, a moderate retrieval speed using a crank with an aggressive action has yielded the best results. Pausing and accelerating throughout the retrieve has helped trigger strikes and get more of those ‘looker’ fish to bite. Keeping the rod tip raised while the crank is over the top of the dam and dropping the rod tip as it works down the face helps keep my bait in the strike zone and out of the snags (not to say I don’t still lose a crank or five… ). Getting beat against the rocks as much as these baits do, being sure the crank is tuned correctly and running true has proven very important in casting wingdams with success.

If I hit a fish or two in a specific area on a crankbait, I’ll try and isolate that particular spot and at least make a mental note; chances are that spot will give up more fish. After castings cranks’, pitching those areas with both hairjigs and jig’s tipped with either a crawler or leech have produced depending on the time of day, flow, and weather. When pitching light weight jig’s I like to focus all my attention on that one specific spot and really don’t use them as search tools. These ‘spots’ vary throughout the day and many times are based on locations that have yielded previous success or new areas that I hit fish while casting cranks or trolling. During this summertime low-flow season, focusing attention on wingdam tips and other ‘higher flow’ main river structure can be very productive and should not be overlooked.

Trolling has also been an option when I cannot get the fish on the dams to cooperate or need a change in pace. Mainly pulling Rapala Jointed JSR5’s, we’ve had good luck going 1.7mph up river and 2.6-3.2mph down. We have found good numbers targeting fish in 7-12fow on shelves that drop off into the main river channel, again focusing on outside bends in the river and areas of high flow. After asking IDO and consulting Dean at Everts Resort I ended up purchased two St Croix Tidemaster 7’6”MM trolling rods. All I’m going to say is boy you guys were right, these things are great! I could easily tell when it was time to clear my fouled lure of cottonwood just by the way it felt. I never really realized how important a good trolling rod was until now, thanks for the feedback guys!

As much fun as trolling is, there are many spots here on the river that are well known ‘Rapala Eaters’! As a college student if I’m losing 2-4 crankbaits per trip it adds up fast… REAL fast! Thankfully B-Fish-N-Tackle has a tool just for this situation, the Draggin’ Jig! In order to effectively fish these spots without losing crank after crank I have opted to drag jigs tipped with either half a night crawler or leech (it is draggin’ season anyway right?). Jig weight has been very critical varying with the amount of flow in the target area. Just because you’re using a weedless jig doesn’t mean you have to dredge the bottom; from what I experienced an 1/8oz jig gently ticking the bottom has been just the ticket. I’ve found quite a few fish that are more than willing to come up to the bait or are suspended a foot or so off the bottom. With the slim profile of the Draggin’ Jig you can get away with using lighter weights than the traditional round lead-head jig. Dragging is also a great alternative to try in the same area’s you would typically troll. Dragging jig’s downstream and pulling cranks back up gives us as anglers an opportunity to offer many different types of baits and presentations to these fish while covering ground. Depending on how fish react to the different presentations we can then further tweak and better hone into exactly what these fish are after. Both Jason Halfen’s write up and the Draggin Jig’s episode here on IDO are great resources that cover the ins and outs of dragging on your favorite body of water.

By using a variety of presentations and letting the fish tell you what they want has proven invaluable and is a true testament that these walleyes won’t hit just anything. Having the mind set of just casting cranks or going out and solely pitching jigs will catch fish, but why not try both? After locating fish it’s only a matter of determining the right bait/lure/rig/crank/speed for the job. Sometimes I know those fish are there and they simply won’t bite, but Hey, that’s fishing. Small variations in similar types of presentations will only help aid us as anglers in better ‘dialing in the bite’.

Have a fun and safe 4th of July, We’ll see ya out there!

Pete