More Mississippi Smallmouth

Not a lot has changed since last week’s report, other than the fish are getting fatter by the day. About every fourth or fifth fish will be stuffed to the gills. When you hook into one of these fish you can usually tell, because they’ll have a trail of purged minnows behind them. Those bait fish never go to waste because the 4-5 smallies that were following that one will quickly take any free lunch offered to them.

Even with the warm water temps, still 70+ deg, the smallies are grouping up and going on their annual terror. The water also seems to be getting clearer by the day, with clarity being an easy 4+ feet right now. This makes fishing for these guys twice as fun! On a calm sunny day you get to see about half of your fish slam your bait!

Being we were fishing midday, the fish were hanging right on the edge of the faster water. We would simply cast a 6-8inch minnow bait up river and let the current bring the bait back to the boat. More often than not, as soon as the bait neared the bottom it would get in hailed. I had 7 consecutive casts that resulted in a chunky / spunky smallmouth. We boated 40+ smallmouth in this short afternoon, with many being very fat fish. Over the next few weeks these fish are going to continue to have the feed bag on, so get out and enjoy some spectacular smallie action!!

I’d like to take this time to remind you that when venturing out on the river to take it slow if you’re unfamiliar with the stretch of river you plan to fish. I’ve fished from South of St. Cloud all the way North of Little Falls and there are many treacherous stretches of river and there’s no shame in taking your time.

Over the years I’ve seen dozens of people head up river at full speed and float back down with their busted up motor tipped up in the air. In fact it just happened this weekend. I was fishing a shallow rocky area sitting in maybe 2 ½ feet of water, when I hear a boat motoring up river at full speed. He didn’t slow down for a second and ran his shiny 50hp Johnson right into a huge rock reef about a foot under the water. I’m not trying to scare you guys away. I’m just warning you, that if you plan to head out after these monster smallies, to either go with someone that knows the river or go slow until you learn a safe route on your own. Good luck fishing!