Fall Run Multi Action on Pool 9

The 2010 open water river session will be a topic of discussion for years to come. A season packed by relentless rainfall and heavy run off lead to unseasonably high water and an arguable abundance of aquatic vegetation. On some days in the not so distance past, the broken off vegetation matts migrating south were so thick they would serve as perfect roosts for a variety of aquatic creatures of flight. No doubt about it river conditions were tough. Savvy anglers “knew” where the fish were but just couldn’t get a hook in front of them. Well, I’m happy to report that’s ALL but a distant memory. The last of the heavy rains in mid to late Sept that sent villagers to high ground as the river swelled to over 16′ at Lansing is subsiding. Weed matts are sparce and the river is once again fishable. Just in time for the annual Fall run.

Spent a little time fishing for Blue Gills the last couple days. The little guys are in calm shallow water. They’ll eat just about anything you drop in front of them. The bigger guys are hanging a bit deeper in 10′ to 15′ of water on the slack side of current breaks.

Yesterday was a year in itself! I’ll admit I didn’t have a plan going in other than A) I wanted to catch some fish and B) I did’t have any live minnows. Jig drifted the first seam I came across with an 1/8 oz BFishN H2O Precision jig tipped with a crawler. Sauger were devouring the offering and made it tough to keep a crawler on. Nothing real big but big enough for fillets to fit snug between a couple pieces of split top white. But something was amiss. Have you ever had that feeling ~ call it a Fisherman’s intuition that something else was abyss? Tied on a Northland forage minnow and made another pass. No more than got the boat positioned properly with the electronic to match the current and FISH ON! When a beautiful 7 ring river tiger split the surface I do believe the corners of my mouth came in physical contact with my ears! Pass after pass ~ fish after fish. This little 1/8 oz wonder spoon sporting a single red treble in a glo chub pattern had fish & angler alike going bananna’s! I pulled Pike, Crappie, Walleye, Sauger, LMB, Perch, & Blue Gill from a sweet spot in this seam over about a 2 hour span. A 27″ Pike & 9″ crappie took it so deep they made the starting line up in the live well along with a few of the river tigers that were the coach’s choice.

As water temp continue to drop it will take tweaks in the presentation for continued success. Fish are definately NOT in traditial winter habitat just yet but are close. They’re schooled relatively tight and definately have the feed bags strapped on which means if you find em ~ the corner of your mouth will come in physical contact with your ears too! Next up: Crappie & Walleye with a plan.